this should be interesting

l not against making pot legal. BUT the issue is control. How do you stop the doctor who is operating on you brain from being high? Or the pilot, or the guy on the guy driving that semi coming at you?

How do we know?
drunk,
stoned on
caffeine,
nicotine ,
sugar
prescription drugs?

I was almost killed by a person who fell asleep driving a car at one PM!

Control is an issue for people who need to be in control.

Money will decide when it is legalized.

Sloop

Sloop

It was held in committee...he's going to make some amendments and try again, but it's not dead...just like corporal punishment...it'll be back.

In the mean time a citizens initiative is ongoing

how would one go about supporting that?

The bill is in the process of being rewritten in parts to address some loopholes in the wording but it is still a active bill.

Here are some cold hard facts using the August 31st raids and using numbers that the Police/Feds used from this article in the VI Daily News :

Using the figures that the feds gave in the above mentioned article lets do some math....

6500 plants X 32oz or so per plant net yield X $400.00 per oz for finished product = $ 83,000,000 worth of plants..... Assuming a contstant harvest of that many plants and that you could have on the conservative side 3 harvests a year, for the year that comes to $249,600,000 worth of pot for the year ( and that was just what they were able to seize not what was out there in total).

Now taking that figure lets see how much money the VI government lost through the current archaic policies....

By using just the tax rate that is charged to end consumers of the plant ( every plant in Colorado and Washington gets taxed around 2-3 times before the consumer tax kicks in ) in Washington and Colorado :

Colorado Tax Rate(21%) = $52,416,000 per year Washington Tax Rate (44%) = $109,824,000 per year

This is just tax income that the end consumer pays, this doesn't count the taxes made off growers, or the sellers.... At Washington state tax rates the VI government would have not only made up the current VI budget deficit but actually given around a $20,000,000 surplus to waste away on whatever....

These numbers are just revenue from production and sales which is a small part of the real benefit to the VI. We would have a increase in tourism which equates to more dollars from head taxes, gross receipts, hotel tax, etc... which can't be accurately measured but would be monies we don't have currently. The crime rate would go down by taking the illegality out of the production and sale of MJ which would have a cascading effect. Court expenses would be reduced and the dockets would be cleared to allow for proscution of more worthy crimes. The police force would have a chance to start a renewed enforcement of laws that are having a greater effect to the community than possession of a plant. Street violence should go down somewhat because turf wars over "street corners" shouldn't be as big of a issue with legalization. It would also allow for new job opportunities to the people that have been doing this illegally to turn it into a legal legitimate business........

l not against making pot legal. BUT the issue is control. How do you stop the doctor who is operating on you brain from being high? Or the pilot, or the guy on the guy driving that semi coming at you?

Lets see how other states do.

billd

How do we stop them from being drunk? Or for that matter, how do we stop them from being high now, albeit illegally?

I can easily spot someone who is drunk... not so much with someone blazed out of their minds.

I completely agree to the point that if it is legal everyone will be growing it and it will be worth little to nothing. It is not that hard to grow.... way easier than tobacco IME.

I havent smoked in over 10 years, after I realized for me personally it was a total waste of money and honestly I hated the feeling. Way to much internal monologue, I eat everything in sight, get wicked paranoid and then want to sleep... although I do recall being quite the comedian whilst high. I get offered by all of my friends daily lol. I think 90% of VIers must smoke. Americans are fat and lazy now. We don't need weed to help in that process. IMO

l not against making pot legal. BUT the issue is control. How do you stop the doctor who is operating on you brain from being high? Or the pilot, or the guy on the guy driving that semi coming at you?

Lets see how other states do.

billd

How do we stop them from being drunk? Or for that matter, how do we stop them from being high now, albeit illegally?

I can easily spot someone who is drunk... not so much with someone blazed out of their minds.

I completely agree to the point that if it is legal everyone will be growing it and it will be worth little to nothing. It is not that hard to grow.... way easier than tobacco IME.

I havent smoked in over 10 years, after I realized for me personally it was a total waste of money and honestly I hated the feeling. Way to much internal monologue, I eat everything in sight, get wicked paranoid and then want to sleep... although I do recall being quite the comedian whilst high. I get offered by all of my friends daily lol. I think 90% of VIers must smoke. Americans are fat and lazy now. We don't need weed to help in that process. IMO

I've never smoked, no desire to.

You don't see a pilot before takeoff, a trucker before he gets on the road, or many other situations in life where you just have to trust your fellow human brings. I've seen quite a few highly functional drunks and druggies in my life.

And lots of Americans smoke, legally and illegally. Social problems require social solutions, not legislation. That is part of why Americans are fat and lazy - they figure everything is someone else's problem and someone will just make a law against it. It's ridiculous. In the meantime crime is rampant and our tax dollars go down the toilet for this "war on drugs." If we spent just a quarter of that money on social solutions imagine the effects. But Americans love to use violence to solve problems and look at social programs as "entitlements" for those who they can sneer down at as a drain on society. It's BS.

Keep in mind, the money spent on the "war on drugs" will still be spent. There are other drugs out there that are much worse than pot, and the demand for them is going up.

Keep in mind, the money spent on the "war on drugs" will still be spent. There are other drugs out there that are much worse than pot, and the demand for them is going up.

I don't think we should have any "war on drugs." Drug use is a social problem, not a legal or political one.