Legalize it, regulate it, tax it.

All drugs were made illegal or heavily controlled because of one reason only...the alcohol lobby. Ironically, alcohol is much worse than most of the other drugs. It certainly causes more deaths, violence, family break-ups and other such problems than marijuana, or even heroin!

Rocky Mountain High...

What about the revenue stream?
Could next mebbe save State of Cowabunga from underwater status?
"Zowie! It´s Maui Wowie! We´re saved!"
"It´s... like... Acapulco... GOLD... man... We´re... GOLDEN... staters... again... Dude!"

Or not.
But at least as Cowabunga drifts off into the Pacific...
they´d have a peaceful easy feeling about it.

ShaZammm!

What #1 said.

We lost the war on drugs. It´s a lot of money that can be moved on top of the table and taxed, and should be.

(And, no, I don´t use drugs and think people who do are idiots.)

A 21-year old student just died here in Butte County (Chico State) from alcohol poisoning after drinking 21 shots on his 21st birthday! Do you think 21 joints would have killed him? I dont. Alcohol is POISON!

Kill the people who sell it.

the proposal to legalize, regulate and tax overlooks one important factor, its a weed! anyone can grow it!

Sure, there will be some "Hi End" brands that will command top dollar but once the illegality is removed the "price support" is also gone, what is $2,000/lb will drop to a fraction and so will any tax revenue

I dont like the stuff. I wont allow it in my house and I dont much care for the people who use it. Another thing I dont like is taxation.
If people want to fry their brains and become worthless dead weight on their mother´s couch, thats between them and their mother. Like most human activities (good and bad) its none of the government´s business.

Yep #1... and stop spending billions on pointless irradiation programs and the incarceration of thousands.

When will the fools on left and right learn it is not the government´s job to save people from themselves!! That only leads to bigger government.

Make all drugs legal and free. The only condition is when the government agency passing out drugs they must make sure that every freebie is an over dose amount.

Pot has made my two sons totally lazy and if they hit even other more harm full drugs and OD, the world would not be losing anything.

There´s the rub # 10. Pot is a dream crusher. Nothing bad happens, but then again nothing good happens either. No dates, no advancing in school, nothing. You just hang out in your comfy chair and the world slips by.

How long will it be before users are considered victims of a "disease" and not simply potheads?

Yes, the sellers will be just RUSHING to happily pay the taxes on it.
/s off/

Here´s a hint: the projected revenues from this won´t be a drop in the ocean compared to the real costs of legalizing it.

Prison and a felony record is a far worse dream-crusher than pot. I say keep the war on drugs focused on the hard stuff like meth and heroin. I agree, and I think any cop would agree, that a room full of stoned people is much easier to deal with than a room full of drunk people. We would still have an added problem with DUI though, heavily stoned drivers on the road are just as unsafe as drunk ones. So it is a mixed bag, but still seems unjust to me that if a 19 year old gets drunk on whiskey, no legal recourse happens but if he gets stoned on pot, he could see his whole life ruined due to mandatory minimum sentencing in some states.

#7 you can also make your own legal wine and beer. It hasn´t hurt the beer/wine producers, has it? I home brewed for several years myself. When (not if) it´s legal again, most people will just stop by the 7-11 ln the way home to buy a blunt or two. It´s easier to slip over to the store and buy some weed than to cultivate it and cure it.

Legalize it everywhere and tax the hell out of it. However, every employer should still maintain policies that require random drug/alcohol testing for their employees. Fail once and you´re out the door.

I am still torn about this question. One part of my brain says to legalize it, tax it and earmark the money for drug rehab facilities. Billions of dollars saved and no more gunfights over drug turf. It might even save some Mexican lives although the cartels would still bring in meth and the other hard stuff.

Then again I wouldn´t trust the politicians to keep their hands off the money and not start diverting it for vote-buying schemes.

And what if they keep raising the tax? Make the tax too high and people start growing their own and the homeboys in the hood go back in business and undercut the legal sales with lower prices.

I am not torn about this at all. Pot should be
illegal as per the Fed law. It truly is like
alcohol a gateway drug. It will not stop the Cartels. It will destroy lives..
Been Shot at by Potheads.
The problem does not go away with legalization.
It gets worse...

Are you a free man #18, or a ward of the state?