Thursday, July 09, 2009
Pot smokers: patriotic and generous?
The budget of the State of California has basically been blown up, and an offer of partial salvation has appeared from an unexpected quarter:
Plus, there's all the extra sales taxes from the extra-large packages of Oreos and Doritos.
That lamp in the background? It's actually Link's old bong.
17 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Jul 09, 08:58:00 PM:
I know there are exceptions, but generally, illicit drug users know that their habit supports murder in Mexico. They know it and they don't care. I will support drug legalization when the drug users stop buying the stuff and drive the drug cartels out of business.
By Jim - PRS, at
Thu Jul 09, 09:14:00 PM:
She should consider being a salad bar user.
By , at
Thu Jul 09, 09:29:00 PM:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Thu Jul 09, 10:14:00 PM:
Side effect of legalization: The new marijuana 'cartels' will be Phillip-Morris and RJ Reynolds, with convenient, pre-measured and quality-controlled marijuana cigarettes in snazzy little packages mass produced and distributed to 7/11s everywhere.
Also, marijuana is not why Mexican cartels kill each other. Cocaine is. So is power.
By Purple Avenger, at
Thu Jul 09, 10:17:00 PM:
You can pay 2X-3X for "official" product that's had potency watered down, or go to "alternative channels" selling the highest quality, make discrete home deliveries 7x24, and extend credit to select clientele?
Yea, I'm sure the stoners will willingly pay a lot more for substandard product.
There's a reason why state sanctioned "legalized gambling" hasn't put local bookies out of business.
By , at
Thu Jul 09, 10:53:00 PM:
Link,
My '76 bicentennial bong was a work of art -- if I do say. It used a gas line shut-off valve as the burner -- just the right size to burn the equivalent of a 1/4 to 1/2 a joint. The valve let you optimize the rate of burn. By way of a rubber plastic tube, the smoke was collected in the rest of the works, which was mostly PVC. The design of the rest of the works was actually simple, but it created a two-chamber effect. First you burned, then you inhaled. Users of ordinary bongs would appreciate the difference. I can't claim total credit for this as I saw something like it my freshman year, but I did advance the art using what I learned from my sometime plumber Dad.
Many of our Founding Fathers would be surprised that our federal government would come to have any role in regulating the growth of an organic product in our fields or in our yards, let alone our grow-light enabled basements. Within living memory, most of us thought we needed a constitutional amendment for our federal government to enact -- and then un-enact -- our failed experiment to prohibit another organic product.
There's several lessons in this ... mostly not good ...I'm afraid.
So I ask what's so wrong with legalized marijuana, especially if a little tax gets kicked into the coffers.
***
I drafted the above before the other comments came in. Left alone, marijuana would be almost all US grown using advanced horticultural methods. Mexico, borders and crime wouldn't figure. Marijuana would quickly become a lot like the California wine industry.
The guys who created South Park are actually very sharp. They're critical of marijuana smoking -- especially among the young -- for its greatest danger: people getting lethargically lazy in their boredom.
Link over
By Pax Federatica, at
Thu Jul 09, 11:04:00 PM:
This is California we're talking about, right? You'd think they'd have no trouble finding a sympathetic celebrity or two who'd be willing to do these ads pro bono, and give the campaign some star power at least.
By , at
Thu Jul 09, 11:42:00 PM:
Dawfire said, "Also, marijuana is not why Mexican cartels kill each other. Cocaine is. So is power."
OK, I'll fix it.
I know there are exceptions, but generally, illicit drug users know that their habit supports murder. They know it and they don't care. I will support drug legalization when the drug users stop buying the stuff and drive the drug dealers out of business.
By , at
Fri Jul 10, 12:02:00 AM:
To Tyree from Link,
I doubt many marijuana smokers see a connection to murder. Many other drugs, yes. Marijuana is different. It can be made less a problem than alcohol.
If illicit drugs didn't have a fat profit margin, we wouldn't have so many problems over them. Our current approach has proven to only make a bad problem worse.
By , at
Fri Jul 10, 12:28:00 AM:
Link said, "I doubt many marijuana smokers see a connection to murder."
That, of course, is exactly my point. Their weed is more important to them than the death and destruction that it's cultivation and distribution cause. I don't think they should be rewarded for doing something wrong.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Jul 10, 10:40:00 AM:
"You can pay 2X-3X for "official" product that's had potency watered down, or go to "alternative channels" selling the highest quality, make discrete home deliveries 7x24, and extend credit to select clientele?"
Why would a producing firm 'water down' their own products? Why wouldn't they label different styles and potencies themselves? ('Maui Wowie' is in a green box, 'White Widow' in a white one, etc.) Why would anyone need 'discrete home deliveries' when you could go to a corner store and buy a carton, and why would I need 'credit' extended by an individual when I could just use a credit card? Why would *any* of this happen?
No one goes to backwoods stills for moonshine now; they go to the local grocery store and pick up a case of a standardized, familiar label that they like and they go home.
By , at
Fri Jul 10, 02:36:00 PM:
"No one goes to backwoods stills for moonshine now; they go to the local grocery store and pick up a case of a standardized, familiar label that they like and they go home."
Generally true, however, I have it from someone I trust that there are still a significant number of "private distilleries" scattered around in hillbilly country. The lure of lower price and the pride in old fashioned hand crafted products is seemingly impossible to erase.
By Escort81, at
Fri Jul 10, 03:28:00 PM:
Tyree - "old fashioned hand crafted products..." Heh. Glad to hear it's not rot gut anymore! I assume we are talking about some kind of sour mash whiskey?
By , at
Fri Jul 10, 06:44:00 PM:
Escort81 - something along those lines. He mentioned that the formula was an old family secret. The quality of the ingredients and processing has definitly gone up over the last 100 years, given that no one has died or been to the hospital in age.
By , at
Fri Jul 10, 06:52:00 PM:
I am sure there is both out there E-81. There are good ol' boys that can make stuff just as good as the best you can buy and then there is the rot gut. There is a lot of skill involved. I find it interesting that Uncle Sam tolerates homemade beer and wine but gets real fussy about homemade corn likker. Re the marijuana: I think the trick here is to be able to undercut the dealers. I am entirely ignorant of the economics of marijuana production/distribution, but if a comparable product can be legally produced at less cost, I imagine people will buy it, but would that preclude a heavy tax?.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Jul 11, 12:14:00 AM:
"if a comparable product can be legally produced at less cost, I imagine people will buy it, but would that preclude a heavy tax?."
Certainly. No less than with tobacco. Don't underestimate the power of economies of scale and mass distribution.
By , at
Sat Jul 11, 05:08:00 PM:
She should consider being a salad bar user. - A real punkass jackoff
This good Woman is a chronic pain patient and probably taking multiple medications that may cause weight gain as well as prevent exercise,you fucking asshole.
Your heart is the size of a pea,you punkass punk.
I hope you and your loved ones are able to avoid all conditions and diseases that cause intractable pain,you shallow, ignorant, insecure asshole.
Eric K. Johnson
