Re: Attempted robbery of marijuana delivery truck
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ArmaHeavy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I was watching a TV show about legalizing marijuana, and a very professional lady did some number cruching on it.
$200 Billion dollars would be spent by the American taxpayer to pay for the overall damage to the economy because of decreased work production, healthcare programs because when the government does legalize it then there WILL be more health concerns, and lets also not forget the rise in car crashes because there is also the unspoken problem with drunk driving already. Imagine someone drunk AND high. Tack on more fatalities to that equation.
Then you also have it legalized so what is stopping the cartels? You can imagine all you want to about the government have absolute control over this, but IF it is then you just legalized the cornerstone of their entire business. It takes $400 to turn out a plant for a $6000 profit.
Then you'll also have another group that will spring up and use the legalization of marijuana as a platform to legalize heroin, cocaine, crack, PCP, LSD, Ecstasy, etc. They say "Why not? Weed was already legalized, so why not more?". And if there are told no then they will claim that their rights are being discriminated against, lawsuits and summons will appear, and we will all be hearing Supreme Court rulings on it.
So basically...NO. The legalization of marijuana is a poor idea, and no benefit will ever be gained from it no matter what new way to give in, is said.
The simplest idea would be for all of America to just stop using illegal drugs, but that would require willpower, and for some it's easier disguise their true intentions through failed logic. </div></div>
Some of that may be true. Regarding car crashes, we should immediately ban alcohol, because that causes a lot of crashes now. Wait, that's been tried, we got the mob as a result.
The drug cartels do not want it legal. Think it out. Right now they are the only game in town, and they have the backing of the US government. Not really, but the government is pretty tough on anyone that wants to start a marijuana farm here. Once it is legal, and anyone can grow it, there will be next to no profit in it, except for the government, who will tax the heck out of it. Imagine farmer brown baling up 160 acres of it multiplied by many farmer browns throughout the nation. The price has to fall, the profit margin drops, and suddenly there isn't enough money in it to be worth the trouble for street gangs. Unless the taxes are too high, then there could be a black market like happens with cigarettes in some states. What is stopping the cartels? Legal competition. You don't see gangs shooting each other in turf wars to sell black market aspirin, do you? Why, because anybody can make it and sell it, so a bottle costs .99 cents, and the bottle it is in is probably worth more than the medicine.
You might say that marijuana isn't the same as aspirin, and it isn't, but If I can turn $400 into $6000 legally, I would be tempted. You know there are enough people who have no compunction about it that would immediately start growing it.
Perhaps the tax on it could offset some of the costs of the problems you list above, but I'd prefer that people who smoke dope pay for their own health care, or lack thereof. Companies can drug test. They do already in many cases.
We could let all the nonviolent drug offenders out of prison and save the cost of holding them.
