[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Don't they already go after dealers that sell it illegally? They seem to be trying, and yet BC produces something like $6 billion/year worth. I don't think the answer is to legalize it, make it expensive, and then continue with the same law enforcement policies they're already doing regarding the growers/dealers.

Sure, but then whats the point of legalizing it if your still going to allow it to be something that's uncontrolled. Its still illegal for you to make a living by making a selling booze without being licensed. Personally I have no problems making it legal. But I do have a problem with the idea that it should just become a uncontrolled basement industry. And I really have trouble with people that would make a living selling it or marketing it to minors.

With a non controlled model where you just say that smoking dope is ok, anyone can grow it and sell it to anyone else and we won't go after it, then you really encourage organized crime to get involved, your really encouraging it to be sold to anyone.

If your going to legalize it, you still can't turn a blind eye to a guy who builds a grow op and doesn't submit reports on it, you can't turn a blind eye to someone who decides to make a living on it without A) being controlled based on who he sells to, and B) submitting tax revenue. And C) having no quality control requirements on what is a noxious substance.

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

I assume you mean on a large scale? There's no reason people shouldn't be able to grow their own, just like they can brew their own beer/wine.

Sure, on small amounts, but I don't have a right to make booze or cigarettes en mass and sell it. For personal consumption I would have no problems. Where my problem would start are people distributing it to minors, or making undeclared income on it by doing so.

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Sure, but that sort of ignores the current fact that there's a massive existing black market grow/distribution system for pot that doesn't exist for liquor. Growing/dealing pot is already illegal, and efforts to curb it have already failed. Growers/dealers won't stop for any reason other than the demand being reduced, and the demand for illegal weed will only be reduced if legal weed is of similar convenience, price, and quality.

So you enforce it as a commercial crime instead of a criminal crime. If you want to grow and sell pot, then you should require a license and compliance to any rules and regulations that the government deems necessary. It should be treated like Liquor which is a similar substance in that it effects mental state and health. If your going to legalize it then it has to be bought into the light. Treat it like Liquor, tax it appropriately and use those revenues for healthcare, anti drug education, and enforcement against people that try to make it, market it and distribute outside of a prescribed system. People who want it legalized can't have it both ways. Legalization to me means if your caught with personalized amounts on you doesn't mean a trip through the justice system. However distributing and selling it outside of a controllable and survey able commercial system means fines.

Just like dope intoxication needs to be treated the same way as drinking and driving.

At least with this model, it becomes more revenue neutral, yes you still have to have some enforcement, but at least a system with tax revenues and some fine revenues from illegal operations will pay for the system. You would also reduce jail usage.

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

If the government legalized it, regulated it for potency, and ensured the price was similar to the already widely accepted black market price, I think you'd see the illegal growers/dealers go out of business very quickly.

However, don't you think that some genius out there would try to sell strains that are of higher potency then government dope, or would try to undersell the government since they wouldn't pay taxes in an underground market? I think you would see illegal growers and dealers remain and business, and those are the people that you would at least initially try to target. Not the stupid 35 year old with half an ounce in his pocket.

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Sure... and gambling, prostitution, and everything else they're already involved in.

It's not the supply of these drugs that makes them a problem, its the demand. If people didn't want to smoke crack, there wouldn't be an illegal supply of it. Because people demand it, organized crime provides it. If the supply of the given substance is legal (and affordable), organized crime doesn't really have room to operate or make a profit.

You want to kill organized crime? Legalize and regulate all drugs and prostitution. For better or worse, you'd take a sizeable chunk out of those organizations this way.

I really can't subscribe to the legalization of all of it argument, mainly because the harsher drugs cause significant health problems, destroy people both mentally and physically, and even if legalized a person who could buy crystal meth as an example would still eventually become unemployable and would probably have to turn to crime to get his fix.

Personally the people that make money on the misery of human beings by selling these noxious and devastating drugs (not dope) should be treated like they are in China, a bullet to the back of the head and a bullet bill to the family, especially the scum bags who target kids and teens. They are the worst type of parasites who cause human misery wherever they go.