Quote:
Originally Posted by AcGold
My thoughts:
keeping it illegal only increases crime, heard straight from the mouth of a BC officer. They know that it being illegal creates an industry, inflates the price of the bud and in effect drives more criminals to the potential profit. The criminals in BC don't want it legalized.
It's a plant that has potential for an awful lot of good and equally has the potential to ruin lives, I've smoked enough in my day to see it turn people with potential into unmotivated leeches and am weary to not do it too much as it will inevitably influence one's thought patterns negatively, the worst part being it's hard to even tell it's happening. It helps just as many people as it harms, that being said it being illegal does nobody but criminals any good by inflating the price and creating a potential income that otherwise should not exist. For every single grow op busted another will pop up by the inherent nature of the fact that when one is busted it keeps the price high.
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Meh that is not true. In the twenty years i've been smoking in BC, the street prices haven't gone up at all. I pay less for weed then I did 20 years ago for my own personal usage. At the supplier level, the price has plummeted. Pounds sell for significantly less then they used to sell for.
Criminals used medicinal marijuana grow licenses to cheat the system and that has contributed to the significant drop in prices at the supplier level. There was an article in the paper about a grower and how he preferred the old days as he would get significantly more money. He still sells to the same people he always did (criminals), all the license did was protect him from prosecution and allowed him to do things more legit with less profit. With so many grow licenses out there, there is a way more supply then demand. I can't find the link to the article.
Marijuana at licensed dispensaries is already more expensive then what I personally pay. Once the government gets their hands on taxing and regulating marijuana you will see price increase most definitely. And that of course, will create a black market and you will see criminals profit from it because you know the government will #### it up.
As for the tests for driving while impaired by marijuana. I hope they can accurately figure that out and change it to a drinking and driving situation. As it stands right now, there is no way for a driver to dispute a driving while high charge. If a cop believes you are high, you get the same 24 hour suspension and RDP penalties just like blowing a warning level at a roadside test. So, I hope they figure that #### out. I have a crappy driving record for those types of things and I no longer drive under those conditions, but knowing a cop can just out right and say i'm high and cause me to lose my license for up to a year and I have no recourse to change that really gets me antsy.