Quote:
Originally Posted by Rathji
I once talked to a pot user that claimed that there is no way the government would make anywhere near the taxes from pot that it does from booze and smokes, since it is really easy to grow enough for your own personal use.
Anyone able to comment on if this is likely correct?
|
As mentioned people can roll their own cigarettes, brew their own beer and wine at home but they don't, or at least most don't. Just like most people don't grow their own vegetables, most people won't grow their own marijuana because of the dedication to doing it.
If someone has a small grow(4ft x 4ft grow room), which I assume would be the case if they were growing for legal personal use, they would be looking at 5-6 months from seed and 3-4 months from clone by the time they got smokeable weed. Now you have to ask yourself you are probably spending some time daily taking care of the plants and by the time that room is ready to smoke you are getting 1-1.5lbs depending on strain, equipment, growing environment and experience.
So say you get a pound yield every 4 months average you are looking at about an ounce of a weed ($160-220 street value) per week which may seem worth it but at the same time being legal the value would go down and you would have set up, electric bill, nutrients, soil and most importantly your time. You would probably spend 15-20 minutes daily checking, feeding, etc. (~30hrs per grow)
So that quickly turns into, I can run down to 711 and pay X amount for a pack of joints or I can spend all that time growing my own to find out I don't have the experience to do it, your time isn't worth it or even worse your crop fails.
I think the reason most people think the way your friend does because the way "professionals" grow with automated systems, huge plants, huge yields, etc. but I doubt anyone growing for themselves would want to spend the investment to get that going. I know I have looked into more out of curiously (I'm too pretty for jail
) and it isn't a cheap hobby, you have to be doing it for profit to make it worth your time IMHO. And the government could still make the huge grows illegal, while leaving those who want to throw a couple in a closet or in the backyard alone. The government just needs to make their product so reasonably priced no one would bother buying from an illegal source. The only reason for the inflation of prices for marijuana is because it is illegal, with a warehouse set up the government could undercut any illegal grower while still supplying a top end product and bringing in huge revenues.
Since there is a ton of misinformation about marijuana in general if anyone is interested there is a documentary about the BC marijuana industry call The Union: The Business Of Getting High. You can watch it for free online
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-u...-getting-high/
I don't think it's any secret that I'm on the side of legalization and taxation but in the long run I don't care because access to it will be the same regardless. The War On Drugs was lost before it even started and it's a shame that a few interest groups and uneducated people continue to fight for it to remain illegal while they complain about gang violence. Between 60-70% of all cartels money comes from the sale of marijuana, without that money they can't afford to kidnap, transport other drugs, and kill dozens of people a day to keep profits high. Just like you don't see the cartel bringing up cigarettes or booze, because it's legal there is no profit. You would see the grow-ops in national parks stop, you would see more tax money going to government so they can either fight real drugs or help those that truly are addicts.
I could go on and on about why it should be legal and taxed but I got to get to the golf course. Where the other side has "it's a drug it's bad", "will someone please think of the children?" or the usual case is an uneducated person just repeating what they have been told by another uneducated person. The government and special interest groups have done a good job in the last 70 years lying and getting people to believe its a dangerous and harmful drug (YouTube "Reefer Madness") but it seems more and more people are thinking for themselves and even if they don't smoke it realize it's not the drug they were lead to believe for many years.
<-----Check the Badge bitches. You want some Awesome, you come to me!
