No, people will pay tax to be able to grow, or face laws in place to tax it, just like alcohol.

Its quite simple, to all the crap about abuse, anything and everything around can and does get abused, limiting the vast majority of what people are allowed to do, because of a few idiots is plain stupid.

 

Yes, but just like there are people who grow today under the law, You think their going to pay tax because its legal? I do believe that paying the tax to grow your own would probably be the smartest thing, but you know people arent smart.

Plus if legalization ever happened, do you think there will be less alchohol and cigarette smokers? I do, but im usually wrong lol.

I used to drink a fair amount, mainly because I couldnt afford good green. Now I can, and have no desire to drink. For instance, I was becoming a pretty heavy drinker. Just clubbing almost every night, blackouts, hangovers, vomitting etc. A few months later, I recovered from a financial issue, im doing well now, and can afford some green. Havent sipped alchohol since october, and I plan on going through 2012 alchohol free. I dont have a problem, I just wanna say I did it.

This time last year I wouldnt of been able to make that commitment, I used to smoke cigs on occasion, even a black and mild now and then.. YUCK!

The increase in sleep quality, reduction in alchohol, and ability to eat more has helped me put on about 15-20 pounds of muscle in the last 8 months. (plus I have been playing more basketball=lower bf%, try taking a hit or 2 before playing ball, your focus will be on point just dont smoke too much, you will start to feel lazy)

I know that was off topic, just my story. I do not believe weed is a miracle drug, like other potheads. lmao

 

most people that smoke it and smoke anything for life are not consumed with their health. i have seen people watch cadaver dissections of smokers and afterwords just shrugged it off. the lungs were black and scarred with a few holes. even the vessels around the lungs and heart were discolored and when the lungs were opened you could actually catch a faint smell of smoke. if someone wants to smoke anything let them fill themselves with disease. the only problem i have is when i have to walk through someones smoke. it is their right to smoke and i respect that, it is first my right to enjoy the air before they destroy it with that crap. most of the non smokers will agree, we have at some point been stuck in a crowd or area where you had to endure someone and their lack of respect for others smoking a cigarette... (imagine if pot was legal) and then give you a look as if it is their right to fuck up your air. i have been at Busch Gardens walking in a thick crowd with someone smoking in-front of me, i actually contemplated shoving a pink flamingo down their smoke hole and out their poop hole. so in summary idc if you want to smoke just be mindful of EVERY OTHER person that does not want to be forced to deal with your weak personality and addiction to sucking something. end

 

I dont think it hurts as much smoked with water pipes, bongs, or other filtered things but if your smoking 4 blunts a day your introuble.

 

i might have everyday multiple times for years.. My spirometer reading was 5.5l, which i believe is like 2l more than the average human...so, it may have a reverse affect by working the lungs with smoke. and without tar, addiction. (black stuff people rant about in lungs is isnt in budd)

 

This entire argument is a moot point. Marijuana will never be legal for public purchase.

 

Yes your correct. Also, this thread isnt about legalization, so lets not get any more in depth about it. As stated above, who cares smoke and be merry.

 

get a vaporizer

 

in the process lol, i was going to order one ofline but my paypal was limited due to retarded reasons

 

EDIT -
Fair warning - typed out a novel.
I find the topic intriguing. couldn't resist tossing in my 2 cents... well... its more like 371 cents. lol


The flip side to the whole, people do it because it is illegal is that there are lots of people that don't smoke specifically because it is illegal, and otherwise would smoke if it was legal. So i think the "average" user might just balance out.
As for abuse, i envision the average rate of abuse being equal to that of Alcohol. And that is only 5 years after it becomes legal. That first 5 years, or so, it will be a major boom. Go to CVS and buy a pack of joints, everyone is going to do it, and more than likely, to excess. It'll be the new novelty thing to do. Legal Pot. People will go so far over board that first few years, that they might just end up outlawing it again. Imagine how much more the typical dipshit pothead would smoke if he didn't have to worry about getting caught.
So yes, historically speaking, when it is illegal, it is a bigger deal, Prohibition taught us that. But even in prohibition, there were many people that stopped having a drink because it was illegal. Pot is even more like that because of the testing and penalties associated with it. Back then, they didn't do piss tests for booze, and even today, a piss test really only shows if you were drunk yesterday. Whereas with pot, they can piss test several weeks back, and hair tests will go several months back. Back then, when you got arrested, it was a pain in the ass, but life went on. Today, you get arrested and it costs a ton of money, and the time you were locked up, you could have lost your job for no call no show, and now you have a record that may very well prevent you from getting future employment. That in itself scares a lot of people away.

If/When it becomes legal, it will be taxed just like Cigarettes are now, or even more. The price won't ever be cheaper than if you grew it yourself. The catch is, it will be illegal to grow it yourself.
The gooberment will want to capitalize on the huge tax revenue it could produce. The lobbyists will pressure the gooberment into passing laws that make it illegal to grow yourself. So you can't be caught with the plant, having things to grow would be probable cause. You more than likely couldn't carry the pot itself on your person. They would more than likely make that illegal as well to force you to buy their pre-made joints. which would look and smoke the exact same as cigarettes. The only way around smoking it like a cigarette would be to smoke it at a smoke shop, much like a hooka bar. There are too many consumers that would rather smoke it through a hooka, than a cigarette, so the demand would require some sort of legislation to allow that sector of the industry to be formed. But even then, it would be taxed to all hell, and not be any cheaper.
The only advantage would probably be that the hooka stuff might be more "all natural" and not full of all of the preservatives and crap that the cigarette versions would be.
You would be foolish to think that the cigarette companies (who are really the only ones with the infrastructure to produce the supply) aren't going to fill those things with all of the formaldehyde and crap that cigarettes do. It is good for business if you get hooked on them. Even more good for business if you want to smoke 5, 8, 12 or more a day, like people do for cigarettes today.
So, could they grow it cheaper, hell yeah they can. It is easy to make it cheaper per ounce when you can grow entire fields. But, it won't be cheaper to the consumer because of taxes.

If it was made legal, it would be just like cigarettes as in, you would have to be of age to buy it and consume it. So it would still be illegal for minors. So that is still going to be as big if not bigger of an issue due to the accessibility of it being legal, as it is now. That will be one of the major issues within that first several years it is legal. Every teenager is going to have their older brother or sister buying them a pack of joints so they can be cool too.

Because of the kinds of controls they would have to put into place to not only control the available product but to keep the illegal growing under control, It would be rather difficult for them to allow any private person to be able to grow it themselves. Not saying that as a company, they won't let you apply for a license to be able to grow, but then the company is going to have to pay grow taxes, and charges taxes to sell it. With the exception of the "private stash" the business owner scraps off for himself, it wouldn't be the cheap option.

Part of what you have to realize is that if they make it legal, it isn't going to be "in addition to today's laws" It is going to be a whole new set of rules that throws out today's laws. Think about it, if everyone that was legally and illegally growing pot today, could legally sell it under the table, and not pay taxes on it, why would the government ever allow it to be legal? Why would the lobbyists allow it to become legal? They won't. So everything that you understand about what is legal and not legal today would be thrown out the window.
It will not be legal for minors, period.
It won't be legal to grow your own.
It won't be cheaper.
It will be taxed.
It will be controlled.
and it will have crap in it, just like cigarettes do.
(for those that don't know, naturally grown tabacco doesn't have all of that really nasty crap that cancer sticks have. Those chemicals are added to process the tabacco, and preserve the tabacco, and control the way the tabacco burns. and yes, most of us would argue that some of the chemicals are added to increase your addiction)


You're right, people aren't smart, that's why it will be illegal, and there will be stupid punishments for it. It won't be a matter of "protecting the people" although that is what the news story will be about. "A garage grower was busted today when several bay area people checked into the hospital reporting chest pains and seizures. Toxin screens confirmed the illegally grown pot was laced with X, Y, Z" But we all know that it is really illegal because it is too easy to grow and would cause too much competition problems for the businesses trying to grow and sell their own.

And yes, every birth of a new industry alters the existing ones. Yes, their will more than likely be less cancer stick smokers because they moved over to pot, but the cigarette companies won't care because they will see an overall increase in total smokers. Some people that will smoke pot if it is legal won't smoke cancer sticks because of how bad they are for you.
As for the effect on the alcohol industry. I seriously doubt they would see much of an impact. People are still going to want to drink with dinner. You won't be able to smoke inside. They are still going to want to drive when they go out for the night. Booze will still be the preferred medium for getting wasted. There are just too many people that are either flat out allergic to pot, or just don't enjoy the high, don't/can't actually smoke anything, or, want to get drunk, and not high as those are two vastly different

Weed doesn't make you focus. it is a downer. It slows your brain down and because you want to focus, you "muscle through it" and devote all of your brain power onto one thought process.
Technically, you just have to learn how to focus yourself and then you'll notice that the pot isn't some magic mind focuser. Unless you actually have a problem and can't focus, ie true ADHD, then it is quite possible that a downer like pot would turn the voices down and help with focus.

... pot heads...
if you blow bubbles with it, the smoke that is going into your lungs is good for you.
Smoke is smoke. Water pipes, bongs, hookas, whatever, they don't filter anything. Whoever told you that it was a filter had smoked their brain away. All it does is change a characteristic of the smoke, mainly, it cools it down, so instead of sucking in heat, like you would with anything else that is rolled, you get a nice, cool breath of air. Also, it changes your technique, you don't have to suck to create the smoke, you just have to breath in the smoke that is there. That's just about the extent of it. No "filtering" involved.

some people do have higher lung capacity.
you can also develop it based off of physical activity. Athletic people have greater lung capacity.
but I doubt filling your lungs full of any kind of smoke makes them stronger. If that was the case, then more pot heads would be running track instead of looking like warmed over death.
I personally have only ever met one pot head that could function like a "normal" person, the rest were all way out of shape and would loose their breath walking to 7-eleven to get munchies.

that's what they said during prohibition too.
I think their is a potential to make too much money for it to never be legalized.