Lawless Hellscape of Colorado--6month report

[johndoe3]

A 6 month report on Colorado, after legalization of marijuana on January 1, 2014. My interest in this social experiment (since I voted for it) is whether libertarian principles play out from removal of prohibition.

http://mic.com/articles/92449/six-month ... n-colorado

1. More than $10 million per month of sales taxes to go to public schools and school infrastructure. Forecast is about $134 million per year in taxes.
2. Marijuana arrests have plummeted, saving the State $12-40 million per year according the Colorado Center on Law and Policy.
3. Denver and the surrounding suburbs have seen a 42.1% drop in homicides. Violent crime has dropped slightly(2%) and major property crimes dropped 11.5%.
4. 10,000 people working in the blossoming weed industry including edibles and drinks (includes medical MJ).

Yes, all indications are that Colorado has descended into a lawless hellscape.

There is also a wildcard for Colorado in the embryonic industrial Hemp growing sector which is just beginning this year. Manitoba farmers earn net $300 per acre with Hemp just growing it for seeds for Hemp oil. It's possible that industries may develop in CO too for use of the plant fibers for all sorts of uses. Industrial Hemp growing and industries could be a big sector too.

[FarmDadCO]

That presumes we can keep the feds off the hemp seed shipments long enough to get them planted lol.
I too voted to go legal with it , but am pretty disgusted with the tax structure they came up with . It quite simply subsidies the " illegal " street market by driving the cost of legal weed far above the " on the corner " price .
Seems also that the pot shops are playing strictly by the rules as evidenced by the failed sting operation the state ran on them .

http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2 ... /11401901/

[johndoe3]

The Colorado delegation to Congress in the House and Senate has said they will fix the problems in D.C. (removing MJ from being a schedule 1 drug and Federal law allowing farmers to raise industrial hemp); but so far, they haven't made any progress at all. I don't know who is dragging their feet in D.C. So... the DEA is making it hard to import hemp seeds for farmers to grow industrial hemp, and this affects a lot of other States where States have passed laws allowing growing of hemp.

I too voted to go legal with it , but am pretty disgusted with the tax structure they came up with . It quite simply subsidies the " illegal " street market by driving the cost of legal weed far above the " on the corner " price .

The tax system is what the people voted for, so it is what it is. In the first 6 months of 2014 in CO, 2/3 of sales were Medical Marijuana and only 1/3 was retail legalized MJ. The reason is likely real economic costs to users, where Medical MJ sells for 25-35% less than the cost of retail MJ with the taxes (down from double the price when first legalized in Jan 2014).

It's surprising how many healthy looking young people in CO are suffering from "bad back pain", necessitating a Doc's prescription for Medical MJ. wink wink

The Colorado Dept of Revenue came out with a 6-month study today that shows 44% of retail pot sales in the Denver area is sold to out of state visitors; while in the mountain resort towns and vacation spots 90% of retail pot sales are to out of state visitors. Only 12.8% of Colorado residents have purchased pot at all in the last year(using total population); and when recalculated for 21 and older pop, it is 17.4% (about 1 in 6 adults).

http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/Re ... 1592985115 PDF, first link at top

[silencertalk]

It makes almost no difference to me if making pot legal helps or hurts things. Does not matter.

Govt has no right to tell people they can't smoke a plant.

[doubloon]

It makes almost no difference to me if making pot legal helps or hurts things. Does not matter.

Govt has no right to tell people they can't smoke a plant.

QFT

[silencertalk]

I don't think drugs and alcohol does terrible things to people so much as those people were already messed up and are self-medicating. Taking away their drugs does not make them revert to normal people.

https://ncadd.org/for-the-media/alcohol ... nformation

Wow - 20% of the population takes prescription drugs for non-medical reasons! I guess the country does have a huge problem. I don't know what the answer is.

[Catskinner]

It makes almost no difference to me if making pot legal helps or hurts things. Does not matter.

Govt has no right to tell people they can't smoke a plant.

Same way I feel about what guns I can own, and if I need an outrageous "tax" and permission to shoot quietly, to preserve my hearing, and not annoy my neighbors.