ScratchMonkey

Tax it no more than its competition, preferably less. Excessive taxation leads to smuggling, and then to a restoration of organized crime and gang violence. Observe, for example, the violence that arises from over-taxing cigarettes.

http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_b...lett080702.asp

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...50C0A9639C8B63

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Fenian420

Yea but unlike cigarettes weed can be grown and ingested just like that... and Id doubt that their would be as much organized crime revolving around cannabis smuggling compared to cigarettes.

xTYBALTx

You speak of organized crime around marijuana in the hypothetical sense? As if it doesn't already exist?

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sordavie

hehe

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Fenian420

Im talking about if it were legal, legal substances that are smuggled into and out of countries and territories to avoid paying taxes..

Greflin

Or if you hippies would get haircuts, jobs, and lay off the dope there would be no need to smuggle it.

Buck Fush

Um, I'm bald as kojak and I have held a 6-figure job for more than 10 years. Next stereotype please.

Elwenil

And I have hair to my waist and have never smoked anything, nor done any drug worse than alcohol. Agreed, stereotypes are for the simple.

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El_Gringo_Grande

But then what would be the point of living, man.

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Razcsak

Doing no drug worse than alcohol doesn't mean you haven't smoked weed.

(Yes, that was tongue-in-cheek. No, I don't mean to start a debate on the dangers of alcohol compared to marijuana.)

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ScratchMonkey

Fixed.

Whenever someone says something bad about pot, or claims a need for some law, I just mentally substitute "beer" to see if their claim holds water.

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Buck Fush

Oh no. Let's do it.

Let me see, I know I posted some stats around here, somewhere...

Kerostasis

Possession of MJ should be a misdemeanor punishable only by a fine. Committing some other crime while high on MJ should be no different than committing the same crime while drunk, like DUI for example. Then we could save an awful lot of time and effort that could be better put to use somewhere else. I don't think I'd be in favor of full legalization, but spending millions of dollars incarcerating hundreds of thousands of otherwise productive workers just for smoking pot is just not cost effective.

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Buck Fush

Ah. Here it is.

And in this article they talk about the LD of alcohol. They don't put a number on it, but they do surmise that 9 drinks in one hour could kill a 100lb person. Considering that the effective dose would be one drink, the LD50 for alcohol would be rather low also.

So there really is no debate. Alcohol is WAY worse than mary.

Kerostasis

The LD50 rating of a drug is interesting, but far from the only relevant data on how dangerous a drug is. Since most users never get close to the LD range of either MJ or Alcohol, the behavioral impacts of non-lethal usage are much more significant. Behavioral impacts are also rather harder to statistically examine though -- I couldn't say off hand whether one or the other drug is more dangerous in that respect. Anyone got any data on that?

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