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Amendment 64 Passes: Colorado Legalizes Marijuana For Recreational Use

longview said:
If the legal sellers can sell for say 75% of the street price, they will have an expanding business.
How high could the cost of goods sold be on legal marijuana?
I suspect most of the current cost comes from it being an illegal business.
Think about Joe farmer, has farming equipment, Tractors, Plows, seeders, hay cutters and balers.
How much legal pot could one grow on a 40 acre field?
A low end modern wheat field can get 1800 lbs per acre, so a 40 acre field
could yield 72000 lbs. I bet there is a much higher yield from marijuana than wheat.
Current wheat prices are about 20 cents per pound, so I think it may be safe to say it costs
less than 20 cents per pound to grow wheat. I suspect it would be less for marijuana.
So the farmer sell his crop for $4.00 per pound in round bales, The 25% tax makes it $5.00 per pound.
The Distributor processes the marijuana, and sells the marijuana to retailers for $20 per pound.
($25 after his 25 % tax)
The retailer sells 1 ounce units at $10 each including his 25% tax of $2, grossing $128 per pound.
It looks like LOTS of room for profit, taxes, and still undercut the illegal trade.
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That's a damn good analysis. I'm for all legal drugs just to get things decriminalized. You have to understand that all the illegal drug pushers, sellers, manufacturers, distributors, and growers are in favor of the laws against legal drugs because it kills their profit. Wasn't our favorite Chicago gangster a blatant, public fan of Prohibition. If Al Capone was in favor of prohibition, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out who is behind drug prohibition. Could that be big Corporate Pharma?
 
DrunkenAsparagus said:
Legal, open markets tend to have much lower costs and be more far more convenient for consumers. Police seizures and the threat of such, violence, and no clear property rights all drive up costs significantly in a black market. Unless the legal market is too heavily regulated or taxed, the product will be far cheaper to produce legally. Consumers will also probably prefer the cheaper, safer, and easier to find pot.
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I never suggested otherwise. Yet again, I'm not arguing against decriminalisation (or even legalisation necessarily). I'm arguing against the opinion that this single law (and those like it) will magically create the legal, open market and magically eliminate the illegal market and all the negatives that have grown out of it.

I'm concerned that such a relaxed, victorious attitude from the proponents of legalisation will prevent the ongoing problems around recreational drug use from being addressed properly and allow the potential problems of decriminalisation/legalisation to grow unchecked. They may well have established the basis for a better situation in these states but they still need to put in the hard work and difficult decisions to realise it.
 
HonestJoe said:
I never suggested otherwise. Yet again, I'm not arguing against decriminalisation (or even legalisation necessarily). I'm arguing against the opinion that this single law (and those like it) will magically create the legal, open market and magically eliminate the illegal market and all the negatives that have grown out of it.

I'm concerned that such a relaxed, victorious attitude from the proponents of legalisation will prevent the ongoing problems around recreational drug use from being addressed properly and allow the potential problems of decriminalisation/legalisation to grow unchecked. They may well have established the basis for a better situation in these states but they still need to put in the hard work and difficult decisions to realise it.
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The black market will probably always exist, especially if pot is too heavily regulated or taxed. The alcohol black market exists, but it has been significantly reduced after Prohibition. No one has argued that the black market will disappear, but black markets are generally far more expensive to operate in unless the government puts too much of a burden on the legal market. Black markets have many more costs than legal ones do. I've seen projections of pot going down to $3 and oz. Obviously, I think this is a tad ridiculous, but there is no way that it will remain at the price it is now. Legal weed will be cheaper, safer, and easier to access for consumers. There simply won't be much of a market for black market weed.
 
Ray410 said:
Huge revenue and job loss for minority communities.
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That's hilariously naive. Do you really think the majority of pot dealers in a place like Colorado are minorities? Did you not go to college?
 
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