Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
During Simon & Garfunkel's legendary concert in New York's Central Park in 1981, Paul Simon took a moment to thank those who made the show possible: police and fire departments, parks commissioner, the mayor.
Then he made special note of "people that never get recognized for doing good things for the city, a group of people that have donated half of the proceeds that they're making tonight, the guys who are selling loose joints are giving the city half of their income tonight."
The crowd roared, Simon laughed and with that he and Art Garfunkel launched into the song "America."
Paul Simon: jokester, musical genius, clairvoyant.
Few would have figured some 35 years ago that the savvy street dealers hawking individual joints would give way to what is now called the cannabis industry. Replete with lobbyists, attorneys and business suits, industry leaders are sitting down with government officials – on the same side of the table – hashing out tax rates and projecting municipal revenues to be gained from legal marijuana.
According to some estimates, state and local marijuana taxes in California eventually could surpass 45 percent.
The mainstreaming of pot is full of potential promise and peril, and advocates want to make sure the latter doesn't get in the way of the former.
The money expected from marijuana, which becomes legal for recreational use in California at the start of the coming year, is staggering. A $5 billion market eventually is expected, with the state's treasury boosted by $1 billion. Some think it will be more.
The city of San Diego is the only local jurisdiction right now that will allow the sale of recreational cannabis, and has already approved more than two dozen medical marijuana dispensaries. The city's independent budget analyst has projected $22 million in annual city revenues once San Diego's recreational market is in full swing.
For perspective, $22 million is more than twice the amount that would have been raised each year to address homelessness under Mayor Kevin Faulconer's stalled plan to raise hotel taxes, which also would have been used to expand the convention center and fix roads.
Municipalities in Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational pot in 2014, have used marijuana revenue for civic centers, road repairs, scholarships and homeless programs.
Concern about the impact of legalization, particularly on youth, remains. One Colorado study said there had been no real change in use before and after. Another study reported a dramatic jump in marijuana-intoxicated teens showing up in Colorado emergency rooms.
DUI's citing marijuana dropped by a third in the first quarter of this year, but fatalities involving stoned drivers is up sharply.
Colorado's marijuana black market also persisted after legalization, and that's a worry across California. The state tax will be 15 percent, with San Diego's initial 5 percent levy on top of that.
"There's no doubt that the tax load for legally purchased marijuana is high," said Phil Rath of the United Medical Marijuana Coalition, who helped negotiate the San Diego marijuana ordinance that kicks in next year.
But Rath and other advocates say taxes are necessary to help pay for regulation and enforcement, which are supposed to have first dibs on the revenue before it gets spent on anything else.
Still, the cost differential could encourage the black market. A $125 legal purchase, for example, might cost $100 under the table, sans taxes.
"That's a meaningful difference for some people." Rath said.
Another unknown is whether a large number of people will continue to seek certification cards to obtain medical marijuana, which won't be taxed. The hope is government officials will create a more discerning process that weeds out marginal (translation: bogus) reasons for medical marijuana.
"If you dangle $1 billion before the state of California," Rath said, "they're going to be pretty motivated."
The transformation of marijuana from counterculture delectable to common consumer commodity may have seemed destined in recent years. It's remarkable nonetheless.
But then, the mainstreaming of other, once-illicit activities also probably seemed weird at the beginning, given years of warnings – some legitimate and some not – about deleterious effects.
Drinking bath tub gin (you'll go blind), gambling (you'll go broke), watching porn (you'll go blind).
Pot was supposed to make you crazy ("Refer Madness") and, benign as it may be for most folks, there's no joking that it has affected some people badly. I found it mostly made me lethargic, hungry and stupid. Given I already had a running start on all three, I figured out long ago it wasn't for me. (Full disclosure: It took a while.)
Not everything illicit is on the path to the mainstream, though. It's still hard to believe that during the 1935-36 California-Pacific International Exposition at Balboa Park there was a nudist colony – on display for the paying public.
Imagine that taking place in the Jewel of San Diego today.
The legalization of marijuana is dandy fine and dandy. But for the mainstreaming of something now verboten, I think I'll wait until officialdom once again allows nude people to hang out en masse in Balboa Park.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana enters the buttoned-down mainstream — and pays taxes - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Author: Michael Smolens
Contact: Contact the Union-Tribune - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Photo Credit: Eric Engman
Website: The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News
Then he made special note of "people that never get recognized for doing good things for the city, a group of people that have donated half of the proceeds that they're making tonight, the guys who are selling loose joints are giving the city half of their income tonight."
The crowd roared, Simon laughed and with that he and Art Garfunkel launched into the song "America."
Paul Simon: jokester, musical genius, clairvoyant.
Few would have figured some 35 years ago that the savvy street dealers hawking individual joints would give way to what is now called the cannabis industry. Replete with lobbyists, attorneys and business suits, industry leaders are sitting down with government officials – on the same side of the table – hashing out tax rates and projecting municipal revenues to be gained from legal marijuana.
According to some estimates, state and local marijuana taxes in California eventually could surpass 45 percent.
The mainstreaming of pot is full of potential promise and peril, and advocates want to make sure the latter doesn't get in the way of the former.
The money expected from marijuana, which becomes legal for recreational use in California at the start of the coming year, is staggering. A $5 billion market eventually is expected, with the state's treasury boosted by $1 billion. Some think it will be more.
The city of San Diego is the only local jurisdiction right now that will allow the sale of recreational cannabis, and has already approved more than two dozen medical marijuana dispensaries. The city's independent budget analyst has projected $22 million in annual city revenues once San Diego's recreational market is in full swing.
For perspective, $22 million is more than twice the amount that would have been raised each year to address homelessness under Mayor Kevin Faulconer's stalled plan to raise hotel taxes, which also would have been used to expand the convention center and fix roads.
Municipalities in Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational pot in 2014, have used marijuana revenue for civic centers, road repairs, scholarships and homeless programs.
Concern about the impact of legalization, particularly on youth, remains. One Colorado study said there had been no real change in use before and after. Another study reported a dramatic jump in marijuana-intoxicated teens showing up in Colorado emergency rooms.
DUI's citing marijuana dropped by a third in the first quarter of this year, but fatalities involving stoned drivers is up sharply.
Colorado's marijuana black market also persisted after legalization, and that's a worry across California. The state tax will be 15 percent, with San Diego's initial 5 percent levy on top of that.
"There's no doubt that the tax load for legally purchased marijuana is high," said Phil Rath of the United Medical Marijuana Coalition, who helped negotiate the San Diego marijuana ordinance that kicks in next year.
But Rath and other advocates say taxes are necessary to help pay for regulation and enforcement, which are supposed to have first dibs on the revenue before it gets spent on anything else.
Still, the cost differential could encourage the black market. A $125 legal purchase, for example, might cost $100 under the table, sans taxes.
"That's a meaningful difference for some people." Rath said.
Another unknown is whether a large number of people will continue to seek certification cards to obtain medical marijuana, which won't be taxed. The hope is government officials will create a more discerning process that weeds out marginal (translation: bogus) reasons for medical marijuana.
"If you dangle $1 billion before the state of California," Rath said, "they're going to be pretty motivated."
The transformation of marijuana from counterculture delectable to common consumer commodity may have seemed destined in recent years. It's remarkable nonetheless.
But then, the mainstreaming of other, once-illicit activities also probably seemed weird at the beginning, given years of warnings – some legitimate and some not – about deleterious effects.
Drinking bath tub gin (you'll go blind), gambling (you'll go broke), watching porn (you'll go blind).
Pot was supposed to make you crazy ("Refer Madness") and, benign as it may be for most folks, there's no joking that it has affected some people badly. I found it mostly made me lethargic, hungry and stupid. Given I already had a running start on all three, I figured out long ago it wasn't for me. (Full disclosure: It took a while.)
Not everything illicit is on the path to the mainstream, though. It's still hard to believe that during the 1935-36 California-Pacific International Exposition at Balboa Park there was a nudist colony – on display for the paying public.
Imagine that taking place in the Jewel of San Diego today.
The legalization of marijuana is dandy fine and dandy. But for the mainstreaming of something now verboten, I think I'll wait until officialdom once again allows nude people to hang out en masse in Balboa Park.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana enters the buttoned-down mainstream — and pays taxes - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Author: Michael Smolens
Contact: Contact the Union-Tribune - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Photo Credit: Eric Engman
Website: The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News
