'Vansterdam" was front and centre during the Winter Olympics and its downtown streets were full of revellers who partied even though the liquor stores were closed much of the time.
That's because pot was everywhere, and several foreign commentators remarked on its popularity. This is nothing new. Marijuana has been essentially decriminalized in the Lower Mainland and the annual export crop has been bigger than forestry for a decade.
Trafficking for export is still illegal in Canada, but it appears as though one of the biggest markets, California, is likely to legalize cannabis in the Nov. 2 elections.
The issue will be a referendum question on the ballot and a majority voting yes would carry the force of law. It is being promoted by a movement called "Tax Cannabis," designed to appeal to those voters who refuse to allow tax hikes, or a curtailment of government services, and have sent the state into near-bankruptcy.
Estimates are that sales of marijuana total US$14-billion every year. Proponents talk about a US$1.4-billion tax on sales, but if the stuff is taxed the same as cigarettes or liquor the government's take could be up to US$14-billion. ( The state's deficit last year was US$42-billion. )
A tax on marijuana could be real money.
The "Governator" is leaving and the two principal competitors for the job of running a state the economic size of France are both opposed to legalization. But that doesn't matter in the wacky world of "neverendums" in California.
Since the latest referendum forbid new taxes or cost cutting, the result has been release of prisoners before sentences are completed and a host of other loopy goings-on, including paying suppliers with IOUs, not real money.
And the state is halfway there now. It legalized medical marijuana use in the late 1990s.
This has pitted California against the federal government's Drug Enforcement Agency, which has continued to harass and arrest pot growers on the basis that some are a little too aggressive in their marketing techniques.
Outright legalization will escalate this federal-state squabble, but Barack Obama was sympathetic to lifting controls on pot during his election campaign.
And for good reason. The substance is less harmful than alcohol and could raise a bunch of tax dollars. Besides, Prohibition didn't work in the 1920s and it doesn't work now.
It's silly that prisons and paddy wagons throughout the United States are unfortunately full of people busted for a little bit of pot that sells openly on Vancouver, or Toronto, street corners, as well as in most parts of the world.
I predict that once California makes it legal, other states and provinces will too, notably British California
News Hawk: Warbux 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Cannabis News
Author: Diane Francis
Contact: Cannabis News - Medical Marijuana, Marijuana News, Hemp, Cannabis
Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Website: California Dreaming of Pot Tax Bonanza | Cannabis News - Medical Marijuana, Marijuana News, Hemp, Cannabis
That's because pot was everywhere, and several foreign commentators remarked on its popularity. This is nothing new. Marijuana has been essentially decriminalized in the Lower Mainland and the annual export crop has been bigger than forestry for a decade.
Trafficking for export is still illegal in Canada, but it appears as though one of the biggest markets, California, is likely to legalize cannabis in the Nov. 2 elections.
The issue will be a referendum question on the ballot and a majority voting yes would carry the force of law. It is being promoted by a movement called "Tax Cannabis," designed to appeal to those voters who refuse to allow tax hikes, or a curtailment of government services, and have sent the state into near-bankruptcy.
Estimates are that sales of marijuana total US$14-billion every year. Proponents talk about a US$1.4-billion tax on sales, but if the stuff is taxed the same as cigarettes or liquor the government's take could be up to US$14-billion. ( The state's deficit last year was US$42-billion. )
A tax on marijuana could be real money.
The "Governator" is leaving and the two principal competitors for the job of running a state the economic size of France are both opposed to legalization. But that doesn't matter in the wacky world of "neverendums" in California.
Since the latest referendum forbid new taxes or cost cutting, the result has been release of prisoners before sentences are completed and a host of other loopy goings-on, including paying suppliers with IOUs, not real money.
And the state is halfway there now. It legalized medical marijuana use in the late 1990s.
This has pitted California against the federal government's Drug Enforcement Agency, which has continued to harass and arrest pot growers on the basis that some are a little too aggressive in their marketing techniques.
Outright legalization will escalate this federal-state squabble, but Barack Obama was sympathetic to lifting controls on pot during his election campaign.
And for good reason. The substance is less harmful than alcohol and could raise a bunch of tax dollars. Besides, Prohibition didn't work in the 1920s and it doesn't work now.
It's silly that prisons and paddy wagons throughout the United States are unfortunately full of people busted for a little bit of pot that sells openly on Vancouver, or Toronto, street corners, as well as in most parts of the world.
I predict that once California makes it legal, other states and provinces will too, notably British California
News Hawk: Warbux 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Cannabis News
Author: Diane Francis
Contact: Cannabis News - Medical Marijuana, Marijuana News, Hemp, Cannabis
Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Website: California Dreaming of Pot Tax Bonanza | Cannabis News - Medical Marijuana, Marijuana News, Hemp, Cannabis
