I’ll muster one and half cheers for Eric Holder’s decision not to prosecute cannabis users who obey state “medical marijuana” laws. The good news is that we might be one step closer to legalizing a substance that has definite healing and pain-relieving properties and as recreational drug is more benign than booze. The bad news is that if legalization takes place, the federal government will tax marijuana till the seeds squeak, as Dan Flynn argued at Takimag a little while back.
A bud bureaucracy, dubbed the Cannabis Control Authority, would act as a quasi-judiciary/legislature/executive on all matters marijuana. Seven gubernatorial appointees, serving for seven-year terms at salaries 20 percent of the governor’s, would comprise the board. It would issue and revoke licenses, make rules, collect taxes, subpoena witnesses, and even refer to the courts for sixty days of jail time those who don’t cooperate with them—a penalty harsher than just about any marijuana-smoking scofflaw received before decriminalization went into effect on January 2. With an FBI investigation charging several high-profile Boston politicians with bribery in connection to meting out prized liquor licenses, it’s not difficult to see the marijuana trade going to pot once elected crooks get involved.
And small businessmen Mark and Charlie have no plans to open up their life’s work to elected crooks. “If you had to pay the licensing fee, it wouldn’t necessarily be cost prohibitive,” Mark concedes. “But with the taxes, your clientele is going to disappear. A lot of people would just balk at paying that.” Instead of patronizing overpriced, state-licensed dealers, legalization would perversely orient pot smokers toward the same underground dealers, like Mark and Charlie, that they have always relied on for ounces, quarter bags, and mere joints.
Paying tax on bong hits to fund banker bailouts sounds like a pretty terrible arrangement to me.
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It’s High Time!
I’ll muster one and half cheers for Eric Holder’s decision not to prosecute cannabis users who obey state “medical marijuana” laws. The good news is that we might be one step … [Read More]
Posted by Richard Spencer on October 19, 2009
The Usual Suspects