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How to NOT Legalize Cannabis


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Only California Could Expand The Black Market By Legalising Cannabis

 

https://www.continentaltelegraph.com/business/only-california-could-expand-the-black-market-by-legalising-cannabis/?fbclid=IwAR37HUc1QIsBUJ3QYR1Ck5jcvI3YQJsRh0zz1isWJRGX2t1KpkzkzK2Cs9o

 

Quite clearly if you just say that growing, buying, possessing and selling cannabis is now legal then

you’ve entirely destroyed the back market in cannabis. Sure, some people might then carry on

without paying taxes but that is, by definition, grey market, not black. And sure enough, people

will want to tax that now legal cannabis because politicians have a near unlimited desire for more of our money to spend.

 

But it takes real skill and talent to both make cannabis sales, growing, purchase and consumption

legal and yet also at the same time expand the black market. Of course, given that California

is the most progressive of the states, hires more into the bureaucracy, this is the place with the skills to be able to manage that feat:

 

In the forests of Northern California, raids by law enforcement officials continue to uncover illicit marijuana farms.

In Southern California, hundreds of illegal delivery services and pot dispensaries, some of them registered as churches,

serve a steady stream of customers. And in Mendocino County, north of San Francisco, the sheriff’s office recently

raided an illegal cannabis production facility that was processing 500 pounds of marijuana a day. It’s been a little

more than a year since California legalized marijuana — the largest such experiment in the United States — but law

enforcement officials say the unlicensed, illegal market is still thriving and in some areas has even expanded.

 

So, how do you manage to do this?

Well, first, you start with a fairly extensive black market. It’s long been said that pot was California’s second largest

product, or largest agricultural one, that sort of number at least. Then you add the sort of regulations and licensing

regime that a progressive bureaucracy thinks is necessary. Add the sort of tax rates that progressives demand.

And you get that legal and expanding grey market. Actually, given that they’re ignoring all that regulation as well, a black market.

 

Yep, it really is true, Californian regulation can be worse than outright black markets.

 

Now many cannabis businesses are reluctant to go through the cumbersome and costly process

to obtain the licenses that became mandatory last year.

Yep, bureaucracy is worse than running an illegal – and sometimes dangerous – business. Well done the politicians then.

His dispensary pays a cumulative state and local tax rate of 32.25 percent. Unlicensed shops pay no tax.
Who is surprised then?

 

Actually, we could predict this. There’s a reason why nowhere even tries to have a VAT rate above 25%.

Because the temptation to simply ignore it and work illegally will be too strong. Don’t forget, every tax has its own

Laffer Curve rate peak and the one for consumption taxes is lower than that for income.

 

But, you know, progressive California. The place where legalising pot increases the size of the black market for pot. Well done to the governing classes, eh?

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like i have said before,

 

what is wrong with just saying 

 

"i now make this plant Not Illegal".

 

and let the free market decide where things go.

 

let there be dispensaries to purchase from, tax n all.

 

let there be co ops where people cant grow can join, for a fee.

 

let there be back yard growers to barter with other back yard growers.

 

black market, white market, green market, they all have a place, but

 

just say those words and 

 

let the cards fall where they fall i say.

 

is this not to much to ask for?

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great article MT ... thanks. :)

 

i think canada is having some teething problems as well ...

 

Canada's legal weed struggles to light up as smokers stick to black market

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/17/canada-cannabis-stores-sales-black-market-dealers

 

Six months after legalisation, licensed producers are unable to keep up with the demand or quality of neighborhood dealers.

‘We lose money every day that we don’t have product on the shelf,’ said Trevor Tobin, who operates a store in Labrador. Photograph: Ian Willms/Getty Images

When Melissa, a resident of Halifax, Nova Scotia, went to one of Canada’s first government cannabis stores, she wasn’t impressed. “You can’t look at what they have. You can’t smell the product,” she said. “It’s too expensive.”

 

And so she, like tens of thousand of other Canadians, went back to their old habits: buying from neighbourhood dealers.

 

Six months after Canada became the first G7 country to legalise marijuana, the bold experiment is still struggling to get off the ground.

Legal producers were unable to meet the sudden surge in demand, and struggled for weeks to fill orders, leaving marijuana stores with empty shelves.

As a result, the vast majority of cannabis sales in the country – roughly $5bn – are made on the illegal markets, compared to $2bn in legal sales, according to government figures from January 2019.

 

Ahead of legalization, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had argued that the move would nearly eliminate the black market, which he said funnelled money into organized crime.

But with so little cannabis to sell, licensed operators across the country have had to turn away potential customers, sending them instead to the black market.

“When I’m sold out, they’re still gonna find a product somewhere,” said Trevor Tobin, who operates the High North marijuana store in Labrador with his mother, Brenda. Tobin said running a legal cannabis business has been an “ongoing struggle” in the face of persistent shortages. “It’s hard to keep employees behind the counter when they’re not selling any product – and we lose money every day that we don’t have product on the shelf.” The Tobins are also competing against illegal “grey market” stores, which alongside marijuana sell edibles and hashish – items that licensed stores cannot yet offer.

A number of government outlets and licensed private stores have also faced complaints that their products do not match the quality of the black market.

“The product I got smelt like barn hay and was just as dry,” wrote one user on the site WeedMaps, reviewing Toronto’s first bricks-and-mortar locations, The Hunny Pot. “The only reason I’ll go back is to get a refund for this purchase.”

 

Melissa agreed: “I found it was really dry. And you feel like you’re getting less as a result. It kind of feels like you’re getting ripped off.” Even her friend, who works at a government store, gets his cannabis from an illegal supplier.

 

Canadians who purchase their cannabis from illegal sources also save a significant amount of money: the average price for a gram of illegal cannabis is 36% cheaper than its legal counterpart, Statistics Canada has found.

 

“As long as that price differential exists, there will likely be a black market – because people will go to where they can get a deal,” said Rosalie Wynoch, a policy analyst at the CD Howe Institute, a conservative thinktank. “The government was aware that it wouldn’t fully displace the black market on day one.” She and others suspect the black market will persist for at least another two years, as it did when Colorado legalised cannabis.

Canada is still grappling with how to treat people convicted under the country’s previous laws.

 

The government has promised to pardon 500,000 Canadians with minor cannabis convictions – but the current rules are still not enough, said Murray Rankin of the New Democratic party and member of the parliamentary justice committee. Rankin has become a vocal advocate of expunging the records of those with convictions.

 

“The niceties of the human rights legislation may not be something you’re aware of,” he said. “Even if you were the victim of discrimination, tell me how many people are going to go to the human rights commission with their complaint and deal with it? Frankly not that many.” Rankin also points to the uncomfortable reality of policing in Canada: visible minorities are over-represented in the number of minor cannabis convictions. “The disproportionate impact on the hundreds of thousands of Canadians … is something that really should motivate us to not just do the half measure the government’s talked about, but fully expunge so people can get on with their lives,” he said.

 

Canada will begin the second stage of legalization – the sale of edibles and cannabis-infused drinks – in October.

Edited by pug1010
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