If it ever gets legalized (as opposed to decriminalized) here in the US the taxing authorities will have a field day. Who knows how many new wars they can fund, how many more "public servants" they can hire to sit on their ass, how many more regulations they can enforce...it makes me tired just thinking about it.

The source of revenue could become so important that growing it with out the proper permits would be right up there with crossing the IRS.

"No you can not grow that plant in your garden...you are threatening the tax life blodd of our oppressive regime"

Yes to decriminalization NO to legalization, regulation and taxation

Yes to legalization, regulation and taxation.

Yes to legalization, no to regulation and taxation.

just smoke 'em

this a big beef w/ Conyers & his letter to DEA;
you killing our tax revenue in CALLY.
knock it off
Cally needs this money it should break big soon

hard to tax personal growers (they might try) ; just like home made wine/beer
big war between fed/state taxes who knows where that will end.

i rape childrn

Like the article says" : 60% of liberal Dutch pot industry is black market product --and everybody there is a sweetheart= more than half of the production is pirate pot, 3 out of every 5 gramson a soft market is black market pot . A very easy climate of production & consumptionin the Netherlands has not eliminated the cannabis black market that the American stoners preach is the entire fault of prohibition

Thats why cannabis will never be legal in America...with so many guns smuggle tunnels and bad spirited players , even if pot was completely
leg l- we can see that at least >> 60% of any future legal American pot market would be black market- & likely even more than 60%

.. Pot is just too easy to grow. and distribute and there are just too many greedy pirate pot producers out there who won't go away

Prohibition has very little to do with it- a three generation culture of criminal underclass dealer cheaters has _everything to do with it

First thing in US would be to establish guidelines for production & distribution of medical cannabis....since 13 or so states have laws in place already, and then set up medical research programs with doctors, hospitals, & pharmaceutical R&D. Immediately implement study-programs addressing the urgent needs of patients with AIDS, cancers, suicidal Iraq War vets (with PTSD), Glaucoma, MS, etc etc

Next, move forward with industrial hemp production in US farming. It would be a shot in the arm to many financially strapped farmers in depressed rural regions. It could revolutionize paper, textiles, and wood products....making deforestation (cutting down more trees) obsolete. Easier to grow twice as much in a square acre than cotton, with more yield and less pesticides, and more cost-efficient than many other products now dependant on toxic processes to manufacture, such as wood-pulp paper and pressed wood (masonite, MD fibre board, etc).

Ethanol from high cellulose content male hemp could replace gasoline, and be less baneful to our global 'greenhouse' warming atmosphere.

It will take an act of Congress to get these two things, and likewise from the parliaments in European nations as well. Let's focus and work on these things which we have going in our Congress every year, and never let your US representative off the hook about these issues. There are 3 or 4 'House Bills' a year now, and every one is picking up momentum and support. E-mail your congress-persons every time one or the other comes up for a vote.

Issues like 'black-market', exporting (smuggling), etc just cloud the issue, and give starchy 'zero-tolerance' warriors fodder to support their argument: which is that to decrim/legalize it will make it MORE complicated and tangled.

Finally, lets conclude that the sales of medical cannabis in California since the medical exemption act passed raised over $100 million dollars in state sales taxes. The actual bulk sales price totals, minus the taxes, must be in the billions - an indication that there would be multi-billions a year in revenues for the economy if it ever was made legal and sold in stores.