This will work out, dependent dopers who are avoiding work but have a life of leisure, now are contributing their welfare or black market “bread” to the dealers–the gov. The gov is taking a 25% cut, better than booze.
This will make most politicians salivate–more money to spend and spread around to buy more votes for the next cycle.
Government has reinvented the benefits of prohibition for centralized gov, which is now the dealer of recreational substances.
Will other drugs of recreation be far behind–what’s wrong with a little hash hish or peyote, or pcp or meth?
http://www.voanews.com/content/legal-marijuana-in-colorado-good-for-business-worrisome-for-public-health/1854952.html
The claim that legalizing pot will generate more income for states in the final analysis remains to be seen. They do not factor in the costs to taxpayers for the new bureaucracies they are creating to regulate pot, enforce the taxes, etc. In Colorado, the projected costs for taxpayers were exhorbitant. Then, of course, it simply opens up a larger black market in pot to avoid taxes, creating the same problem of crime the whole idea was sold to the public to avoid.
The claim that legalizing pot is about personal freedom and liberty is disingenuious at best. That claim would only have credibility if if they legalized every food and substance – from cigarettes, alcohol to junk food – and let citizens truly take responsibility for their own choices without government regulations or taxes attempting to control behavior. If this was really about liberty and personal freedoms, of course, why would the argument for increasing taxes and bigger government hold any merit at all?