Even the right is seeing the light! :banana: – http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/grover-norquist-gives-thumbs-up-to-pot-taxes-20131024
Good news for Republicans who want to legalize marijuana: Taxing pot is A-OK with Grover Norquist, the keeper of the anti-tax pledge that hundreds of GOP lawmakers have signed.
Last month, Norquist joined Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., two of Congress’s most outspoken drug-policy reformers, to push a plan that would allow marijuana-related businesses to write off their business expenses. The federal tax code considers state-approved dispensaries drug traffickers, even in the 20-plus states that have medical marijuana or full legalization. Norquist, Blumenauer, and Rohrabacher want to put an end to that.
But it raises a question: Would legalizing and taxing marijuana violate the pledge not to raise taxes?
After all, the Americans for Tax Reform pledge states, "I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." States that have already moved to legalize marijuana, such as Washington and Colorado, plan to levy steep excise taxes on the drug.
But Norquist tells National Journal that lawmakers who signed the pledge and want to legalize and tax cannabis are in the clear. "That’s not a tax increase. It’s legalizing an activity and having the traditional tax applied to it," he says.
He compares legalization to changes in alcohol regulation, as when a state legalizes the sale of liquor on Sundays or allows grocery stores to sell beer and wine where they previously couldn’t.
"When you legalize something and more people do more of it and the government gets more revenue because there’s more of it … that’s not a tax increase," he explains. "The tax goes from 100 percent, meaning its illegal, to whatever the tax is."
At 25 percent on three levels of sales (on top of the state’s standard sales tax of 8.75 percent), Colorado’s marijuana tax is significantly higher than its levy on alcohol, but it’s all the "same zone," says Norquist.
A new Gallup poll out this week found that a record 58 percent of Americans favor legalization. The potential budgetary windfall has been enough to convince some libertarian-leaning Republicans like Rohrabacher to support what has traditionally been a liberal issue. If the experiments in Colorado and Washington work out, expect to see plenty of other states following in their wake. And now, thanks to Norquist, there’s one less obstacle.
And the momentum continues from all sides. DEA/WoD – can you feel the walls closing in on you? :nannah: LOSERS!!!
Adding a new Mary tax is not the same as raising Taxes..anyway I would be fine with a slight tax increase if it meant gaining the freedom to use Mary when and how I want to. that is a tax I could get behind.
I actually think it’s BS that the government thinks it has the right to tax a damn plant at all, but as long as I have the right to grow my own, I’m good. :Smokey:
Taxing marijuana is not necessarily a new thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marihuana_Tax_Act_of_1937
Of course there is this:
In 1967, President Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of justice opined, "The Act raises an insignificant amount of revenue and exposes an insignificant number of marijuana transactions to public view, since only a handful of people are registered under the Act. It has become, in effect, solely- a criminal law, imposing sanctions upon persons who sell, acquire, or possess marijuana."[21]
In 1969 in Leary v. United States, part of the Act was ruled to be unconstitutional as a violation of the Fifth Amendment, since a person seeking the tax stamp would have to incriminate him/herself.[22] In response the Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.[23] The 1937 Act was repealed by the 1970 Act.
Sail and grow
Deep inside
The brave align
Green we stay
-Boss Keloid Lung Valley
Understood, and I know the history. My issue is the ‘sin tax’ aspect of it. I have no problem if they were to stick a basic sales tax on selling pot just like any other commodity, but the thieves are going to jack it up as much as possible. Same as they do for alcohol and tobacco. As long as any legalization comes with the right to grow the kind personally, however, I’m good. It’s just too damn easy! :joint
If they do the same taxing the hell out of it like tobacco, people may just continue to buy from old connections rather than go to a state liquor store and pay an exorbitant and punitive sin tax. When the government gets involved in anything in a regulatory sense, costs are always prohibitive.
Sail and grow
Deep inside
The brave align
Green we stay
-Boss Keloid Lung Valley
I just want them to pass the damn law so that when I get caught with my own personal smoke I can say I bought it for overtaxed priced bullshit..lmao
:smokebanana :smokebanana :smokebanana :smokebanana :smokebanana :smokebanana :smokebanana :smokebanana :smokebanana
taxing is good, it means it will be very easy to buy as the profit motive is built in, money makes things happen……
Yes you can be a bootlegger and grow your own, but if the tax is reasonable, I accept it as much as taxes on alcohol.
The world is DOA, this is good news.
Don’t Date Robots! The world is trained to ignore everything unless it comes from the church, their TV, celebrities, or the media.
AINT NO PARTY LIKE A GROVER NORQUIST PARTY! :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: :weinerwiggle: