MARIJUANA TAXES

With Washington And Colorado legalizing Marijuana, several things pop out of my mind.

 Historically, Two things were strictly outlawed. Three if you include prohibition. First gambling was considered sinful and quick way to break up families. Then they figured out how to tax it. Suddenly it wasn't so bad after all. So the states jumped in, no longer piously  against it and even promoting it.

Now we come to Marijuana. This is still classified as a hard drug by the Federal codes. It isn't even addictive, yet holier than thou types still lie to themselves and to us. My take on this government blumder is that the Viet Nam War and the protests that accompanied it were part of the drug culture, therefor anything connected to protest had to be horrible.

Zoom to the 21st century and suddenly the states that have legalized it are dry washing their hands in anticipation of a tax bonanza. Washington states that there are three levels of taxaion. The grower, the processor and the retail sale. At each level a 25% tax is imposed. This is not just 75%, because it compounds and ends up at about 94%. Whoopti doo. Now the state is competing against the Mexican private enterprise to the extent  that legal pot may end jp being more expensive that state controlled product.

This could end ju[ being a bidding or price war between the legal growth and sales and the existing underground sales. I think that the greed of the respective governments outweighs any moral objections.

Stay tuned. This could get interesting.