Posted on 01/04/2014 9:02:25 PM PST by Ken H
A few days into the experiment, the new world of legal recreational marijuana sales in Colorado appears to be a big success—so much so that pot shops are finding it impossible to keep up with demand.
According to the Denver Post, at least 37 stores in Colorado were licensed to sell recreational pot to anyone 21 or over as of New Year’s Day. The Associated Press and others reported long lines outside Denver pot shops, with some eager customers forced to wait three to five hours before getting a chance to go inside, step up to the counter, and make a purchase.
Prices have been steep—in some cases, stores were charging $50 or even $70 for one-eighth of an ounce of pot that cost medical marijuana users just $25 the day before—and taxes add on an extra 20% or so. Even so, sales have been brisk.
The two operational pot shops in Pueblo collectively sold $87,000 of marijuana on January 1, per the Pueblo Chieftain, and store owners say that if demand persists anywhere near the current high, they’ll be sold out in the very near future.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.time.com ...
I don’t like them or dislike them until I meet them.
Half of my nearest neighbors light up, and except for a couple profess conservative politics. Retired veterans, for the most part.
“I wonder how long until people start getting robbed so someone can buy more pot for themselves.”
Probably never. Pot prices are not so high (no pun intended) to be unaffordable. A pot high is also not a craving that send potheads out to rob. Pot is all over the place in every State as it is. Any kid, your kids, can get pot anytime they want. In fact, they can get pot as easier than they can get cigarettes.
People are making this Colorado thing sound like pot doesn’t exist anywhere and Colorado is magically importing what doesn’t already exist.
“The sad part is that pot is a “gateway” drug. “
No, it isn’t. People heard the term “gateway drug” and now arrogantly think they now know everything about the progression of drug use.
All these argument about pot were said about alcohol after booze was once again made legal.
“so we pricing out people who can use it for legit medical purposes.”
Pricing is about $12 per gram, same as it has always been. The difference is the 21.5% State sales tax now applied to pot.
I’d say for the price, losing the risk of going to jail, reducing the massive taxpayer costs for prisons, cops, and SWAT teams, must be well worth it.
A significant benefit to Colorado is that the Mexican cartels are gone. Gone. Poof. Overnight. The government doesn’t like to talk about that as it cuts into their empire of “law enforcement”. The Mexican cartels cannot compete with legal pot much less legal pot that has been tested to be free of disease and pure in form. Mexican pot is stems and seeds and full of garbage like pesticides. The pot sold in Colorado must be tested for purity. The reducing in crime has been the main benefit here and no one talks much about it.
“The dealer black market in Colorado is going to expolde. “
Nope. It is too highly regulated with microscopic oversight, and dealers can have their licenses evoked fairly quickly. They worked hard to get the licenses and will not risk losing it.
As far as removing pot out of State, well, let the other States deal with their laws. It’s none of Colorado’s business.
“It is the non-white vote that almost always creates the margin for landslide Democrat victories.”
Colorado is about the same as you see in Seattle: 45% of whites vote Republican, leaving 55% voting Democrap. Whites are the primary reason we are a purple State, not because of minorities.
“The central question is whether those stores which now sell legal weed will be testing their own employees.”
Why would they and why would that be a central issue? Why wouldn’t a business want their employees to use the products they sell?
“. Even if we don’t agree with their agenda, we shouldn’t be too proud to take a few pointers from their successes.”
There are a tremendous number of lessons to be learned by what happened here.
” I don’t consider pot that big a deal”
One of the major social impacts about making pot legal is that it is no longer “cool”. It will some time for that impact to kick in but already there has been the “So what? Anyone can get it” mentality going around.
I don’t know a single person that did not smoke pot prior to 1 January that is running out to buy it now. I am sure there are some people that will, but it just isn’t a big deal in the general population. We’re just not pot smoker types in the first place.
“Try and build freedom with a drugged populace.”
The founding fathers did: They were heavy drinkers.
Ditto your entire post #108. My view of all this is exactly the same, minus I was never a pot smoker. It just never interested me.
Perhaps he is now called 'Congressman'...
***Legal pot costing plenty more than the black market. A windfall for state tax coffers.***
So, will the state do something, like put a dye on the legal pot to differentiate between taxed pot and smuggled pot?
They put dye in untaxed diesel and gasoline to show the difference between off road and road fuels.
***CO gun control laws.***
Wonder if these laws affect Indian reservations in Colorado?
It was Indians who realized they could violate STATE LAWS and build casinos on their land.
Indians have SMOKE SHOPS on their land selling untaxed tobacco.
Indians have the right to hunt game out of season on and off the Rez.
Indians comiting crimes often run onto reservations where state officials cannot get them. The FEDs can, but not the state.
Wonder if Indians could sell high cap rifle magazines and machine guns, silencers, ammo on the rez to anyone in states where such things are illegal.
No way. Pot smokers and brownie munchers would object to inhaling or ingesting a foreign substance in their weed. The dye may be harmful to their health.
It smells HORRIBLE. I can’t stand to even walk past some geni-A@@ who’s smoking it on the sidewalk. It makes me cough. So do tobacco products.
A Congressman over a Fortune 500 CEO? Pah! He'd be a mere SHADOW of his former self.
.
So sorry for the pun. I couldn't resist. The devil made me do it. (Flip Wilson)
Heh, heh...
I see I forgot the /s tag on my post.
You bring up something that I' really like to see some studies done on once this has been in place for a while. Should be really interesting.
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