Recreational marijuana in Colorado: What the numbers say about health, safety and tax dollars

Chicago Tribune ^ | May 30, 2019 | Robert McCoppin

[fwdude]

A bill to legalize recreational marijauna in Illinois needs only the signature of Gov. J.B. Pritzker to become law. Colorado has had legal recreational marijuana since 2014. The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice last year came out with an analysis of the effects of the state's legalization of retail sales of marijuana since it went into effect in 2014. It found teen use had not increased, but hospital visits and fatal accidents associated with marijuana use increased. The authors cautioned that many factors can influence the statistics in the report, including people's willingness to admit marijuana use now that it's legalized in the state. Here is a rundown of some of the major findings.

[monkeyshine]

It’s a sickness. Leftists everywhere are trying to legalize, regulate and tax every vice. In WA state, they taxed legal pot at the wholesale level. But by year 2 there was such a glut of supply that the wholesale prices fell by 2/3 to $7 a gram, which put them far short of the revenue expectations.

California attempted to fix that by a labyrinthine regulatory and permitting scheme where every plant is tagged and tracked from seedling to bud to retail counter - where it is taxed at the retail side. They have the opposite problem with the same results. Tax revenues came in about 35% of what they expected and there is a threat to the supply over permitting hiccups. Plus, the stuff doesn’t last very long.

Prohibition of weed lasted so long that there was a perfectly functioning black market. Even when there was ‘medical mj’ people with the card (which was easy to get) could buy in bulk from bulk - they sold it like peanuts and the amount was weighed in the clinic/store. Now, many of the stores only sell pre-packaged, radio tagged, bar coded, and expensive vacuum sealed at the factory weed. A lot more expensive, and cumbersome, making it better to just stick with a black market supplier. Revenue shortfall ensues. No “boon” for the state, or for the retailers.

It’s madness to try to regulate it so aggressively. Should just be decrminalized for adults, and severe penalties if you give/sell to children. Government doesn’t need their fingers in it.

Look around, everything that was once the purview of the mob is now the purview of the government. Speakeasies during Prohibition turned into licensed bars and package stores. Loan sharking is now payday loans, licensed by the state. Drugs, licensed and taxed by the state. Gambling/”the numbers” is now licensed mainly to Native Americans and state lotteries. Prostitution is next.

[cyclotic]

I had that exact conversation with my kids. Let a couple states do something and experiment. unfortunately, politicians are generally stupid and just jump on the bandwagon chasing the new shiny red ball

[Mariner]

“I’m wondering how the pro-pot libertarians spin this damning data?”

You mean the fact that there were fewer fatalities from drivers who were high?

From the article:

“A cannabinoid does not necessarily indicate impairment, only presence in the body. The percentage of fatal vehicle accidents in which a driver tested positive for Delta-9 THC at or above the legal limit of .5 ng/mL decreased from 52 in 2016 to 35 in 2017.”

And this in a state with ~4million people.

[discostu]

Are pilots allowed to drink before flight? Surgeons? The number of no smoking businesses keeps going up. Of course professional organizations can ban use of legal products. Well established jurisprudence.

[gundog]

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

[fwdude]

I’m not referring to performing professional services under the influence, but outright banning use among members.

[gundog]

People gonna people. What would you expect in a representative system of government?

[PGR88]

A good friend and her husband live in Colorado. They are in their 50’s

Met some of her young nieces recently - attractive, educated, intelligent women in their 20s.

They told me they and their friends are all single, and unless they specifically and purposely went to those few environments where men may be normal (church, professional workplaces) they said the chances of meeting a guy in Colorado who was not a stoner and a loser were ZERO.

[KC_Lion]

For your interest.

[gundog]

Doesn’t enter a lot of their minds. The local lake I fish has a good number of people that pull in, park, and get high. There’s one car I see nearly every day...probably students at the nearby college. They sit and laugh... the other day, I saw the driver open the door and pour out the bong water. After a while, they drive off.

[Erik Latranyi]

If the leftists did not demagogue the issue, they would favor increasing the tax on machine guns from $200 to $2000 just to have the extra revenue.

[monkeyshine]

I agree (I think). I’d expect people in a representative government to accept that different people do the things they gonna do - it’s perverse for pearl clutchers to try to use the law to ban it, and it’s sick for the authoritarians to try to profit from it.

Beef up the laws where they need to be beefed up - no pot for kids, no sex slavery, no rigged games. That’s what we need government for, to protect against exploitation and crimes where there is an obvious victim. Otherwise let people be. As we see, there is no end to the taxing schemes; the more they tax the more they need to tax. Now, I personally think the payola, favoritism, fealty, patronage system is so corrupted that taxpayers don’t get value for their money. But beyond that, the more we let the state in under their various rationales the sooner we find them asking for more.

[discostu]

So did I. Motorola does not hire smokers. Period. They put that in place over a decade ago.

[SanchoP]

I love these “stoner” vs “juicer” threads,just like high school.

[Sequoyah101]

The problem isn’t revenue. The problem is spending.

More money has never solved any public finance problem that I am aware of. More money seldom helps individuals either.

[Sequoyah101]

Oh that’s encouraging. Oklahoma and Arkansas have started their little shop of horrors journey into medical pot. I already had sticker shock coming from Texas.

[AppyPappy]

He cleaned a bong? Now I know you are lying.

[Sequoyah101]

States don’t seem to benchmark much at all. When they do they only cherry pick the things that make them look good so they can continue in the direction they are on. Any negatives they dismiss or wish away with flimsy excuses.

Most states are cesspools for graft, corruption and ignorance. They make the feds look like pikers in these departments.

[DoughtyOne]

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Just $236.00 dollars to 95.00%

[-YYZ-]

What stats? At least in this story, the only stat was that the number of fatals involving drivers with THC in their systems was up. Was the total number of fatal accidents up? Did they consistently test for this before?