california's answer to bailout-new cash crop

glennster · Mar 13, 2009

read this on yahoo today. seems like callyfornya figgures out a way to help its ailing economy. grow pot!!! wow, i guess if you cant make money within the guidelines of the law, change the law!
poke here for article

rrlund · Mar 13, 2009

That's the way it always works. Money trumps morality. Especially when there are tax dollars to be made.

JackE · Mar 13, 2009

Idiots have oil bubbling up out of the ocean floor right off their coast. But no, they won't allow any more drilling for the oil that could help pull their economy out of the crapper. No, they won't do that, they'll come to the rest of us with their hands out looking for a bailout.
Jack

Anonymous-0 · Mar 13, 2009

Several people are quoted as saying it would be bad to have a society full of stoners.....I thought that was pretty much the case already in California.
California likes to say they lead the nation (as California goes so goes the nation). If so there's a new cash crop coming to farm country!

glennster · Mar 13, 2009

i'm wonderin, would you use a moco and round bale that stuff, or maybe a forage harvester and put it up a silage??? wonder if the cows would like it??

I need a handle · Mar 13, 2009

I don't know much of anything about drugs, but I believe they harvest just the "buds" of the female plants and then they dry it for their smoking.

Spook · Mar 13, 2009

I guess the idea of legalizing a drug is a moral question. The problem is that it is here, and outlawing it hasn't worked at all. And just like alcohol and prohibition, it is making criminals rich. I think that in the end, morality cannot be legislated, it has to be in your heart. Wow, I sound like a preacher....yikes!!!

RN · Mar 13, 2009

Just to liven things up I"ll take a contrary position. Any way a state can get money without stealing is valid- Pot smokers are not forced to buy it. State law already has the medical exemption- taxing is simple greed from politician. The federal laws are based on interstate commerce clause, already some lawyers saying federal prosecution of state licensed growers and distributers is unconstitutional. Netherlands laws regarding use and sanctioned sales seem to keep down the worst of prison crowding- the unlawful sales by some tourist provide prison labor to maintain dikes for a couple years- first hard labor some of the American tourists have done in their life.
Intersting experiment for a known medicinal plant-- as long as driving while stoned is still illegal then minimal harm to public, state thinking it would get some money now going to dealers. Look for Cocaine as next legalized push by fiscaly challenged state. (some humor here alert) RN

rrlund · Mar 13, 2009

Just don't start sounding like the Reverend JWright.

Traditional Farmer · Mar 13, 2009

Pot is already the largest cash crop in Calif so they may as well tax it.Also its probably better for you to smoke pot than drink alcohol or use tobacco

Robert NC · Mar 13, 2009

And some states that want to grow hemp can't get it legalized by the feds.

1936 · Mar 13, 2009

The number one crop in CA is yesterdays news for most just not taxed.

Spook · Mar 13, 2009

Yowsir!!! We be cool, man.

rustyj14 · Mar 13, 2009

Yep--and there we were--a-settin' on our sacks of seeds, a-grinning like we were all simpletons!

GeneMO · Mar 13, 2009

What did they say, it's worth 14 billion? Well that is only cause it's illegal!

Open it up, tax it, and everyone and his brother would start trying to grow it and it would be worth about $1billion. Of that 90% would go to taxes and regulation and the farmers would end up with 10%.

Then we would have to be paying the pot farmers LDP and CCC loans. They would have to report their acres, plant date and yields. Would it be eligible for the FSA's new ACRES and SURE programs? Could they buy a NAP policy on it? Then I would have to learn how to adjust the crop insurance losses. Wonder how you do quality adjustment on Wacky Tabacky?

Opens up too many questions.

Gene

Wesley Stephens · Mar 13, 2009

In most, if not all, of our country, marijuana is readily available and there is no real control over it. Kind of like Prohibition. The laws in place for its control are completely ineffective, so they might as well legalize and tax it and take the black market super-profits out of it. It would save the taxpayers tons of money and the tax money could be used for prevention and drug treatment programs. Neal Boortz had a nice piece about the ineffectiveness of US cocaine control programs yesterday on the radio. I'm not advocating smoking it, but those who are going to smoke it are going to get it anyway. I'm kind of a live and let live sort of guy. If somebody is willing to take the risk involved with weed, that's their business as long as they don't bother anybody else.

california's answer to bailout-new cash crop

glennster

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JackE

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glennster

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I need a handle

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