Six months after marijuana legalization: Colorado tax revenue skyrockets as crime falls

a reply to: tothetenthpower

I read the article, but only glanced over the responses -- maybe this point has already been made.

It seems like the title of this thread, and subsequent comments here, don't reflect what the article is really saying here:

“The sky hasn’t fallen, but we’re a long way from knowing the unintended consequences,” said Andrew Freeman, director of marijuana coordination for Colorado. “This is a huge social and economic question.”

This could be a SLOW POISON for society that takes years or a generation or more to assess. So we need to be cautious, and not be overly optimistic IMO. First indications are not bad -- we have an initial high here -- but that is what drugs are all about.

Let's review in another year or three, and then we will have a better understanding. We might find that this Colorado experiment was a major contributor to the full and irreversible breakdown of our society. Or not. We will have to see.

originally posted by: Flesh699

originally posted by: crazyewok

originally posted by: wantsome
Useless dopehead propaganda. Dopeheads will say anything to push their agenda so they can say how harmless the drug is. I use to be one of the people that said the same stuff. Having smoked the stuff for years and having known people that smoked it it is far from harmless.

It like Alcohol.

If you use it heavily and regularly it will harm.

I know those that use it irregularly and it doesn't harm them.

It about how you use it not if you use it.

@ you and mostly wantsome. Yeeeeeeea no. It does nothing if used years and years and years. I know this from experience. It may do a little to your lungs but not much else. If you actually had experience like you claim, you wouldn't even post such nonsense. It's highly ironic everyone b**** about a plant that has grown and has the right to grow on our planet, yet we still call ourselves civilized and attempt to ban a plant that has a natural right to be here.... not only that, but I'm fairly certain we're harming ourselves to a much LARGER degree with the crap we shove down our throats that we call 'food.' But no one outlaws that crap and nom nom nom with smiles.

I wasn't talking about banning it.

And I already said responsible use wont harm.

I have no problem with people using it

But if you use strong skunk multiple every day for years it will screw your brain up.

You wouldn't drink a pint of Vodka a day will you?

Learn to read.

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
.

Too much of anything isn't good.

Exactly.

Nothing wrong in using it just how you use it.

I like Vodka, doesnt mean Il drink a bottle of Vodka a day.

a reply to: ImaFungi

I have no idea. As I said earlier I am not for/against this. If people want to do it and they do not infringe on others freedoms, fine with me. Honestly, I like the idea of greater latitude on the part of citizens.

I am just skeptical of the glitter and unicorn nonsense being voiced by those whose recreation is now legal in that state.

A lot of tax is payed on this. Those taxes go to the same inept bureaucracy as any other mismanaged taxes. But now all of a sudden it is good news? How long before this whole thing is muscled out by corporations who will find ways to no longer pay the taxes?

This is only a momentary step in the right direction.

a reply to: neo96

And the vast majority of Americans can't wait.

Let me ask you a question, one that I'm genuinely interested in hearing the answer to.

How does it feel to be on the wrong side of history? Something truly historical is happening globally, and you stand stalwartly opposed to in the face of overwhelming opposition. When the inevitable happens and cannabis is legalized globally, are you just going to accept it and get on with your live, or will you continue to seek to legislate your morality?

It's long...but makes a hard case to beat. He says that in the future they are projected to make around 100 million in revenue and instead of building schools, hospitals or improving infrastructure, the first goal will be funding public safety and awareness. Use the money it generates to first fortify they long road they laid out for themselves. Seems like a pretty sensible guy.

a reply to: Axial Leader

I would agree with you, if only the US was the first nation to think these things up.

They aren't.

Legalized pot has been a thing in Europe for many years and has not caused significant increases in any real problems. True it hasn't been attempted in populations as large as the overall USA, but using states as a launching ground will actually make it easier to solve the issues that do arise.

Nobody said that there won't be problems, and adjustments that need to be made. It's just that all the " it'll destroy America" type problems, aren't real and opponents need to focus on the real issues if they want their voices heard.

~tenth

a reply to: Axial Leader

Another year or three? Are you completely daft, have your faculties left you? We have thousands of years of safe use by humans and an overwhelming mountain of evidence disproving your doomsday theory about social collapse due to THC use. Do you consume alcohol?

Good news and thanks for sharing here. Am guessing similar, or at least hope so, will be seen in Wash. State as time goes on, studies ensue, especially needed for some crime laden areas. Shops for example are just opening, so the industry tax wise is a bit behind Colorado.

originally posted by: beezzer

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: beezzer

Whether you're right, or wrong in this, it is something that needs thought.

Not to is stupidity writ large.

I didn't create this term or issue all by myself. It's something commonly ignored. What's a few thousand children's deaths or disabilities?

Taxes are coming in, people are feeling mild, and crime is dropping!

I apologize, in advance, if what i'm about to say offends anyone. It's just my opinion.

I honestly believe that the eventual gains are worth the losses and that the gradual societal acceptance of cannabis will be of such great benefit that the "pro"s will greatly outweigh the "con"s. This, of course, would not be true to the parents of an affected child. But to everyone else it would. These utilitarian type scenarios are not only prevalent throughout history, they exist in our everyday lives. Collateral damage is an invariable, but unfortunate, part of reality.

The recent changes of laws and restrictions have allowed for the progression of hemp related production and industry (Google; hemp products). This, in my opinion, is only possible through the lifting of the negative stigma regarding marijuana/cannabis. A deeply rooted stigma created by lies, fear and just plain ol' ignorance.

Peace

originally posted by: MarlinGrace


My issue has always been the same, someone driving down the frwy. big smile, steering wheel in one hand and a joint in the other, and everyone pulling along side wondering wtf. And I only say this because people can't be responsible, its your body I could care less, but when it affects me then no thats not fair. For me its the same with anything like that alcohol included.

Well congratulations. I just hit the ATS Trifecta.

Three responses to me, and every one of them kind, responsible and coherent...rare these days...myself included

I chose this paragraph because I do absolutely understand your view on this. THIS is where I wish I had an answer but admittedly do not. I have no problem with people consuming but yes when you become a danger to others then you must answer for it. I feel that if someone is high and wrecks, killing another, I have absolutely no problem throwing the book at them

But then, as you are smart enough to probably already be aware, there is one teensy problem with THC that causes problems for both police AND consumers

Let's say this guy gets high and wrecks his car and kills a passenger or pedestrian or whatever. Now, if he were drunk, a simple BAL or breathalyzer will tell us right away that this guy was DUI and should therefore be charged.

The problem is, THC stays in the system so I wonder, how can the police or agencies tell if this guy who wrecked just puffed or did it two days ago and wrecked for unrelated reasons? So Yeah I see that problem and as for your last paragraph, I agree...that becomes an issue

a reply to: ZeroReady

same way kids know not to drink vodka even though it looks like water. if kids are going round eating and drinking whatever they see without even asking then its a problem with the parenting

originally posted by: KyoZero

originally posted by: MarlinGrace


My issue has always been the same, someone driving down the frwy. big smile, steering wheel in one hand and a joint in the other, and everyone pulling along side wondering wtf. And I only say this because people can't be responsible, its your body I could care less, but when it affects me then no thats not fair. For me its the same with anything like that alcohol included.

Well congratulations. I just hit the ATS Trifecta.

Three responses to me, and every one of them kind, responsible and coherent...rare these days...myself included

I chose this paragraph because I do absolutely understand your view on this. THIS is where I wish I had an answer but admittedly do not. I have no problem with people consuming but yes when you become a danger to others then you must answer for it. I feel that if someone is high and wrecks, killing another, I have absolutely no problem throwing the book at them

But then, as you are smart enough to probably already be aware, there is one teensy problem with THC that causes problems for both police AND consumers

Let's say this guy gets high and wrecks his car and kills a passenger or pedestrian or whatever. Now, if he were drunk, a simple BAL or breathalyzer will tell us right away that this guy was DUI and should therefore be charged.

The problem is, THC stays in the system so I wonder, how can the police or agencies tell if this guy who wrecked just puffed or did it two days ago and wrecked for unrelated reasons? So Yeah I see that problem and as for your last paragraph, I agree...that becomes an issue

I don't know much about testing, my brother gets tested every 6 months for his job and he tells me in your hair they can tell back to 6 months. But I do get a good laugh from him because he cares not about his diet and being diabetic he should be very careful. But apparently there are foods that trigger the test to make it appear you smoke pot, one was poppy seeds I think. Those he is careful with. I could see how that would be a problem.

Thanks for the kind words, it is getting harder to discuss without contention around here. Often times its easier for people to attack the person instead of the issue. You made it easy. Thanks again.

a reply to: MarlinGrace

apparently there are foods that trigger the test to make it appear you smoke pot, one was poppy seeds I think.

Poppy seeds will sometimes cause a false positive for opiates.
Hair samples can go back even further than 6 months...depending on the drug. With cannabis it can be years, not just months. There are hair sample tests that can even pinpoint with a high degree of accuracy, the amount of time it has been since one used a certain substance. I am not sure how this would work with cannabis, but I know with opiates and the like, they can determine levels of the drug within the body and from that get a date (not an exact date but fairly close)....

UA's (urine analysis) are the most likely to garner false positives. They are not reliable and are easily side-stepped by those that do hard drugs (not cannabis) while the cannabis users are the ones that suffer (testing at work, etc) because THC lingers in the fatty tissue of the body. THC attaches to that fatty tissue and, depending on usage, can linger in the body for a few months (heavy users of larger size)...

Just thought I'd throw that in there.....
There seems to be a lot of misinformation in regards to drug testing....

On topic.....I am an advocate of legalized cannabis. Period. I need not say any more (my views on this are biased)
There is ton of therapeutic and medicinal value in cannabis, value that is only now being seen by the masses (cover-ups, lies, fear campaigns, etc etc...have stifled, for years, a substance that could benefit many in SO many ways).....it is only a matter of time before it is as normalized as alcohol, a drug that is FAR more dangerous than cannabis. A drug that will NOT go away and one that I know first-hand destroys lives, families, communities, and thus...in many ways, societies.

I always seen the hypocrisy in the illegality of cannabis and the legal status of alcohol....from a very young age.
It might have been the one thing that set me off on a journey to find the truth outside of established channels. Then I happened upon the internet (I live in what was, at that time, a fairly isolated area full of bible belt type "christians") and realized that many others felt the same way and saw the same things....At that moment I realized I had always been lied to. I have spent the last decade and a half trying to dig deeper into the truths hidden from us all....

I have cannabis to thank, come to think of it.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: tothetenthpower

Yet the moral fabric of America remains un-tainted.

Untainted eh?

Not so fast.

B erkeley Requires Marijuana Dispensaries To Provide Free Weed For ***Low-Income Patients***

As a sign of things to come.

For those that ***want to do this thing***.

...

So they rob from the rich, and give to the less' fortunate' for everyone gets to have a ***good time***.

....

The ***moral decline*** of America is going ahead FULL STEAM.

As a sign of things to come.

And IT IS coming.

I'm afraid to say that you're so far off the mark that you're almost out of sight. The whole point is to provide free medicine to those who are less well-off. The money saved by replacing fantastically expensive pharmaceuticals with cannabis alone would be staggering.

Cannabis is an antifungal, antibacterial, analgesic, anoretic, anti-diabetic, antidepressant, anti-emetic, anti-epileptic, anti-inflammatory, anti-insomnia, anti-ischemetic, anti-oxidant, anti-proliferative, antipsioratic, antipsychotic, antispasmodic, anxiolytic, appetite stimulant, bone stimulant, bronchodilatory, anti gastroesophageal reflux, immunostimulant, immunosuppressive, intestinal anti-prokinetic, neuroprotectant, vasorelaxant, and an antipyretic.

Go ahead and name just one man-made chemically synthesised alternative that can boast all of these properties, with the same safety record as cannabis, and moreover, that can be produced by anyone for mere pennies.

You seem to be under the impression that medicinal cannabis users 'want' to have to medicate, and that they are having a 'good time'. I speak to medicinal cannabis users daily, suffering from illnesses' ranging from MS and chron's disease through to various types of cancers, and if I've learn't one thing in all my years of studying cannabis and it's medicinal actions (phytocannabinoid pharmacodynamics), it's that these folk would rather not have to medicate at all.

Pharmaceutical drugs kill more people each year than all of illicit drug use combined while cannabis has never directly killed a single soul, and the masses are fast waking up to this disturbing fact.

You talk about America being in 'moral decline', in what possible way is it immoral to provide one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man, produced for pennies, for free to deserving patients?

I see recent events as a step in the right direction, and I fully embrace and welcome these. Cannabis is not new, it has been a part of human kinds pharmacopoeia for millennia, and it is rightfully retaking it's place as a valuable tool in the doctors tool chest.

Peace

originally posted by: pr0ph3t
a reply to: ZeroReady

same way kids know not to drink vodka even though it looks like water. if kids are going round eating and drinking whatever they see without even asking then its a problem with the parenting

Ok so you don't have kids. Trust me, if they can find it, they will play with it/eat it/try to shove it up their nose. It isn't just a problem with parenting, though it's the biggest part of it. Of course the parents are ultimately responsible for the well being of their kids. But you don't understand kids.

The ability of a kid to figure something out is directly proportionate to how dangerous it is for them.

a reply to: Axial Leader
Plus, like I said earlier, the jury's still out. Washington state isn't having that great a time of it.

originally posted by: Jakal26
a reply to: MarlinGrace

apparently there are foods that trigger the test to make it appear you smoke pot, one was poppy seeds I think.

Poppy seeds will sometimes cause a false positive for opiates.
Hair samples can go back even further than 6 months...depending on the drug. With cannabis it can be years, not just months. There are hair sample tests that can even pinpoint with a high degree of accuracy, the amount of time it has been since one used a certain substance. I am not sure how this would work with cannabis, but I know with opiates and the like, they can determine levels of the drug within the body and from that get a date (not an exact date but fairly close)....

UA's (urine analysis) are the most likely to garner false positives. They are not reliable and are easily side-stepped by those that do hard drugs (not cannabis) while the cannabis users are the ones that suffer (testing at work, etc) because THC lingers in the fatty tissue of the body. THC attaches to that fatty tissue and, depending on usage, can linger in the body for a few months (heavy users of larger size)...

Just thought I'd throw that in there.....
There seems to be a lot of misinformation in regards to drug testing....

On topic.....I am an advocate of legalized cannabis. Period. I need not say any more (my views on this are biased)
There is ton of therapeutic and medicinal value in cannabis, value that is only now being seen by the masses (cover-ups, lies, fear campaigns, etc etc...have stifled, for years, a substance that could benefit many in SO many ways).....it is only a matter of time before it is as normalized as alcohol, a drug that is FAR more dangerous than cannabis. A drug that will NOT go away and one that I know first-hand destroys lives, families, communities, and thus...in many ways, societies.

I always seen the hypocrisy in the illegality of cannabis and the legal status of alcohol....from a very young age.
It might have been the one thing that set me off on a journey to find the truth outside of established channels. Then I happened upon the internet (I live in what was, at that time, a fairly isolated area full of bible belt type "christians") and realized that many others felt the same way and saw the same things....At that moment I realized I had always been lied to. I have spent the last decade and a half trying to dig deeper into the truths hidden from us all....

I have cannabis to thank, come to think of it.

Thanks for the education, and we always learn more with an open mind.

originally posted by: centhwevir1979
a reply to: Axial Leader
Another year or three? Are you completely daft, have your faculties left you?

Okay - At the risk of incurring further anger and hostility over my gentle disagreement with the "legalize pot" team here at ATS, let me just clarify my position a bit more:

Yes -- you have to be "daft" to think Marijuana should be criminalized. No argument there.

HOWEVER -- this thread fails to take into account that addiction is a very severe human condition that destroys a lot of lives, introducing a new type of addiction into society is a type of murder for some people.

It is a big jump to go from decriminalizing marijuana to green-lighting nice little pot boutiques filled with cool sounding products mixed with candy and pastries.

How many people's lives can be cast-off just to satisfy a new and wonderful type of addiction? Are we willing to destroy 1% of the population? How about 0.2% or 10% of the population?

To be clear -- some people can handle an addiction better than others. Good, intelligent, honest and worthwhile people are laid to waste every year by alcohol. Ruined. It is a metabolic type of thing. If they pull themselves out of that (as is quite possible) they will still be living a type of unnecessary torment for all their days on earth because of the way society promotes and accepts a drug they are physically unable to handle through no fault of their own.

I don't think I am wrong in saying we need to move very cautiously here -- there is a middle ground between putting someone in jail for marijuana possession, and removing all reasonable limits -- actually ENCOURAGING a new type of addiction. The consequences of that might be worse than you think right now.

So this is not really my thread, and I don't want to end on a discouraging note. I am sure someone will have the last word here. I just wanted to point out that there may be some serious unintended consequences coming -- exactly what was said in the original article.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

I'm afraid to say that you're so far off the mark that you're almost out of sight. The whole point is to provide free medicine to those who are less well-off. The money saved by replacing fantastically expensive pharmaceuticals with cannabis alone would be staggering. Cannabis is an antifungal, antibacterial, analgesic, anoretic, anti-diabetic, antidepressant, anti-emetic, anti-epileptic, anti-inflammatory, anti-insomnia, anti-ischemetic, anti-oxidant, anti-proliferative, antipsioratic, antipsychotic, antispasmodic, anxiolytic, appetite stimulant, bone stimulant, bronchodilatory, anti gastroesophageal reflux, immunostimulant, immunosuppressive, intestinal anti-prokinetic, neuroprotectant, vasorelaxant, and an antipyretic. Go ahead and name just one man-made chemically synthesised alternative that can boast all of these properties, with the same safety record as cannabis, and moreover, that can be produced by anyone for mere pennies. You seem to be under the impression that medicinal cannabis users 'want' to have to medicate, and that they are having a 'good time'. I speak to medicinal cannabis users daily, suffering from illnesses' ranging from MS and chron's disease through to various types of cancers, and if I've learn't one thing in all my years of studying cannabis and it's medicinal actions (phytocannabinoid pharmacodynamics), it's that these folk would rather not have to medicate at all. Pharmaceutical drugs kill more people each year than all of illicit drug use combined while cannabis has never directly killed a single soul, and the masses are fast waking up to this disturbing fact. You talk about America being in 'moral decline', in what possible way is it immoral to provide one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man, produced for pennies, for free to deserving patients? I see recent events as a step in the right direction, and I fully embrace and welcome these. Cannabis is not new, it has been a part of human kinds pharmacopoeia for millennia, and it is rightfully retaking it's place as a valuable tool in the doctors tool chest.

My God, this is an excellent post!
Worth repeating, time and time again....