I recently visited
Oregon and spent 10 days driving around the state. Very scenic.
However, one of the things that stood out on the trip was seeing
small stores in every town selling marijuana next to liquor stores,
dry cleaners and supermarkets. It’s apparently not a big thing out
there like it is in our state.
I stopped and went
into one of the stores to see what they were like and to ask
questions and satisfy my curiosity. It turned out to be an
interesting experience. The store was very nice, tastefully set up,
and not crowded with customers. In fact, during the half hour I was
there only a handful of well dressed middle aged customers came in to
make small purchases as they headed home for dinner.
I asked what the
rules were and how things worked. The clerk said the store was
overseen by the same agency that handles liquor stores. The main
requirement to make a purchase was a check of your driver’s license
to make sure you were at least 21 years old. Being a visitor, the
clerk also touched on some of the state regulations, emphasizing that
its against the law to drive ‘high’.
When I asked about
the marijuana being sold, he showed me various samples of their
products – from marijuana vaping cartridges, medicinal oils, edible
candies, and the more traditional buds one smokes. I asked about the
prices and he said they sold marijuana for about $5 per gram or about
$80 an ounce. He also said citizens could grow up to 4 plants of
their own at home.
It was a very weird
experience. No police, no threats of arrest, imprisonment, fear…
Whatever was being sold in limited quantities was being taxed, was
part of a growing private industry with no ties to drug cartels and
their dealers. It just seemed so natural and logical. It certainly
opened my eyes to a better way to handle the issue than how we still
do it in South Carolina and many other states.
I know this is a touch subject for many, but what do you think?
How do you think we should be handling the marijuana and hemp growing
industry in South Carolina? Do we regulate, tax, and handle marijuana
just like we do with alcohol?
US Drug War Statistics Focusing on Marijuana User Arrests
ReplyDeletehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-war-statistics
Here are some key statistics from 2017, focusing primarily on marijuana use. You might want to double check and do your own research if you don’t believe the following facts. It's a touchy topic for many in SC:
• Amount spent annually in the U.S. on the war on drugs: $58+ billion
• Number of people with drug arrests for a marijuana law violation in 2017: 659,700
• Number of those charged with marijuana law violations who were arrested for possession only: 599,282 (90.8 percent)
• Number of people in the U.S. incarcerated for a drug law violations in 2016: 456,000
• Number of people in the U.S. incarcerated in 2016: 2,205,300 – the highest incarceration rate in the world
• Incarceration costs an average of $31,000 per inmate, per year, nationwide. In some states, it's as much as $60,000. Taxpayers foot the bill for feeding and housing them in prisons.
• Number of states that now allow the medical use of marijuana: 31+ District of Columbia – with more to follow.
• States that have approved legally taxing and regulating marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington – with more to follow.
• Number of states that have decriminalized or removed the threat of jail time for simple possession of small amounts of marijuana: 22 as of 2017.
• Tax revenue that drug legalization would yield annually, if currently illegal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco: $47 billion.
Drug enforcement personnel, many lawyers, and the prison industry do not to want to have marijuana use decriminalized – along with drug cartels and dealers that are reaping huge profits.
States that have legalized, regulated, and are now taxing marijuana use are spending less on arrests, trials, and imprisonment - saving taxpayers billions across the US. Meanwhile, tax revenue is climbing and drug dealers are going out of business.