South of the Border
POSTED BY: dreamtrove
UPDATED: Monday, April 7, 2025 00:28
VIEWED: 2720
PAGE 3 of 3
"Tax would be a bad idea, it would give the govt a vested interest in the industry."
Hello,
There is no realistic way to envision the legalization of drugs without also envisioning a tax on those drugs. You'd have to create a fairy-tale world from scratch.
--Anthony
"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner
"You can lose a quark you don't girth." -Dreamtrove's words to live by, translated by Ipad
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3) If you want to put a stop to person-to-person sales, be my guest. Let's make it official, though, an apply it to everything. Adios eBay and Craigslist, because unregulated commerce might be occurring if you don't outlaw sites like that. No more want ads, and the only things you can buy must come from government-approved vendors and stores. Sound good? (By the way, I've already got all the legal precedent I need to do this: pharmacies are the only legal places to buy prescription drugs, and it's illegal to buy alcohol or tobacco from an unlicensed or unregulated seller, so we can apply those rules to ALL sales of everything, if you really want to go that route).
Kind of a strawman, and I also point out that the above goods are potentially hazardous for consumption, which is the argument supposedly for regulating them.
In general, I agree, though, I don't see much point in this. No matter what you try to sell or regulate, it's still going to get sold SOMEHOW, and eventually it can end up in the wrong hands, that is if the buyers/sellers don't find a work-around in the first place. Really, the argument for regulation is just an excuse to price gouge.
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I thought it was more of a slippery slope argument than a strawman. :)
And some would argue that firearms are a hazardous material, too, which should probably be regulated. Just sayin'.
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Anthony
No you wouldn't. Lots of things don't have there specific tax. As mike pointed out, theres a huge drug legal drug market already. Alcohol and tobacco are exception. One could look into why that is, but I think there are ample foreign countries where this has been done already.
I'm actually quite anti drug, but we had this whole argument out before right here on FFF, and I lost that argument, I concede the point, legalization is the best way to kill it, but it would be tricky to keep special interests out.
Not taxing it would be the easy way to keep govt interest out, also, no govt contracts.
Keepinnnng corporate interests out would be trickier
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Hello Dream,
I think that you have forgotten that the only way it has traditionally been possible to legalize 'sin' in this country has been through the creation of a 'tax' as a bribe for the pleasure. Alcohol and Tobacco are thus taxed. The Lottery pledges money to the state. Etc. The only way to get anyone to overlook the presumed horrible societal impact of legalized drugs is to promise a nice fat tax that will pay for whatever it is you want. You will note that the current cry in California is, "Legalize marijuana, so we can tax it!"
Lots of things don't have a specific tax, but recreational drugs (tobacco, alcohol) are not amongst them. I expect marijuana to be legalized and taxed, and it isn't even particularly harmful. Something like Cocaine? It'll be taxed up the wazoo. Else the broad masses would never even consider legalizing it.
--Anthony
"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner
"You can lose a quark you don't girth." -Dreamtrove's words to live by, translated by Ipad
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Anthony,
You may have a point on mj, I can see the cigarette companies swooping in to pick up the slack on their dying tobacco empire. It's probably the largest problem drug.
On cocaine I disagree. There's no tax on rx coke now, and none on other legal alkaloids. I imagine if leagal it would just become easy rx rather than a shelf product not because it's a drug, but because it's toxic, you don't want random kids taking tons of the stuff.
But I don't think that sin is the reason there's taxation. Alcohol and tobacco were major industries very early in this country's political history, and were intimately interconnected with the machine. Taxation is in large part political. Sure, this is a danger with drug money in politics, but it's nowhere new as much of a danger as an increasing amount of drug money in politics. Also, note that porn did not spring a giant tax engine when it was legalized, in spite of the sin, and caffeine did not get taxed in spite of it's drug nature.
The worst threat to me would seem to be none of these, but more than corporations would interfere in a couple fo notable ways: 1 they would lace the drugs with chemicals to increase the power, addiction, and shelf life, and 2 they might sneak it into normal foods, to give a high to some other product. This could produce a very insane society. So I prefer a much more controlled legalization, where anyone can sign up to be a junky and sign themselves into sommmme govt facility, and walk in and pick up their cocaine as they now do to collect their Xanax.
And sure, there would be a small handful who would not do that, and would seek it on the street, but they would not collectively be a market, the price would have been effectively destroyed.
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"Also, note that porn did not spring a giant tax engine when it was legalized, in spite of the sin, and caffeine did not get taxed in spite of it's drug nature."
Hello,
'Porn' is taxed, and heavily. So is gambling. However, it is local governments who do it, and they chose to tax these businesses in a different way. In these cases, it is the acquisition of a business license for your strip club or gambling hall. These licenses are frequently expensive when compared to, say, a license to open a bakery. And for no good reason.
Caffeine isn't taxed currently, though it has been in the past. I remember a rather well documented Tea Party. There's talk of taxing soda and junk food now, so the sin taxers are eyeing gluttony as a new avenue of revenue.
I'd love a world where sin wasn't taxed. Maybe my grandchildren will live in it? So far in America, sin is still a popular avenue for taxation because most 'good Christians' and other moral police type folks can agree on what's bad. And they can guilt the population into agreeing to it. Sometimes they use a scientific study. "All Americans are Fat. Let's tax Coke."
--Anthony
"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner
"You can lose a quark you don't girth." -Dreamtrove's words to live by, translated by Ipad
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I've always been blisteringly hostile to the idea of having someone elses religion and morality crammed down my throat in direct violation of the first amendment by either laws or manipulations of the tax code as de-facto prohibition, that shit didn't work the first time, caused all AMOUNT of trouble and hassle, and yet they never stop trying, and all the while blaming the "sin" for the crime and violence caused by their own actions...
And all "for your own good", the worst of all possibly tyrannies.
To HELL with my own good, let ME worry about that, and piss on the goddamn blue laws and tax bites.
Me, I think we oughta tax churches, HEAVILY, instead of granting government-approved religions a free ride while snubbing those that aren't.
It makes a bloody mockery of a great part of what the first amendment stands for and yet other than me, so few even question it, much less stand against it - if we're ever to change this world, we gotta stop denyin the realities right before our eyes.
-Frem
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Some pharmacies in Mexico passing off fentanyl, meth as legitimate pharmaceuticals
https://www.aol.com/news/pharmacies-mexico-passing-off-fentanyl-130030
057.html
but Press Tv, Iranian propaganda?
Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
If we can can the racism
Race realism, some of them they have Atzec DNA I wonder if there is genetic memory and it helps them be more fucked up than other nations, and whats with the link to the Iranian islamist Republic?
speaking of can can
I guess not all Latin / French is the same
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Mexico free trade with US may survive as Trump spares it from new tariffs, hits rivals
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-free-trade-with-us-may-s
urvive-trump-spares-it-new-tariffs-hits-rivals-2025-04-03/
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