A Blogger Divided on Marijuana Legalization
Never will there come a time that there isn't a silly distraction for the peasantry to keep their minds off the fact that their livelihood is being stolen from them by an economy that rewards work and human capital less with each passing year. The distraction du jour is the long-festering debate about marijuana legalization that has recently come to a head because of successful ballot initiatives in Colorado and Washington that legalized recreational use in those states. A highly incomplete experiment on the merits of marijuana legalization is being conducted in these two petri dishes and for a number of reasons, I suspect the trend will catch on and a rising tide of legalization will ensue state by state in the decade to come. How do I feel about this? Suffice it to say my position is nuanced.
I've long had libertarian leanings when it comes to one's freedom to put whatever they choose into their bodies without persecution. Ten years ago, I would have been firmly on the side of marijuana legalization. But one pervasive trendline in the political realm over the last decade has led me to believe that a greater degree of persecution is likely to ensue against marijuana users in the aftermath of legalization than it does today. But before I get into that argument, I don't think it's unreasonable to be libertarian on this yet still believe that legalization, and subsequent normalization and increased usage, of marijuana will be a scourge against society. More intoxicated drivers on the highways, a less motivated workforce, and a larger number of young people already less well off financially than their parents and grandparents blowing thousands of dollars a year on pot are all inevitable consequences of increased marijuana usage. And with more and more marijuana advocates loudly selling their drug of choice to the public as "completely harmless" or as "medicine", the lesser the social stigma will be when availability increases. That strikes me a bad combination.
But what continues to trouble me most is my ongoing concern that marijuana legalization is poised to be another means for the political class to engage in reverse Robin Hood tax policy, with criminal justice implications ultimately going far beyond what marijuana users face today with the drug being quasi-illegal. Colorado wasted no time imposing a 25% tax on the retail price of marijuana as it was legalized. Now that's a bargain compared to a pack of cigarettes in the state of Minnesota where the combined state and federal tax now approaches 200% of retail, but it's also just an opening bid. Every time the state is looking to plug a budget hole or to dole out money to a crony capitalist looking for a publicly funded sports stadium, you can expect to see an extra 0 added to that Colorado marijuana tax. Simply put, legalized marijuana is an expansion of the litany of disproportionately working-class lifestyle choices that government views as a path-of-least-resistance means to extract revenue in the most regressive and predatory way possible. And however bad it would get if Colorado was a stand-alone experiment, just wait until the feds start looking for their pound of flesh.
The naivete of the marijuana legalization advocates becomes most obvious when the topic turns to what legalized marijuana would look like if it went national. Many of them seem to believe town squares full of hippies would be gathering to exchange homegrown marijuana to each other, not appreciating just how much government is gonna demand an ever-growing cut of the action in a nation where marijuana is legal. The same phony argument of "externalized costs" associated with tobacco use will spread to marijuana, and all of the legislative supporters of legalization will instantly turn on it five minutes after it's legalized, blaming marijuana use on societal ills ranging from lower student test scores to growing obesity. Not taxing this stuff through the nose will not be an option for lawmakers, and since tax collections will not be manageable through a mishmash of guys growing a dozen plants in their basements, government will seek to consolidate production and distribution of legalized marijuana by consolidating tax stamp authority into the hands of a few corporations, most likely the tobacco companies. There is no major consumer item I'm aware of where production and distribution hasn't been consolidated by corporate America, and there is zero chance of marijuana being the exception to that.
Far as I can tell, the only reason marijuana wasn't legalized 25 years ago is that government recognizes that its multibillion-dollar annual profit-sharing racket with tobacco companies over cigarettes will be more logistically challenging to pull off with marijuana, simply because it's so easy for the aforementioned guy in his basement to grow his own marijuana than it is tobacco. So what we're looking at a few years down the road, if current trendlines continue, is a junk corporate product chock full of cancer-causing chemicals being sold at stratospheric tax-inflated prices, but with a huge black market of pure homegrown product found in the basements of Joe Stoners across the country sold to a larger customer base of marijuana users than exists today at lower prices than what the government product sells for. And this will undercut legalization advocates' argument that the criminal justice footprint related to marijuana today will shrink. Anybody growing marijuana plants in their basement who undercuts the "sin tax" revenue bonanza that Uncle Sam fancies himself entitled to is gonna be squashed like a cockroach and made an example of. If anything, I think more people will be going to prison for marijuana "crimes" five years after it's legalized than are today.
Most disheartening is that there's no reasoning with marijuana legalization advocates, as most of them are too giddy about the prospect of being able to legally get high on their drug of choice to entertain any dissenting voices. They all but stick their fingers in their ears and say "la, la, la I can't hear you" when I outline what seems to be an inevitable and unsavory trajectory of legalization if it goes national. It sickens me to see working-class America on the cusp of being taken advantage of in yet another way by government and corporate America yet it seems as though marijuana legalization is all but certain to become yet another means to accomplish that predatory end. Ordinarily I would simply wish this issue would be resolved one way or another so we could move onto the economic stagnancy of the vast majority of Americans that is strangling the life out of the country, but I feel as though I have no choice but to chime in here since the outcome of this issue seems very likely to exacerbate the conditions of economic stagnancy and shift even more resources to the robber barons.
If I had any faith at all in legalization being done right I could grudgingly support this, but as the threshold of cynicism relating to legalized tobacco gets more shocking with each passing year, I have zero faith in legalization being done right. Couple that with the fact that more pervasive use of marijuana will produce more tangible societal downsides than tobacco use and I find myself siding more with David Brooks than with doe-eyed marijuana legalization advocates whose arguments tend to be thinly guised 25-year-old talking points from the NORML website, failing to think more than one move ahead on what a nation of legalized marijuana will become. My ultimate preference thus continues to be what it's been for a few years now......settle for marijuana decriminalization and quit while you're ahead, lessening the foolish criminal implications for those who use or sell marijuana while simultaneously keeping a lid on mainstream production and distribution, limiting usage and keeping government and corporations from getting their fingerprints on it. As naive public opinion shifts more to legalization though, I'm less confident every day we can establish best practice here.
I've long had libertarian leanings when it comes to one's freedom to put whatever they choose into their bodies without persecution. Ten years ago, I would have been firmly on the side of marijuana legalization. But one pervasive trendline in the political realm over the last decade has led me to believe that a greater degree of persecution is likely to ensue against marijuana users in the aftermath of legalization than it does today. But before I get into that argument, I don't think it's unreasonable to be libertarian on this yet still believe that legalization, and subsequent normalization and increased usage, of marijuana will be a scourge against society. More intoxicated drivers on the highways, a less motivated workforce, and a larger number of young people already less well off financially than their parents and grandparents blowing thousands of dollars a year on pot are all inevitable consequences of increased marijuana usage. And with more and more marijuana advocates loudly selling their drug of choice to the public as "completely harmless" or as "medicine", the lesser the social stigma will be when availability increases. That strikes me a bad combination.
But what continues to trouble me most is my ongoing concern that marijuana legalization is poised to be another means for the political class to engage in reverse Robin Hood tax policy, with criminal justice implications ultimately going far beyond what marijuana users face today with the drug being quasi-illegal. Colorado wasted no time imposing a 25% tax on the retail price of marijuana as it was legalized. Now that's a bargain compared to a pack of cigarettes in the state of Minnesota where the combined state and federal tax now approaches 200% of retail, but it's also just an opening bid. Every time the state is looking to plug a budget hole or to dole out money to a crony capitalist looking for a publicly funded sports stadium, you can expect to see an extra 0 added to that Colorado marijuana tax. Simply put, legalized marijuana is an expansion of the litany of disproportionately working-class lifestyle choices that government views as a path-of-least-resistance means to extract revenue in the most regressive and predatory way possible. And however bad it would get if Colorado was a stand-alone experiment, just wait until the feds start looking for their pound of flesh.
The naivete of the marijuana legalization advocates becomes most obvious when the topic turns to what legalized marijuana would look like if it went national. Many of them seem to believe town squares full of hippies would be gathering to exchange homegrown marijuana to each other, not appreciating just how much government is gonna demand an ever-growing cut of the action in a nation where marijuana is legal. The same phony argument of "externalized costs" associated with tobacco use will spread to marijuana, and all of the legislative supporters of legalization will instantly turn on it five minutes after it's legalized, blaming marijuana use on societal ills ranging from lower student test scores to growing obesity. Not taxing this stuff through the nose will not be an option for lawmakers, and since tax collections will not be manageable through a mishmash of guys growing a dozen plants in their basements, government will seek to consolidate production and distribution of legalized marijuana by consolidating tax stamp authority into the hands of a few corporations, most likely the tobacco companies. There is no major consumer item I'm aware of where production and distribution hasn't been consolidated by corporate America, and there is zero chance of marijuana being the exception to that.
Far as I can tell, the only reason marijuana wasn't legalized 25 years ago is that government recognizes that its multibillion-dollar annual profit-sharing racket with tobacco companies over cigarettes will be more logistically challenging to pull off with marijuana, simply because it's so easy for the aforementioned guy in his basement to grow his own marijuana than it is tobacco. So what we're looking at a few years down the road, if current trendlines continue, is a junk corporate product chock full of cancer-causing chemicals being sold at stratospheric tax-inflated prices, but with a huge black market of pure homegrown product found in the basements of Joe Stoners across the country sold to a larger customer base of marijuana users than exists today at lower prices than what the government product sells for. And this will undercut legalization advocates' argument that the criminal justice footprint related to marijuana today will shrink. Anybody growing marijuana plants in their basement who undercuts the "sin tax" revenue bonanza that Uncle Sam fancies himself entitled to is gonna be squashed like a cockroach and made an example of. If anything, I think more people will be going to prison for marijuana "crimes" five years after it's legalized than are today.
Most disheartening is that there's no reasoning with marijuana legalization advocates, as most of them are too giddy about the prospect of being able to legally get high on their drug of choice to entertain any dissenting voices. They all but stick their fingers in their ears and say "la, la, la I can't hear you" when I outline what seems to be an inevitable and unsavory trajectory of legalization if it goes national. It sickens me to see working-class America on the cusp of being taken advantage of in yet another way by government and corporate America yet it seems as though marijuana legalization is all but certain to become yet another means to accomplish that predatory end. Ordinarily I would simply wish this issue would be resolved one way or another so we could move onto the economic stagnancy of the vast majority of Americans that is strangling the life out of the country, but I feel as though I have no choice but to chime in here since the outcome of this issue seems very likely to exacerbate the conditions of economic stagnancy and shift even more resources to the robber barons.
If I had any faith at all in legalization being done right I could grudgingly support this, but as the threshold of cynicism relating to legalized tobacco gets more shocking with each passing year, I have zero faith in legalization being done right. Couple that with the fact that more pervasive use of marijuana will produce more tangible societal downsides than tobacco use and I find myself siding more with David Brooks than with doe-eyed marijuana legalization advocates whose arguments tend to be thinly guised 25-year-old talking points from the NORML website, failing to think more than one move ahead on what a nation of legalized marijuana will become. My ultimate preference thus continues to be what it's been for a few years now......settle for marijuana decriminalization and quit while you're ahead, lessening the foolish criminal implications for those who use or sell marijuana while simultaneously keeping a lid on mainstream production and distribution, limiting usage and keeping government and corporations from getting their fingerprints on it. As naive public opinion shifts more to legalization though, I'm less confident every day we can establish best practice here.
posted by Mark at 2:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home