And where is 'here'?

Holland.

So far in 2018 the US has made $2.8 Billion in taxes from sales,
That is this year, Yet many feel we should be fighting the evil weed.

I'd be very curious as to your source for this. I'm not saying the actual figure will be peanuts by any stretch of the imagination, but according to Forbes, total sales in the entire country have been just shy of $10 billion in the last year, so for tax revenue to be close to the $3 B you say, the average tax rate across all the states where it's sold would need to be around 30%. That would seem quite steep, particularly in the freedom-lovin' US of A ;)

https://taxfoundation.org/marijuana-taxes-state/
depends on the state, but according to this Washington State has 37%. Other states are much lower, but some states have a fixed tax per ounce, so it difficult to compare.
When you look at tobacco, petrol and alcohol taxes, ~30% tax rates for cannabis are not unrealistic, even in the USA.

Alicia Glass GDWH, News, 29.08.18, They also quoted the total sales, and it is still a way behind Tobacco & Alcohol, but has increased massively, Tobacco was 137 billion dollars total, Alcohol is 77 Billion, and 56 Billion for Cannabis.

It's only going to keep growing......

Excuse the pun

That doesn't include the folk who would grow their own and then spend that extra freed up income on other taxable goods.

I wonder if it takes into account the amount of jobs that it has produced, so they are paying taxes also.

Plus the increase to local economy through tourism,

Why not just legalize opioids , suddenly no more deficit

Because you can overdose and die.......

Because afaik currently there isn't exactly a "Legal Opioid" Industry either.....

Learn to walk before you run :)

Can we assume you neither drink nor smoke then?

So You ARE admitting one leads to the other

my girlfriends brother suffered a lifetime from the ill effects smoking mbanje as a teenager

Nice way of twisting my words there budd,

Been smoking 10 years yet to hit the opioids.....

Your Gf's bro prob needed help to begin with as most of the folk with bad experiences also have underlying problems,, the MJ only highlights these,

Most of these unfortunates familys like to blame the dope as it gives them somewhere to point the finger :)

Feck i'm getting old,

Make that 15 years actually, could be the long term memory going because of all the weed eh.............

There's some genuine retards in this thread. Jus sayin!

You think alcohol and prescription drugs are fine but a natural remedy, cannabis, isn't, you people are everything wrong with this world's outlook!

Yes it should be legalised for many of the reasons stated here, I've smoked it recreationally for 15 years, I hardly drink (the occasional pint with a meal and some social gatherings, I've drank maybe 3 times this year and each time was one pint), I don't take paracetamol or any other tablet unless absolutely necessary I'm not one of these people that has an ache so takes 4 ibuprofen then gets a headache so pops paracetamol, if I can do without man made chemicals I will, serious ailments, infections etc are a different matter of course, if its necessary it's necessary, but if there is a natural remedy that could do the same or better, but isn't advertised or suggested because profit can't be made, that's just not right. I'm a recreational cannabis user, I don't need it, I don't buy it if I can't afford it and I don't falsely claim to rely on it, it helps me relax and I've met many decent people who do the same. Some of the most decent people I've met smoke it. It doesn't affect my work or my life, I can smoke a joint then do everything I need to do in a day no problem, hell smoking a joint then sitting down to code or play a game is a great way to zone in, concentrate and relax for me as it is many others.
I've never seen a bunch of cannabis smokers get high then beat the crap out of each other, destroy property etc.. yet that happens everyday in the club scene with heavy drinkers, that's acceptable yet a smoke isn't, I just can't comprehend your thought process, brainwashed much!
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But then again I'm not surprised, people tend to believe what they are told with no actual scientific proof just because someone in a position of power says so, the misinformation regarding cannabis is massive, only now are we seeing real studies that disprove all the bull crap from the past, only now are they willing to admit the benefits that have served us for hundreds of years before big pharma, but still they are trying to make money from it, turning a natural substance in to a big pharma approved pill costing 100x the cost of its natural state that will do the same thing for a fraction of the cost, its safer because big pharma say so, what a joke.

I'll just go back to the legality and moral standpoint of prescription drugs for a second, my wife, who I love completely and want nothing but the best for suffers from severe endometriosis, she's had it since she was 13, she has endometrial (if that's the right word) tissue wrapped around her liver and joined to her stomach , as well as all through her abdomen, doctors can do nothing for her but pain management, she's in constant pain, pain so bad I've seen her crying and pleading for relief, what do the doctors do, dope her up on a multitude of prescription drugs including opiates that are so strong that not only are they killing her through prolonged use, causing her liver and kidneys to work overtime, but leaving her practically unable to function. Making her drowsy, unable to think straight and comatose for hours unable to actually function as a regular human being. Not to mention the list of possible side effects longer than my arm that can occur, including liver failure, aneurysms, heart failure, sickness, vomiting, dizziness, the list really does go on to the point there is side effects that mean she could literally just drop dead if the more severe ones are to occur, there is over 200 side effects to all the drugs she's on, yet these are deemed safe, legal and are pushed by doctors, sorry, the prescription drugs she WAS on.

But luckily for her, most of those possible side effects have been eliminated, how you ask?

Cannabis is the answer

When I first met her I didn't know the extent of her condition or the medication she was on, when I did I said cannabis could quite possibly help, she thought that if it could doctors or the pain clinic would of suggested it, they didn't, in that time I had also seen the effects of the medication she was on, I had seen her crash, I couldn't wake her up for hours, luckily she had told me this could happen, that it was a normal occurrence due to the prescribed medication she was on, I didn't like it one bit, it scared the hell out of me to be honest, even more so after learning of the side effects of the drugs the doctors had put her on, then one night we spent together she had forgotten to pick up her prescription and was in absolute agony so again I suggested cannabis, due to the immense amount of pain she was in she was willing to try and it worked, she was at a copeable pain level within 10 minutes and said it was the best pain relief and the fastest acting relief she had had in 15 years, my wife now uses cannabis as her main source of pain relief, she is off all but one of her medications including all opioids meaning the damage being caused by the multitude of prescription drugs she was on is no longer an issue, obviously the damage done cannot be undone, but it isn't getting any worse due to further prolonged use of those drugs, she doesn't get dizzy, sick and nor does she crash anymore, she is now more functional and capable than she has been in years.
Cannabis has been her saviour, as it could be for many others, pain relief is one of many proven medicinal benefits as well as applications such as the many children in the press that have benefitted in reducing the effects of epilepsy, along with the assistance in treating ptsd and opioid addiction, which a lot of the time is caused by doctors not willing to do anything other than push the drugs produced by the pharmaceutical companies, yet despite the clear medical applications it is illegal, how is that right, how does that even make sense when there is a ton of side effects both short and long term of prescription drugs yet only a handful for cannabis and no actual long term effects, stop using cannabis, no long term side effects and no damage, yet prescribed drugs can destroy your stomach, liver, kidneys etc
​​​and that damage lasts after you have stopped using them yet that isn't so with cannabis, and to all those that don't see that as a problem, to all the people that believe that that is right, you are the problem
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Alcohol has no medicinal benefits yet is legal and able to be consumed to the point of violence, stupidity and death. 60k deaths a year in fact, yet a natural occurring drug with a multitude of benefits is illegal, but has a death toll of zero.
I am a recreational user and I say it should be legalised, not for me, but because not only is it causing no harm in any individual choosing to smoke it recreationally which is not the case with alcohol which causes so many issues in society but also the medicinal benefits are huge. Then there's the financial benefits of it being taxed, the space in our prisons because people aren't getting locked up for a plant, the restrictions preventing the sale of it to under 16s, the fall in unemployment if it was legalised and all the pot dealers who claim unemployment were allowed to be legal cannabis sellers further benefiting the nations economy and likely reducing crime and the funding of it, amongst the many other uses and benefits, plastics, fibres and so on.

Compared to prescription drugs and alcohol, cannabis isn't even on the same scale.
Now again, tell me why it is illegal and why it continues to be that doesn't make you sound like an uneducated window licker...
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Stupid Liebour government with that turd Burnham as Health minister, took away a decent painkiller from millions of users, saying it was used by a minority to suicide.

Now millions are hooked on opioid painkillers and the suicide rate is EXACTLY what it was before. just like we told the turd, but being a Liebour turd, he knew best!

Great post MrRtm, I've always agreed with the Alcohol/Chemical meds being far worse than a natural product like marajuana

I could also write a piece just as long as yours, but in short my late father had MS and had it so badly that at the end of his life he was receiving a higher dose of morphine than that of a terminally ill cancer patient because the pain was so extreme due to the spasms in his muscles, unfortunately at this point the Morphine finally finished him off with a heart seizure.

A few years prior to this he was in the Royal Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Russell Sq undergoing experimental tests with a new kind of drug they was drip feed into his immune system, this required having an aparatus resembling of a small tin of tuna inserted into his chest, ultimately the cocktail of drugs they were using put him in a coma but thankfully he came out of it after three days. A few days later the ward nurse in the ICU pulled me aside and mentioned her mother had cancer and Marajuana had helped her with pain relief and sleep, knowing a smoker at work I got him to get me some solid (because that's all they smoked in the early 90's) So I rolled him 20 joints one Saturday afternoon went round to his house, he smoked the first one and I swear I thought I'd killed him because here was this man that was in regular agonising pain caused by the spasms in his legs, the spasms were so strong he was in an almost foetal postiion and you could not straighten his legs no matter how hard you pulled at them, so now he is as floppy as anything, I hadn't seen him in this stae for at least 5 years, he slept well for 4 hours straight again something the pain hadn't let him do for a long time.

So for a period of months his pain was being managed better than any chemical had, but sadly for my dad his body had a habit of working out what was helping his pain and would soon fight against that as it finally did with the morphine.

A lot of my friends are social smokers and I have never seen any of them misbehave on weed, my friend will have it if her Asthma is bad and yes it opens up the airwaves, who'd have thought smoking was actually good for you !

Personally I had my first joint at 25, around the time I first bought for my dad because I thought, I'm mature enough to try this as an adult I know what I'm doing I'm not some spotty little schoolboy following the crowd. I still enjoy the odd social smoke and have done for over 20 years, never had any issues and have been banging on about legalisation for donkeys, if only to rid the streets of the crappy dealers and clearing our national debt with the taxes it brings in.

I remember a long time a go there was a similar thread on SN when this place was heaving with members and I stated then that a lot of the "faces" on SN probably smoked but wouldn't admit it for fear of losing their cred, to which a lot of members agreed.

Far more people smoke weed than you think for many reasons other than just getting monged out, its funny how the American originally banned and it and now it's the Americans slowly but surely legalising it.

correct

In 2005 the University of Nottingham had started to test its uses, I know as I helped set of their grows(electrician not a weed grower) at Sutton Bonnington, the place where cows have double glazed windows in their guts for medical research.

But I agree education is the key.

BBC are hardly gona promote any sot of cannabis use

Also a study by the American Journal of Psychiatry (the land of ritalin & zanax)


There is alot of very wealthy companies who have a whole lot of money to be lost by legalising cannabis,

Now let me take my Tin-foil hat off.....

That will be the Fluoride in the water caused by those pesky Lizard people :)

Why would anyone assume that a story about cannabis being harmful to developing teenagers' brains is anti-legalization? If anything, this should be seen as pro-decriminilization, since it should in theory be easier to keep the stuff away from the underaged, once its sale/distribution is taken out of the hands of the criminal fraternity, and brought under the control of authorized/regulated outlets.

It actually paints a darker picture, no one has mentioned that kids are drinking, or has that become acceptable?
And that is controlled, so is legalising it going to make it harder to get ?

Kids are only drinking because the penalties to their older friends/siblings/parents for giving them or allowing them access to alcohol aren't currently severe enough, and part of the reason for that is almost certainly that alcohol has always been legal for over 18s. There's no reason why those penalties couldn't be ratcheted up though, or the penalties for supplying cannabis to under-18s after legalization couldn't be kept just as severe (or more) than they are for supplying right now. On that basis, I don't see why it would be any easier for kids to get hold of it.

I believe that over here, in states where legalized use of cannabis is in place, teenage cannabis use has decreased.