MY whole problem with enhancing state revenue via taxing the weed and making it legal, why would people buy the taxed stuff when they will grow their own to share with friends? For the people with grow lights and the pot farm in the basement, will police still seek to bust them for "UNTAXED WEED" rather than current drug violations? Will they actively seek out illegal growers? if so then legalized pot still makes them criminals doesn't it? What is the upside and will the slight increase in revenue and decrease in pot citations lend itself to lower taxes in other areas? Will you see more traffic stops and citations for DWI? IS this is just another how can we make a buck idea for the state.

Simple greed will take care of this.

Growing can be a licensed activity. And there are various strains, some good, some really good, some not so good.

The market is big. It's big enough that people are going to enter it period.

Finally, for a lot of people, growing their own works just like it does for legal things. Unless you've setup shop to really do it, it's just a hobby and it doesn't pay.

Easier to just buy some and be done with it. This is particularly true for those casual users, wanting to cut loose from time to time.

Look at the home brew booze industry for a great example of how that works. There will be people, growing now, seriously interested in continuing to grow legally. So they will do that and leverage their contacts they have now.

First to the streets legal is an advantage that really only happens once.

The rest are either doing it for the hobby value, building new strains, like growing lots of things, or just want to go organic or some other minor league thing.

Staying below the law is hard enough and comes with enough penalties that those who just step up and do the right things will be fine. They will have first to market advantage and that's worth a lot!

I don't think DUI will change. Everybody wanting to consume pot right now, is consuming pot!

That is how silly the current legal situation is.

Funnel some of the dollars into education and treatment and fix stuff with the rest of it, while at the same time saving a ton on prison beds and very expensive enforcement operations.

I suspect not being legal will stick out like a sore thumb right quick. The legal guy hangs out a sign, "Pot Ubba Bubba Blend $30 1/8 oz!" The illegal guy works out of his pimp car, street corner, etc...

No contest.

Pot is very cheap to produce according to the special on CNBC, which makes it a very profitable drug. The state can charge a reasonable price AND tax it and still be cheaper than what the black market would produce, effectively putting the for-profit drug dealers out of service. How many people are buying black market liquor or beer? Why would you when you can go to the store and buy something that is professionally produced and regulated? The only operations that would be growing pot at home would be for personal use, not for profit, as the larger scale production models currently used by the black market would be unable to compete with the state.

I know that if pot was made legal, I'd still have no interest in growing it at home. It's much easier and most likely cheaper to let the professionals grow it and allow me to buy it just like I do liquor.

It is cheap to produce actually.

I know a medical provider.

I've seen the grow setup. I wanted to see the State of Oregon Seal! Looks just about like any other business license!

Heck, re-purpose indoor Tomato rigs, and you are off to the races, given some quality starter seed.

How many people are buying black market liquor or beer?

The question is how many aren't buying because they have friends making beer/wine/brandy/vodka at home and giving it to them? I provide the berries/fruit, and in return, get a share of the brandy/wine. No cost to me, not spending the dollars at the state store no tax revenue for the state. Expect that pot would be the same.

Still, since this is a new revenue stream, can I expect a reduction in other taxes? How about replacing my property taxes with the pot revenue?

And will it be like booze and ciggies with a portion of the revenue going toward education to discourage use? If so, kind of hypocritical isn't it?

Guess growing up in a household with likker problems left me wondering why the need for getting loaded/buzzed/smashed/hammered/mellow.....

Doesn't that border on self loathing, unable to deal with day to day situations, self destructive behavior? Is it a mental issue under the guise of "kicking back and relaxing?"

Frankly, education to manage use is probably the better path. Cigs are deadly, and the discouragement needs to be ramped more than it is now.

(I would do NO ads of any kind, and everybody grows their own, or does without, but that's just me. Big tobacco is something we don't need. We can structure things so we don't have big Pot either. Learn from the past on that one.)

Pot isn't that way, so it's a management problem, just like it is for booze. And booze is worse! Booze and Tobacco have strong physical addictive properties. Pot does not. Anything good can be a mental thing, and that's management again.

The make it at home crowd isn't that big. Non issue.

For many it's simple escapism. Lots of ways to do this. For most, a cool one and zoning on the tube each night does the trick. What's the difference between that mind numbing exercise and pot?

From where I stand, there isn't a difference!

And I watch very little TV and drink / smoke socially when I am among friends and it makes sense! Which just isn't all that often.

I know plenty of people who do lots of crazy stuff for the endorphin high too. It's the same deal, they have the same problems, if it's abused.

Anything good works this way really.

If somebody has a problem with self-loathing, that's different from escapism. They are gonna have problems with ANYTHING they can get their hands on. Again, this changes nothing there. Those people have self-acceptance issues and no drug will get them there, but they will nearly all try. It's a different path to fix them.

And with those people, it's so bad that even the little buzz that happens when they get special attention is abused! You've seen it same as me. The fix isn't trying to deny them access to a buzz, it's getting them to reach self-acceptance and be ok with that.

IMHO, hypocritical means basing our social policy on lies and mis-information, or permitting some of us to define moral choices for the rest.

It's straight up honest to say the stuff is out there, what it does, why it does it, what that means, how you can get into trouble, and what to do when / if you do.

Basically, that's how I grew up. Guess what? I know the whole scene, and it's never, ever been a problem. Most of my peers, experiencing the same core education and social norms (like if you are doing it alone, daily, you have a problem), are just fine.

So make the money, fix those that are not fine. It's a smart wager to operate on the assumption they wouldn't be fine anyway.

(and that's very close to the truth in my experience)

So then, why even bother with this mess and expense of prohibition, given they have a problem anyway?

The biggest issue we have are the social norms. Many of us didn't get good ones, or suffer contradictory ones. Those work like self-lies, causing great mental anguish, until they are worked out.

So we do that, a generation passes, and it's all good on that score. They will have some other thing to fret over, but it won't be pot.

And we can free up law enforcement to go after the really ugly stuff. Meth, Coke, Heroin, and we all know that list too. Those things are man-made and are really bad ass, ugly, deadly, no good for ANYBODY.

They are bad ass enough to not be manageable.

Natural things generally don't work that way, and that's why I don't really feel good about booze being so available. It's got those properties, but we just accept it.