Colorado pot revenue comes in way short of estimates

https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/12/colorado-s-pot-revenue-goes-up-in-smoke.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29

They expected pot sales to bring the state 70 million dollars in taxes.  In actuality it only brought in 44 million.  About a 30% miss.  Perhaps it just goes to show legalizing illicit drugs isn't a good idea.  They would make more money keeping it illegal and fining people or putting them in jail for a few days. The people smoking it were so tweaked out they thought it was going so good they were going to get money back on there taxes from it. 

if they catered to the pot tourists I'm sure the revenues would be much higher

And most stoners are probably still buying from a dealer due to the extreme markup (taxes) on the products at the local dispensary.

$44m> nothing..........& I'm sure they're not clogging up their police or court time nearly as much either.

 

anything less than 10 billion is worthless.

Somebody is skimming.

https://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/02/04/study-fatal-car-crashes-involving-marijuana-have-tripled/

What you saying is completely not true and not backed by any facts.  Read this article from cbs you are just blowing air out of the wind.  “Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana,” Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia, and co-author of the study told HealthDay News.

Researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health gathered data from six states – California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and West Virginia – that perform toxicology tests on drivers involved in fatal car accidents. This data included over 23,500 drivers that died within one hour of a crash between.  The researchers found that drugs played an increasing role in fatal traffic accidents. Drugged driving accounted for more than 28 percent of traffic deaths .

“If a driver is under the influence of alcohol, their risk of a fatal crash is 13 times higher than the risk of the driver who is not under the influence of alcohol,” Li said. “But if the driver is under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana, their risk increased to 24 times that of a sober person.”

You are extremely uneducated. 

 

Dumb opening post

Strictly all cash business by law in Colorado. There's the problem.

if i was a colorado resident, i'd be horrified that this only generated $44 million in revenue when millions of dollars of my tax revenue could be spent on arresting and putting marijuana users in jail instead. 

Marijuana users only go to jail in red states. I agree, that's a problem. But I'll have to side with spocsstocks on this one. 

there are many arguments for pot being legal.  that's one of them.  not the biggest one. 

also, marijuana users don't only go to jail in red states.

and, while going to jail is obviously bad, just being in the criminal system for marijuana possession has negative effects on that person and others. 

[Quote: Originally Posted by I_Need_A_Detox] Marijuana users only go to jail in red states. I agree, that's a problem. But I'll have to side with spocsstocks on this one. 

Anyone have any examples of a person going to jail for simple possession in a blue state?

Someone with a clean record, simple possession charge, blue state.. Sentenced to jail in the last five years. Maybe there's a stray case or two but I doubt it.

I don't travel to many red states because they're not desirable locations but from what I've read they lack common sense on this issue.

i tried a few searches and i kept getting the potential penalties and other irrelevant websites.  i'm just going on experience. 

simple possession in a blue state, first offense, you're not going to jail.  well, you are possibly going to jail when you get arrested but you should get out quickly and then you probably won't go back. 

but, if the quantity is high enough or you have a couple of priors, going to jail is a real possibility.  and then it also depends on which prosecutor and judge you get.  two people can have the exact same cases and in courtroom A, person number 1 gets probation and in courtroom B, person number 2 may spend a year in jail.

but you're right, for simple possession, small amounts, almost none of those people are going to jail. 

this was the link i was looking for.  it doesn't answer the question of incarceration but it does address arrests.  this is a big reason why marijuana should be legalized. 

look at the chart on the bottom.  43% of all drug arrests are for marijuana possession, which of course are the easiest arrests for police to make.  that's insane.  many of those people are going to jail, at least initially, but again, that's another issue. 

another article said this translates into a marijuana arrest every 42 seconds.  it costs a lot of money, time and resources to do this.  do we really want our money paying for this?  what purpose does it serve.  what does it accomplish?

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/persons-arrested/persons-arrested

I don't think there is anything wrong with the way Massachussets does it. Decriminalized and medically available.

But yeah, pot being responsible for 43 percent of drug arrests is insane.

I grew up with cops just dumping it out. Of course, I'm also white.

definitely helps to be white. 

so what does mass. mean when they say marijuana is decriminalized?

I don't really know the details. I think if you have under an oz you get a fine. I'm sure there is more to it.. I don't think you can just walk around city hall plaza smoking blunts and paying fines. Not sure, I'll look into it.