Drug Policy

[The Grand Nudger]

What final price?  I grow weed, you give me money, I give you weed.  The final price for me, the grower, is determined long before you, as the consumer, gets the product.  You'll pay more than that final price before I give you the product.  Rinse and repeat with any product. I have considered that those people don't pay taxes. They should. They'd be in a similar position as tobacco growers. We still grow that acre by acre on the side of the road, you know. Ya aint gotta be rich to grow tobacco, I promise you. Assuming abusive taxation (which already exists) it's -still- not particularly expensive to manufacture drugs. That gap makes it ludicrously profitable, but taxation wouldn't suddenly make it unprofitable, or even bar entry. Take a look at states that have legalized marijuana. I offer this example because the price of entry into the market -is- high. Immensely so. That cost, however, isn't in the equipment, infrastructure, or inputs. You still put a seed in the ground, water it, and trim it like it was a hedgerow. The labor, the major cost, is the same. It is further -imposition- on part of our government that makes it so. They must spend a great deal of capital to acquire the permit. Is that the sort of thing you might have in mind? Decriminalize, but price most out of the industry?

The taxes don't currently go up relative to the danger of a product, you realize? I suppose we could change that too, while we legalize drugs...but it would be a harder sell(particularly in that there are already "legitimate" industries which would gladly throw lobbyists at this one until it's a bleeding pulp).