Annie's Central City Dispensary is now licensed to become the first legal purveyor of recreational marijuana in the United States when it opens for business on January 1. (RT: Colorado store makes history as first to offer recreational marijuana in the US)
In parallel news, the TSA is considering permitting people to carry a certain amount of marijuana when flying. (RT: TSA might allow passengers to board planes with marijuana)
There has also been an announcement from the Fed on relaxing about the matter. (RT: Federal government won't challenge marijuana legalization laws)
A friend asked how marijuana will be taxed as there no chance it will ever be generally available if the Fed isn't getting a piece of the action. It turns out marijuana sales will be taxed very easily and Colorado voters are passing such legislation right now with a vote of 65 to 35 in favour of it. They call it a 'super tax' because recreational marijuana will be taxed at a higher rate than medically-prescribed marijuana. (RT: Colorado votes for super-tax on marijuana)
All of this winds up that marijuana is functionally legal if not necessarily supported by local statutes. There are three kinds of marijuana: recreational, marijuana, and found marijuana. The last is the best and I found some here. No-one has any idea how long it had been sitting there and it's not very high-quality but one never complains about found marijuana.
America has had huge fun in dancing around with legalising marijuana but all the while there has been almost total silence regarding heroin. People often say it would set a bad precedent to legalise marijuana but what sets an even worse precedent is when some fat-ass sits about lecturing on the perils of marijuana while failing to do one damn thing about the staggering volume of cocaine and heroin coming into the country.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates there are 119,000 Americans who have used heroin in the last month. They note the number may grossly-underestimate the actual situation and the number doesn't include the much larger number of people who have ever tried heroin at all. Assuming 119,000 is true, multiply that by 1 gram per day (highly conservative) and then divide it by 28 * 16 (number of grams in a pound). This will reveal 265 pounds of heroin are required every single day in America. (NIH: Fact Sheet on Heroin Addiction)
The NIH Fact Sheet estimates 800,000 active heroin addicts in the U.S. Obviously they have no solid idea of how many exist but we can consider this, possibly, as the top of the range. Based on this estimate, it would take 1785 pounds of heroin to supply the minimal requirement of one gram of heroin per day per junkie. Therefore we can safely conclude the actual poundage of heroin coming into the United States every day is between 265 and 1785 pounds, possibly more.
Television shows frequently have local presentations in reality TV format from customs inspectors in airports. These, I suppose, are intended to show the efficacy of their capture of contraband but it's the opposite. At best they catch people trying to smuggle a kilo or two but so what, the overall volume is so much higher that such catches are irrelevant. Yet no-one says one damn thing.
The other drug that can't originate in America is cocaine. I have no idea why coca plants can't grow in the U.S. but I've never heard of anyone trying nor have I ever heard of someone trying to raise a poppy field (Papaver somniferens) within the U.S. although they grow quite nicely.
The volume of cocaine coming into the U.S. would be vastly higher than that of heroin because there are so many more people using it. Therefore, the daily requirement would almost certainly be in multiple tons and the same applies regarding passenger searches on aircraft: so what. There are some spectacular busts of boats in the Gulf of Mexico but, even so, that only accounts for a tiny fraction of the total.
So, congratulations on the blindly stupid War on Drugs that has hassled people up and down for fifty years for smoking marijuana while all the time the big dealers have been smuggling vast quantities of heroin and cocaine into the country but the DEA and the TSA have accomplished almost nothing. Making you more secure? From what.
In parallel news, the TSA is considering permitting people to carry a certain amount of marijuana when flying. (RT: TSA might allow passengers to board planes with marijuana)
There has also been an announcement from the Fed on relaxing about the matter. (RT: Federal government won't challenge marijuana legalization laws)
A friend asked how marijuana will be taxed as there no chance it will ever be generally available if the Fed isn't getting a piece of the action. It turns out marijuana sales will be taxed very easily and Colorado voters are passing such legislation right now with a vote of 65 to 35 in favour of it. They call it a 'super tax' because recreational marijuana will be taxed at a higher rate than medically-prescribed marijuana. (RT: Colorado votes for super-tax on marijuana)
All of this winds up that marijuana is functionally legal if not necessarily supported by local statutes. There are three kinds of marijuana: recreational, marijuana, and found marijuana. The last is the best and I found some here. No-one has any idea how long it had been sitting there and it's not very high-quality but one never complains about found marijuana.
America has had huge fun in dancing around with legalising marijuana but all the while there has been almost total silence regarding heroin. People often say it would set a bad precedent to legalise marijuana but what sets an even worse precedent is when some fat-ass sits about lecturing on the perils of marijuana while failing to do one damn thing about the staggering volume of cocaine and heroin coming into the country.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates there are 119,000 Americans who have used heroin in the last month. They note the number may grossly-underestimate the actual situation and the number doesn't include the much larger number of people who have ever tried heroin at all. Assuming 119,000 is true, multiply that by 1 gram per day (highly conservative) and then divide it by 28 * 16 (number of grams in a pound). This will reveal 265 pounds of heroin are required every single day in America. (NIH: Fact Sheet on Heroin Addiction)
The NIH Fact Sheet estimates 800,000 active heroin addicts in the U.S. Obviously they have no solid idea of how many exist but we can consider this, possibly, as the top of the range. Based on this estimate, it would take 1785 pounds of heroin to supply the minimal requirement of one gram of heroin per day per junkie. Therefore we can safely conclude the actual poundage of heroin coming into the United States every day is between 265 and 1785 pounds, possibly more.
Television shows frequently have local presentations in reality TV format from customs inspectors in airports. These, I suppose, are intended to show the efficacy of their capture of contraband but it's the opposite. At best they catch people trying to smuggle a kilo or two but so what, the overall volume is so much higher that such catches are irrelevant. Yet no-one says one damn thing.
The other drug that can't originate in America is cocaine. I have no idea why coca plants can't grow in the U.S. but I've never heard of anyone trying nor have I ever heard of someone trying to raise a poppy field (Papaver somniferens) within the U.S. although they grow quite nicely.
The volume of cocaine coming into the U.S. would be vastly higher than that of heroin because there are so many more people using it. Therefore, the daily requirement would almost certainly be in multiple tons and the same applies regarding passenger searches on aircraft: so what. There are some spectacular busts of boats in the Gulf of Mexico but, even so, that only accounts for a tiny fraction of the total.
So, congratulations on the blindly stupid War on Drugs that has hassled people up and down for fifty years for smoking marijuana while all the time the big dealers have been smuggling vast quantities of heroin and cocaine into the country but the DEA and the TSA have accomplished almost nothing. Making you more secure? From what.
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