9 replies to this topic

[nicraM]

http://www.latimes.c...0,2661645.story

Legalization could slash the price of pot 80%
Cost could drop to $38 per ounce if Proposition 19 passes, Rand Corp. researchers say. The tax implications and probable rise in consumption are impossible to predict, study finds.

California's cash crop could become dirt cheap if the state legalizes marijuana.

Researchers associated with the Rand Corp.'s Drug Policy Research Center said Wednesday that not much is certain about the potential impact of Proposition 19 except that the price of California's choicest weed could plunge more than 80%, down from $300 to $450 per ounce to about $38.

"That's a significant drop," said Beau Kilmer, co-director of the center. "We're very clear about the fact that the price will go down."

*happy dance*

Good bye 100/quad for purple hello Marlboro Purple Brand!

[linkkjm]

You live in California....I do and im not looking forward to this....Since im under 21

[nicraM]

No, I live in AZ but it is literally a hop, skip and a jump to get there.

I just want to go into a store and buy a pack of joints... that would be so fucking epic!

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

The Rand Corporation is extremely conservative. So my guess is that this "research" will be used to argue against legalization. The state's ability to generate revenue from the sale of marijuana is one of the major selling points of the bill to legalize it -- if the right wing can convince people that those revenues would be a lot less than proponents are claiming they can argue it's not worth it. And such low prices can be used to scare people, too -- imagine all the doped-up crazies running around if the price were so low! Will somebody please think of the children?!?

Do not underestimate the right wing's opposition to this bill.

[atlashill]

Especially as whatever catches on in California, so the saying goes, has a propensity to go nationwide.

Cheap weed (relatively speaking) means the entire continent practically becomes one giant Amsterdam bakery. But at least the drug dealers lose a potent source of income, meaning they probably won't be able to buy as many guns, or they wind up jacking up the price on more illicit substances to compensate.

[Invicta]

Yeah, I think illicit dealers would just switch from Pot to Crack or Opium or whatever.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

A funny thing happened when California passed the medical marijuana law. A lot of growers -- who had previously been criminals -- were suddenly able to grow their product legally. And it was great -- for a while. But then they found that they were being run out of business by bigger growers, who could undercut them on price and quality. So basically if marijuana is fully legalized, all that will happen is that Monsanto and Archer-Daniels-Midland will have giant factory farms for marijuana just like they have for corn and soybeans.

I honestly don't know what happens to that pillar of inner city commerce, the corner drug dealer, if marijuana becomes legal. It's tempting to say that they might just switch to other drugs, but that might not be as easy as you'd think. For one thing, I seriously doubt that cocaine or heroin sell in the volumes that pot does. And with pot legal, the demand for those illicit drugs might even decline -- after all, why take the chance of getting arrested when there is a legal high to be had, and much more cheaply?

[atlashill]

A funny thing happened when California passed the medical marijuana law. A lot of growers -- who had previously been criminals -- were suddenly able to grow their product legally. And it was great -- for a while. But then they found that they were being run out of business by bigger growers, who could undercut them on price and quality. So basically if marijuana is fully legalized, all that will happen is that Monsanto and Archer-Daniels-Midland will have giant factory farms for marijuana just like they have for corn and soybeans.

I honestly don't know what happens to that pillar of inner city commerce, the corner drug dealer, if marijuana becomes legal. It's tempting to say that they might just switch to other drugs, but that might not be as easy as you'd think. For one thing, I seriously doubt that cocaine or heroin sell in the volumes that pot does. And with pot legal, the demand for those illicit drugs might even decline -- after all, why take the chance of getting arrested when there is a legal high to be had, and much more cheaply?

So in theory, that could mean less drug wars and violence at the border? Instead we'd have to have more cops on the beat nicking stoners for DUIs?

[Invicta]

For one thing, I seriously doubt that cocaine or heroin sell in the volumes that pot does.

It doesn't sell in the same volume, that's why it's so REDICULOUSLY expensive. You can sell a fraction of the volume and make twice the money.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I'm not too worried about stoner DUIs. Why? Because as a wise man once said, drunks run stop signs -- stoners wait for them to turn green. Half of them would probably sit in the car without the engine running and think they were going too fast.

As to the harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, my point is that I don't think consumption would go up as a result of legalizing pot. In fact, as I said, I suspect it might even go down. So there would not be enough demand for every illegal pot dealer to switch over to the hard stuff.