[Curtman]

BRAH BRAH:

Not a fan of JT but Ralph Klein's drinking problem was well known and people still voted for him so if JT likes to smoke some SnoopDog approved weed so what, there's bigger issues to focus on.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... e13999239/

$1:

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he has smoked “a lot” of marijuana, but is not saying when that drug use took place.
...
Taking questions from reporters after a campaign-style lunchtime address on Wednesday, Toronto’s controversial mayor was asked if he had used pot. “Oh yeah,” he said, chuckling. “I won’t deny that. I smoked a lot of it.”

Mr. Ford was at a loss to explain the recent flurry of attention on politicians’ marijuana use. “I don’t know why they are all coming out. You’ll have to ask them,” he said.

Marijuana regulation directly concerns the economy, and justice. The two areas the CPC keeps telling us are their focus. We're talking about potentially billions of dollars of tax revenue and half a billion dollars less in enforcement that doesn't do anybody any good.

What issue is more important with a 20 billion dollar deficit?

[Zipperfish]

Curtman Curtman:

Marijuana regulation directly concerns the economy, and justice. The two areas the CPC keeps telling us are their focus. We're talking about potentially billions of dollars of tax revenue and half a billion dollars less in enforcement that doesn't do anybody any good.

What issue is more important with a 20 billion dollar deficit?

It's not really an economic issue for me. More of a nanny state one.

Guys like Out To Lunch want to live in a society where everything that isn't forbidden is mandatory.

[OnTheIce]

Curtman Curtman:

Marijuana regulation directly concerns the economy, and justice. The two areas the CPC keeps telling us are their focus. We're talking about potentially billions of dollars of tax revenue and half a billion dollars less in enforcement that doesn't do anybody any good.

What issue is more important with a 20 billion dollar deficit?

Any issues relating to the legalization, production and distribution of any drug would take a very, very long time to come to fruition so your magic wand revenue stream would be many years in the making, at best.

You talk about this like it's an overnight fix to the governments bottom line and the justice system when it's neither.

[Unsound]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Curtman Curtman:

Marijuana regulation directly concerns the economy, and justice. The two areas the CPC keeps telling us are their focus. We're talking about potentially billions of dollars of tax revenue and half a billion dollars less in enforcement that doesn't do anybody any good.

What issue is more important with a 20 billion dollar deficit?

Any issues relating to the legalization, production and distribution of any drug would take a very, very long time to come to fruition so your magic wand revenue stream would be many years in the making, at best.

You talk about this like it's an overnight fix to the governments bottom line and the justice system when it's neither.

Billions in debt and deficit don't get fixed overnight no matter what. that's no reason not to get the ball rolling on anything and everything that might help.

[OnTheIce]

Unsound Unsound:

Billions in debt and deficit don't get fixed overnight no matter what. that's no reason not to get the ball rolling on anything and everything that might help.

I just don't think starting a new industry and legalizing drugs is the best or most efficient way to solve our deficit problems at this time. It is a conversation to be had but it's a facile argument to talk about legalization being some sort of debt/deficit saviour.

I think they could make some legal changes to issue tickets to people rather than having them charged. Free up the court system and save some $$ that way.

[andyt]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Unsound Unsound:

Billions in debt and deficit don't get fixed overnight no matter what. that's no reason not to get the ball rolling on anything and everything that might help.

I just don't think starting a new industry and legalizing drugs is the best or most efficient way to solve our deficit problems

Canada can walk and chew gum at the same time. It can gain some benefits from legalization and take other measures to solve the deficit as well. Whatever those might be - so far the CPC or any other party hasn't offered any brilliant solutions. Nobody wants to pay taxes, everybody feels entitled to their entitlements (talking about the voting public here). Not an easy thing to slay the deficit under those conditions. Gaining some income for govt (most recent report said 7 billion in taxes if taxed the same way as cigs) while reducing justice system costs and gang activity seems like a no brainer.

[Canadian_Mind]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

You talk about this like it's an overnight fix to the governments bottom line and the justice system when it's neither.

It's not like any other method is instantaneous either. So what if it takes 10 years to get 1 billion dollars + in revenue? Thats an extra billion we'll have to spend on whatever we want. Hardly a bad thing. If Andy's figure is correct, 7 billion per year over 10 years, that's 70 billion dollars that if just used to pay off the debt would lower it by 12%.

[Unsound]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Unsound Unsound:

Billions in debt and deficit don't get fixed overnight no matter what. that's no reason not to get the ball rolling on anything and everything that might help.

I just don't think starting a new industry and legalizing drugs is the best or most efficient way to solve our deficit problems at this time. It is a conversation to be had but it's a facile argument to talk about legalization being some sort of debt/deficit saviour.

I think they could make some legal changes to issue tickets to people rather than having them charged. Free up the court system and save some $$ that way.

I agree that slaying the deficit shouldn't be the reason for legalization, but if it helps it's certainly a nice benefit.

[andyt]

The figure seems high to me, but was reported on radio news.

$1:

Experts disagree on economic impact of legalizing marijuana in Canada

Easton said government profits would depend on the tax rate and the ability of police to crack down on those buying pot on the black market. At the upper end, he speculates a marijuana tax could “raise roughly the same amount of money as the tobacco tax.” According to data compiled by Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada, this figure was just under $7.5 billion in 2011-2012.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/27 ... in-canada/

[OnTheIce]

Assuming of course that weed would be sold like cigarettes in corner stores...which is unlikely.

[CanadianJeff]

It's too much of a money maker for that. We've seen successful stores go up that just sell pot. Odds are it would be more like a Starbucks then an extra like cigarettes sold by other stores.

[ShepherdsDog]

how much of the 'profit' will be eaten up by the new bureaucracy created to oversee pot production and marketing?

[andyt]

Its' not profit, those are taxes they're talking about. Profit on cigs is a whole other ballgame, and figures are kept secret by the tobacco companies, but they don't seem to be hurting for bucks. Pot production costs are similar to cig production costs, ie insignificant compared to profit and taxes. Same with booze. Govts like the taxes they get off booze and cigs, no reason they wouldn't also rake in a good chunk from pot taxes. Doubt if all those taxes just go to pay for a bureaucracy overseeing booze and cigs, but if they do, that's a lot of jobs created.

[OnTheIce]

CanadianJeff CanadianJeff:

It's too much of a money maker for that. We've seen successful stores go up that just sell pot. Odds are it would be more like a Starbucks then an extra like cigarettes sold by other stores.

What would be the profit margin?

What would be the tax rate? Same as cigarettes?

Cigarette only stores wouldn't survive so I doubt pot stores would either.

[CanadianJeff]

There's more then a few documentaries on netflix that go into all the questions you just asked.

By all means go watch a few if you want more info they go into far more detail then I feel like explaining since I don't know if you really want an honest discussion.