Straw man; nice try. My point is that Colorado is now pushed into a position to manage the pot trade. So think of a state’s alcohol commission and the licensing and selling of alcohol over the counter or by the glass; regulations. Next, there is the law enforcement issue. At a state and local level, new enforcement tools must be created to manage people who are high in public, just like alcohol; more regulations. How will citizens of Colorado feel about warrantless DNA collections to test a suspects who may be high on pot while behind the wheel? I think you get my point, and we haven’t even touched how the state is going to manage the tax dollars coming in. It isn’t a no brainer to simply legalize pot and tax it. At the end of the day, pot is still a schedule I drug and D.E.A. has zero plans to change it.

Its also an issue for all adjacent states. If I were to buy marijuana in Colorado, and then leave the state with it in my possession on the way to Washington, where its also legal and I got pulled over for failing to wear a seatbelt, or some other heinous crime, then are troopers going to let me go when I tell them I’m just passing through from one state to the other? Do I say, why no officer, I got this baggie in Colorado, you can tell by the blue baggie. Baggies from your state are a different color.Those would be illegal. I’m going to legal Washington where they have red ones.

Ironic that, “…it’s no secret that the Obama administration HATES the idea of legalizing pot…” when we have the first bonafide, confessed fully-inhaling member of the Choom Gang running the show for another 4 yrs (assuming no impeachment efforts stick). Not a big fan of pot, mildly amused by hypocritical irony…

That’s an interesting perspective. However, the govt did the same thing in the Prohibition era and that didn’t work out too well.Think about it. Dealers are already breaking the law and they don’t care. You think tax evasion will make them change their ways? I guess the IRS, or state tax collectors, could try to enforce the law, but when was the last time a drug dealer filed an honest tax return in the first place?

The only way you could sqeeze the dealers if if pot distribution went mainsteam. If you could buy pot at a 7-11 like you can beer or cigarettes that would hurt the dealers, but nobody is talking about legalizing that.

Not a ‘plaint. An observation, as noted, on adjacent states. Additionally, If I grow it in Colorado (or anywhere) and drive it to Washington to sell it, but you bust me in Utah while I’m transporting, you’re hindering interstate commerce aren’t you?

There was that time when we took a family trip out to New Mexico in the ’70s and my dad bought two cases of Coors and crossed the Mississippi with them on our way back to Alabama. We could’ve been so busted had we run into Sheriff Buford T. Justice. So yeah, Smokey and the Bandit is based on a true story.

Probably get out the Phototrons and start growing their own stash. No revenue to be collected in that scenario.

There is no reason to expect ‘state-legal pot’ to have any less hoops to jump through than tobacco… There will likely be more, actually – since pot is a little bit more intoxicating than nicotine…

Which makes most of the non-libertarian arguments for legalization moot…

WA (my home state) recently passed a similar proposition… It’s going to be a mess…

(I’ve evolved a little on the issue – I still favor recreational drugs being illegal, but I’d like to see the federal role scaled back to interstate/international traffiking…. And if the states want to make the same mistake as WA and CO, then they can… We’ll see how long it lasts)

Not to mention no reputable business wants to handle the liability….

For the legalize-and-tax thing to work, the STATE would have to become the ‘dealer’ (ala Liquor Control) and the penalties for buying ‘on the side’ would have to be so severe that they’d make current pot-law penalties look like the joke they are…

EG, there would be no savings, no increase in revenue, just more government…

I kind of shake my head every time I hear ‘tax it’ as a legalization solution for pot. Do these people not even research the history of pots legality? From the early 20th century until the FDA scheduled it as a class 1, it was ‘legal’, but taxed. But in effect, there was absolutely no way to get it legally. So I won’t be surprised if WA and CO don’t really end up with legal pot, esp. with the federal issues.

Would legalization get it out of the closet? I think the casual user would prefer it stays where it is, stigma notwithstanding.

No, you have it backwards. In Prohibition, alcohol production/consumption was illegal. They got Al Capone on tax evasion due to unpaid taxes since they couldn’t bring him down on murder, racketeering, illegal alcohol production, etc.
With pot legalized, it’s only a matter of time until the gov’t gets tax revenues from sales of pot. It is actually the opposite of the Prohibition argument: it is the bilking of gov’t coffers that will bring the ire of the feds down on drug dealers, not the sales of illegal wares.
I’m probably not making myself clear; I posit that legalized pot -> tax revenue -> increased gov’t interest when someone *not* giving the gov’t its share is operating. Tax-evading smugglers get an add’l set of eyes looking for them than just the DEA. Now the IRS is mad at you and that’s a whole ‘nother problem drug dealers haven’t faced so far.

You’re not covering any new legal ground. The rules have already been established for alcohol.

Buy alcohol in wet county, drive through a dry county (in the same or adjacent state) and they arrest you. Even if you are just passing through and transporting it to another wet county.

Legislators are generally drunk. The two most likely drugs being alcohol and power. Still. Their judgement is rarely called into question.