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Colorado's cannabis tax figures the UKs answer to attacking the deficit?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26523833
Considering the size pool of Colorado state at little over 5 million people I would say that those figures are very good and productive, it also decriminalises users which is good as most of America's prison population is due to tough drug laws holding minimum mandatory sentences.
I believe a nationwide programme like this in the UK would easily see tax revenues exceeding £billions per year. This gift from mother nature could be the answer to cutting a sizable hole in the UK deficit as well as decriminalising individuals that make their own choices to smoke Marijuana without hurting anyone else. I have no doubt what so ever considering other nations are now waking up that it's a certainty that one day marijuana will be legalised in the UK, even more so once the money grabbing ministers start seeing the income figures from other nations.
The US state of Colorado collected $2m (£1.2m) in taxes from newly legalized recreational marijuana businesses in January.
Colorado became the first US state to legalize the commercial sale of cannabis in 2012, and stores opened for business on 1 January 2014.
In total, 59 marijuana firms filed tax returns on an estimated $14m in sales.
Overall, the state collected a total of $3.5m in marijuana taxes if medical marijuana firms are included.
Marijuana model?
The money is earmarked for youth prevention services, substance abuse treatment, and public health, according to a plan proposed by Colorado Governor, John Hickenlooper.
Many other US states are closely watching Colorado's figures.
Washington state is set to introduce legal sales later this year.
Most of Colorado's tax revenues came from firms around the city of Denver.
Recently, US President Barack Obama said marijuana was no more dangerous than alcohol, while cautioning both were bad decisions.
Nonetheless, he has instructed the Department of Justice to halt prosecutions of banks that do business with cannabis firms.
Currently, 20 US states, as well as Washington, DC, allow for the sale of medical marijuana.
Considering the size pool of Colorado state at little over 5 million people I would say that those figures are very good and productive, it also decriminalises users which is good as most of America's prison population is due to tough drug laws holding minimum mandatory sentences.
I believe a nationwide programme like this in the UK would easily see tax revenues exceeding £billions per year. This gift from mother nature could be the answer to cutting a sizable hole in the UK deficit as well as decriminalising individuals that make their own choices to smoke Marijuana without hurting anyone else. I have no doubt what so ever considering other nations are now waking up that it's a certainty that one day marijuana will be legalised in the UK, even more so once the money grabbing ministers start seeing the income figures from other nations.
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One by one the arguments for criminalizing cannabis (and all drugs) are falling. I'm looking forward to a more liberal future.
I agree its time. the thing that needs to happen here is to step away from the nanny state and allow people to decide for themselves if they wish to use it or not, most people probably already do so the benefit here is decriminalisation as well as taxation.
in one month from a population of 5 million!! do the math sonshine
taking a UK population of 60 million that equates to £173.24 in a year at current exchange rates.
The sums based on £24m p.a. from a population of 5m would for the UK amount to about £290m, meanwhile the budget deficit is about £100b.
you are mixing dollars with pound.
But as the saying goes 'every little helps'
Excellent. so for us, by comparison. ceteris paribus, £145m/y
so i ask you 'Colorado's cannabis tax figures the UKs answer to attacking the deficit?'
I used the $3.5m figure and rounded it to £2m.
2 million since January 1st this year in a state with a population of around 5 million people,
that's 2 million dollars from sales tax only, how many jobs has legalisation created? how much crime has it reduced? how much has it saved the tax payer in police and court time?
So, if legalisation can create over a million pounds in sales tax alone in a state with a population of just over 5 million people (and only a small percentage of them will actually use cannabis) in less than three months, and ignoring all the other benefits to the tax payers that I mentioned above which would be well in excess of the amount made from sales tax.
I think it's quite safe to say that in a country like the UK with a population of over 62 million, the income from sales tax, the reduction in crime, the savings to the tax payers from the current waste of expensive police and court time, would quite clearly be enormous and way in excess of the 2 million dollars of sales tax (alone) that the state of Colorado has seen since January 1st this year.
It's not rocket science.
i agree that cannabis should be legalised, and i haven't spoken to that point.
Not to mention the points I have made, the enormous savings for the tax payer in police and court time, the creation of thousands of jobs, because we have far to many jobs at the moment,
How many times do we see on these 'police war on crime, don't be naughty because you WILL get caught' type TV shows, a dozen or so heavily armored up coppers kick in someone's door ransack their home to find 20 quids worth of weed which they hold up in triumph to the camera and say "that's more drugs off the street" then a couple of minutes later the 'voice over' bloke says, "the arrested man was given a caution"
An excellent use of police time and tens of thousands of pounds of tax payers money.
I find it strange (not really) that some supporters of this government can on the one hand, sneer at several millions of pounds being created for the exchequer, not forgetting the job creation and the massive savings from the currently wasted police and court time if a relatively harmless (when compared to a killer 'hard drug' like alcohol for instance) drug was legalised for use by adults,
and yet some of them fully support things like the bedroom fine being imposed on over a million of the poorest people in the country causing stress and heartbreak to lots of people, even driving some to take their own lives, justified by a paltry saving of, an estimated 502 million pounds, and many reputable sources say it's actually costing more than it saves,
Legalising cannabis would be seen as bad by many supporters of this government even though it would save the tax payers lots of money and create lots of jobs, because it would be seen as a 'liberal' or 'lefty' thing to do.
whereas, the bedroom fine (and the war on welfare in general) saves very little, if any, money for the tax payers, but because it creates hardship and misery by punishing people for being poor, the majority of Tory supporters are right behind it,
It does need some consideration to weight up the pros and cons. If you look at a Holland as an example things don't look quite so good. The country has become a hot bed for drugs not just cannabis. It has become known as the place to go for drugs which has fuelled the criminal under market in their supply. 72% of crimes in the country are linked to the use or supply of drugs. So the idea making it legal will reduce crime is a load of rubbish. You only have to look at counterfeit cigarettes to see that if their is a demand with a profit someone will find a way to make a criminal profit from it.
The other issue I would have is the increased strength of cannabis which has rocketed over the years. We all have this idea of cannabis from the 60's and 70's which was from the natural plant and quite weak. It is far more common these days for the type of cannabis to contain high levels of HTC. The worry is what the long term effects of this would be.
So we have to weight up both sides. The solution is not going to solve any problems we have the question is will it make them any worst than we already have. I think the honest answer is we really just don't know.
But you did say that 2 million dollars from sales tax since January this year would._
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"2m yeah that'll solve it" I was pointing out that the figure of 2 million dollars was for sales tax only, in less than three months from a state with a population of just over 5 million, so in short, it can not in anyway compare to what we would get from a similar legalisation in the UK with a population of over 62 million.
In my, and many others opinion the 'pro's' of legalisation massively outweigh the 'cons'
To be fair that point would apply to anything that is illegal.
in respect of the justice system and the legalisation i think it is a bit more complicated than that. Peter Hitchens, (first order ****,) makes the point that you can stop any crime by stopping making it illegal. the point he misses, (or doesn't but just hopes we are all too stupid to notice,) is the amount of other, secondary, crimes caused by the criminalisation of drugs.
more importantly than that, with cannabis certainly, is that the law should not make itself an ass. and given that millions of people take cannabis regularly you force otherwise law abiding people in to criminal behaviour which is not ideal.
i forgot that this is the internet. and unless your answer is exhaustive someone will add detail in the form of a correction.
i was, in a slightly flippant, and non-exhaustive way contrasting the sums involved with the sums required for something to be the answer to our deficit.
'In my, and many others opinion the 'pro's' of legalisation massively outweigh the 'cons'' - ffs. i've already said i support the legalisation of cannabis. i just don't think it will solve the deficit. and given that that is what the thread is about that is the subject on which i spoke.
it's weird that you are arguing with me on something that we agree on. you need to relax. spark one up.
cannabis isn't legal in Holland, it's been decriminalised, but not legalised in the same way as it has in Colorado,
I agree that Holland, Amsterdam in particular, has a problem with drug tourism, but then a large percentage of these 'tourists' are from the UK and other less liberal countries, once cannabis becomes legal in more countries then people won't feel the need to visit places with liberal cannabis laws,
As for the stronger strains of cannabis, I am certain that this was taken into consideration when Colorado debated legalisation, there are varying strengths of alcohol, yet we 'trust' adults not to get hammered on strong liquor every time they 'indulge' why not apply the same trust with a non lethal drug?
I am certain that if cannabis was legalised for recreational use by adults in the UK tomorrow there wouldn't be thousands of adults who have never tried it lining up waiting for the shops to open.
I never said it would wipe the deficit out but I could see it easily making a hole in it, look at the alcohol and tobacco revenues both in the billions, there is no reason to suggest that cannabis wouldn't be the same ballpark, considering the amount of people who smoke it. Any amount of money generated whilst at the same time decriminalising otherwise law abiding people is a plus, it could replace any new cuts the government would want to implement.
Sorry I didn't mean to sound as though I am arguing with you over legalisation, I'm glad we agree,
I don't think any one thing could 'solve' the problems in our economy, but as someone else said, "every little helps" and I believe that ending cannabis prohibition would be a start,
As for 'spark one up' oh how I wish, I quit smoking over 2 years ago, after over 30 years of being a 'toker' I still miss it, and occasionally have a 'space cake' not the same, but there's more than one way...... etc,
probably the only evidence to suggest it wouldn't generate the billions of tobacco is the experience of Colorado.
who knows. we are unlikely to see any unbiased projections.
I haven't smoked it myself for 6 years but used to really enjoy it the feeling I found beats being drunk easy! I become quite the connoisseur, used to travel about to try different varieties
If you decriminalise something surely that makes it legal. In fact that is the case in Holland where the government licenses the cafe's selling. But I think your point was the laws between Holland and Colorado are slightly different. The main difference is in the ability to grow the product which in Holland is still in hands of the criminal gangs. In Colorado it is the license growers I assume control the market. I do wonder how long it will be before the large drug industry starts to muscle in on the small growers.
I don't know how much impact making even the growing legal will have. Criminals in the drug trade tend don't tend to just offer weed but a whole range of drugs. Just taking one out of the market might harm their business profits but it is unlikely to reduce the problem.
In terms of drug tourism clearly even in Colorado this is happening on a massive scale. The figures in terms of tax generated against the population just don't stack up you have a lot of people going into the state due to the change in laws.
You make a good point that it was legal everywhere this would not be an issue. However that seems unlikely at least in the short term unless something changes like a European or a USA Federal law.
It is a difficult one and I think the problem is like drink once you open the flood gates it is very hard to turn back and that is perhaps one of the major blockers.
My own view is that I find it sad we to turn to drugs to cope with life. The odd drink and smoke is not going to harm but often people take it on a regular basis to escape the problems of life. It is no way to live is it. Life is full of ups and downs you just have to find a way to cope to balance it out without having to rely on drugs to get you through.
You're unique .No cannabis has ever been found laced with LCD or PCP or heroin or anything like that ever before .Congrats !
how am I unique? people can put anything within cannabis! like cocaine for example sprinkle a little powder on the bud, its not hard is it? PCP laced weed is not uncommon at all. I don't know for sure what was in it but I do know something was as the 'hit' I got from it wasn't what I had normally got from cannabis, prior to that I had smoked it for over 5 years.