I am undecided how to vote on the initiative to legalize pot in Washington state. I am definitely in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. What I am not so sure of is creating a state run and heavily taxed system of supply and distribution.
The writers of the bill want to wrest the control of the pot business away from the criminal drug cartels and stop spending money arresting and incarcerating low level pot users. The state would also like a cut of the revenue rather than have all this commerce go untaxed. Worthy goals, no?
However, the new law would disallow a grower of marijuana from selling it at the "retail" level. Sellers could only buy from state authorized growers and the transaction would be taxed. The retail sale would also be taxed. This seems to me like it would automatically inflate the price quite a bit. Sounds to me like a strong incentive for a black market of unregulated marijuana sales to continue to exist.
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