Govenor Spitzer had, what he would like to think, a great idea in his New York speech last night. His idea, create a tax on Marijuana of $3.50 per gram.
I would actually agree with this tax stamp idea, except it is a bad idea. First of all, in 1937 there was a Marijuana Tax Act created. (Which was disputed by a New Yorker) Each person that wanted to have marijuana in their possession was required to have a Tax stamp on the packaging. The problem was if you were caught for possession of Marijuana without the tax you would be arrested for not paying the tax. If you wanted to be legal and get a Tax stamp then you would have to have the amount in your possession so they could know how much to tax you for your Marijuana. But if you showed up with Marijuana to be a good citizen and pay your tax you would get arrested because you haven’t paid your tax yet. It was designed to be a catch 22 and make it illegal to have any Marijuana. Governor Spitzer explains that this tax stamp has been active in 29 States already and could raise an estimated $13 Million next year.
My question for Governor Spitzer is why would I pay this tax. If I was going to buy an illegal substance ILLEGALLY then I would not be to worried about the tax side of it. I am going to weigh my risk in this situation. Do I buy a gram of Marijuana and not pay to get the Tax stamp and risk getting busted for an illegal substance plus Tax evasion? Or do I buy my Marijuana and pay my tax on it, but have it on record that I am going to have Marijuana with me at some point? If someone is going to deal with the Black Market then they are not going to be worried about the ramifications of getting busted for two laws.
Then again Mr. Spitzer, if Marijuana is illegal and I am required to have a Tax Stamp then would that be considered a violation of the Fifth amendment?
Like I started this article, I agree with Taxation of Marijuana and other controlled substances as long as I can not be prosecuted for paying taxes on the substance. The way it looks to me is Governor Spitzer is trying to look like he is doing more than he actually is. Stop with the hollow promises that really can’t benefit NY, and lets see something that will help us.
Legalize Marijuana, control it, tax it, and allow the Farmers of New York grow their Hemp for industrial purposes
Now that will be a boost to the economy along with a great income for New York State.
I say that drinking is acceptable but I am totally confused right now. It is not only acceptable but encouraged. This is the end of the holiday season, the time where friends and family get together to celebrate many different things. The time where companies take some of their profits and throw parties for those that have made them have a profit. This is a time where stores carry more beer than usual and liquor stores look forward to.
Why is it that most people feel the need to drink alcohol during this time of year? Thanksgiving, a holiday for Americans to celebrate the pilgrams having a plentiful harvest to make it though the winter. Do you think the Pilgrams were thinking, “Lets throw a huge feast and see if Aunt Tonya will dance on the table with Running Dog.”
Christmas, the holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I have not fully read the bible but did the three wise men bring, a Keg, Bottle of Scotch and Jello Shots?
New Years, time to celebrate the end of one year and the begining of a new one. Was your year so horrible that you want to forget it? Is the view of the future year so grim that you don’t want to remember how it came in?
I enjoyed a New Years party this year with a few people all of which feel drinking alcohol is a requirement. As I sat their drinking my soda I heard every crack on me about being anti-social. However by the time the ball dropped in Time square I was the one that had the kids in PJ’s, in sleeping bags and helping them regain control after all the excellent Sugar treats they were able to eat until late at night. While most of them had parents that by that time were running around in a drunken state and not realizing how many of them were so loud the kids were laughing at them.
I talked to one of my friends that was at a different party and he told me today that out of the people at that party, two had to leave before midnight because they got into a fight, one missed the ball drop because he was hugging the porceline, and another spend the first day of the new year in jail for driving after the party.
How is this not only acceptable but encouraged?
I am not Anti-drinking but the way I see it is why can my friends and family act this way but I am the one that is looked down at because I would prefer a drug that is currently illegal. I am the uncle, nephew, son, grandson, cousin, etc… that you need to stay away from because my drug of choice makes me want to sit on the couch and ponder the universe, wake up the next day functioning correctly, be able to remember the old year and enjoy the New Year. Most of them can’t even tell when I have been doing my drug of choice but believe me they all make idiots of themselves and look like fools to their kids, nieces and nephews, and younger cousins. And because of society, these are the drunken animals that these kids are suppose to look up to. I am a burn out druggie that can not function in society because the drug I like is illegal.
This is fun… I really like looking into this it lets you know how some of our misconceptions in the history of the USA.
My first Quote, this is probably the most important quote I have seen in my research.
1.”Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?”
To which Speaker Rayburn replied, “I don’t know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it’s a narcotic of some kind.”
“Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?”
“Their Doctor Wentworth came down here. They support this bill 100 percent.”
The above quotes are the only thing that was said when the bill was brought up on the floor of Congress in 1937. The amazing thing is look at the Doctors name used.
Who testified for the American Medical Association?
2. This leads me to go backwards in time. There was one testimony from the American Medical Association before it was passed up to Congress. That was made by Dr. William C. Woodward, both a lawyer and a doctor and at the time was Chief Counsel to the American Medical Association.
His Testimony, “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug.”
Immediately one of the Congressmen said, “Doctor, if you can’t say something good about what we are trying to do, why don’t you go home?”
The next Congressman said, “Doctor, if you haven’t got something better to say than that, we are sick of hearing you.”
So far we now have what was debated when the bill was sent to Congress and the testimony to get the bill to Congress. I wonder why was the bill Created? Lets go a little farther into the past.
3. I want to take a step a little farther in time to see why the bill was being taken up. in the early 1900’s there was a large influx of Mexican Americans coming into the western states. Around the time the Great Depression started there was a large battle between the small farms and the large farms that would hire Mexican Americans at a low cost of labor. The western states needed to decrease the amount of low cost labor for the bigger farms so the smaller farms could compete again. The only difference that could be found was the amount of marijuana use among the mexican workers. “When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff… he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies.” In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy.”
As the proponent of Montana’s first marijuana law said, “Give one of these Mexican beet field workers a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette and he thinks he is in the bullring at Barcelona.”
This is how most of the states decided to fight the use of marijuana.
4. As you know the North East has never had a vast majority of Mexican American’s. That was not an issue even back in the early 1900’s. Therefore there had to be another reason that The north east would jump on the band-wagon for fighting Marijuana. The New York Times in an editorial in 1919 said, “No one here in New York uses this drug marijuana. We have only just heard about it from down in the Southwest, But, we had better prohibit its use before it gets here. Otherwise all the heroin and hard narcotics addicts cut off from their drug by the Harrison Act and all the alcohol drinkers cut off from their drug by 1919 alcohol Prohibition will substitute this new and unknown drug marijuana for the drugs they used to use.”
So as you can see Racism of the Mexican community has had a large influence on Marijuana Prohibition. If the American Medical Association of the time says things like the AMA, “knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug.” Why did it become illegal and why haven’t the correct studies been completed on Marijuana. Marijuana should be tested and evaluated the same way that all medications are. But then again how many times have I been taken off medication that was approved by the FDA but later found out that it was more damaging than helpful.
The myth of the gateway drug has been determined not by statistics that are incorrect but by the wrong statistics. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, in cooperation with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the White House Office of Drug Control Policy released the “Gateway Drug” theory as a campaign against Marijuana. They state that marijuana users are 85 times more likely than non-marijuana users to try cocaine. We need to look at how they came up with this Statistic.
The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse taken in 1991 is useless when it comes to the statistic on Marijuana users likelihood of using “Hard” drugs. It was calculated by dividing the proportion of marijuana users who have ever used cocaine (17%) by the proportion of cocaine users who have never used marijuana (.2%). The high risk-factor obtained is a product not of the fact that so many marijuana users use cocaine but that so many cocaine users used marijuana previously.
When you think about it, Marijuana is the most common illicit drug for many decades so chances are that a user of a less popular drug has tried a more popular drug. This goes for even more popular drugs as well, for example most cocaine users also smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.
Now my opinion on legalization of marijuana will also cut down on use of other drugs. I do believe that there are a lot of users that started off with Marijuana and because of the way they have to go about getting marijuana they come in contact with hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. Because of my stance on Marijuana but do not have experience with it illegally I have talked to a few people in the Marijuana crowd. I have heard certain things that encourage my belief that legalization of the substance.
I was talking to a Marijuana dealer. He was explaining to me that he loves dealing with marijuana because he has never had to deal with weapons when taking the product to his customers. He does however deal with other substances where weapons were required and shown as a threat. When he is dealing with customers of the other substances he is always worried about it “going bad” He also told me that when ever he deals with his marijuana customers he offers them the high profit drugs. If a marijuana user was able to buy this substance legally they would not be put in the situation that they are being offered harder drugs.
The other day I was listening to a speach that a mother was giving about her son in his early twenties that overdosed on Heroin. It is a very upsetting situation and I strongly believe that no parent should out live their children. On the other hand she said one thing that after I thought about it I got kind of upset. During her speach about keeping Marijuana illegal, She said, “Marijuana is the gateway drug, My son started smoking cigarette’s then drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and it was all down hill from there.” Now the reason this upset me is because out of the three drugs she mentioned and the drugs that her son was known to take and eventually overdosed on Marijuana was the safest one. Then I started thinking about it even more. At what point does she consider the Gateway? Was she worried about her son when he started smoking cigarettes? That was the gateway from not having an addiction to having an addiction. His life was the same but he added the addiction to it.How about when he moved from cigarettes to Drinking Alcohol? Her son went though the gateway of reality to an escape from reality. Now if you follow the path she is saying her son took the next step was no change just a different way of getting to where he wanted to. He was dealing with an addiction by smoking cigarettes, he went on to drinking alcohol to escape reality and forget about his worries. After that he went to smoking Marijuana, The least addictive drug including Nicotine and Alcohol. Marijuana also gives you a relief from reality but nothing more than alcohol, (and you have to remember your actions the next day). So here she is talking about Marijuana being the Gateway drug but that seams like the only step her son has taken that didn’t change the effects he was receiving from his drugs at the time. I believe you can say that Tobacco or Alcohol were the Gateway drugs. I feel sorry for this woman that she has dealt with the pain of losing her child and my thoughts and prayers reach out to her, but please Blame the Right Drug.
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