Glad to read that there are people in government who can see the whole picture! Nothing is perfect, but a little bit of effort can make things better.
It doesn’t help.
Just because something is legal doesn’t mean there is no black market. Weed is legal in Canada but there is still black market weed, grown and sold by criminals. Same with cigarettes and even alcohol.
The black market for cigarettes is understandable given the insane taxation put upon tobacco nowdays. Said taxations are meant to serve as a deterrant for current and new smokers alike. In reality, the hike in prices created a massive black market.
Where I live a pack of plain packaged 25 malboro’s costs over 40$… or you can find the shops selling imported, original packaging packs of cigarettes/chop-chop under the counter for 10-20$/pack/pouch. I don’t smoke, but I can understand why a black market would be booming for tobacco.
As to booze… Really? Come on, compare the black market we have for booze now vs prohibition, which scenario is worse? People getting (literally) blind drunk on methanol laden spirits vs a few bottles of bootleg moonshine. I am aware of black market liquor distribution en masse (selling to kids), but black production equatable to prohibition in first world countries where liquor is legal?
Same concept with cigarettes. Supply and demand + price and quality. Medicinal cannabis is relatively easy to get where I live, but costs 600$/oz, as a result people stick with the black market.
Rec cannabis is more expensive legally and may be of inferior quality, unless the recreational market can compete with the black market, consumers will continually purchase from the black market. With California things are even more convoluted as many suppliers operate illegally given how difficult it is to apply for a cultivation license.
You’re correct in that it isn’t as simple as “legalise, put tax on it and regulate” but there is a good argument for harm minimisation/legalisation of certain substances (MDMA comes to mind. On the black market these pills are typically tainted, people probably wouldn’t mind shelling out more for peace of mind).
Money accrued from purchases could go towards realistically educating the public about the harms associated with drug use, after all, it worked pretty well for tobacco.
Actually there’s an ample body of evidence suggesting it does help. It’s all dependant on the route of legalisation. For instance where I live street prostitution is illigal and law enforcement will enforce this harshly. Sex workers are required to procure government mandated licenses and regularly visit healthcare professionals. The way the system is run in my state has dramatically reduced rates of violence, STD transmission, pimping/trafficking etc.
Legalising street prostitution without regulation on the other hand probably wouldn’t help within relation to many of the problems currently present within the sex industry.
The pay isn’t bad either, as a private, good looking independent escort you can easily make 600-1000$/hour. Australia is conservative about many things, but when it comes to sex we are suprisingly progressive.
But it does put many of the abused/trafficked girls into the hands of the criminal justice system. Remember Cyntoia Brown?
That’s insane. It’s less that 1/3 the price here.
We talked about this in another thread a while back, while it’s not huge there is still a black market for alcohol and the occasional bust now and then.
I hear you can get good weed from the legal store for as little as $6/g but there is even cheaper black market weed. It’s ridiculous, I remember back when I was in high school it was normal for weed to sell for $12-15/g. Weed is not much more expensive than cigarettes now, you can get 3g for the same price as a pack. People who were growing weed years ago were making a ton of profits.
In some of the US markets, it can be had for a little over a buck a gram. In Portland, I saw 28 grams (an ounce) for $40, and it wasn’t terrible or anything. The high end stuff was $120/oz. IMO, growing and selling black market in this area wouldn’t make much sense. The profit margins would be so slim, and you risk federal prison over it.
Not all markets in the US are this saturated though.
Yeah I don’t really get it either, there isn’t much money to be made anymore. Over here the price of electricity went way up in the last few years too, most weed is grown indoors and that alone is going to take a huge chunk out of your profits. Maybe it’s because the economy was already going down before COVID and it’s difficult and expensive to get into any sort of legal business.
You had me wondering about prices, I don’t smoke so I don’t go to the stores at all but I took a look at the Ontario government online weed store and you can get weed for a little over $4/g. Looks like you have to buy at least 3.5g but shipping is free and some of that cheap weed is over 20% THC. They said before that the government was losing money selling weed (mismanagement it seems) but they also want to kill off the black market so it looks like they are selling it cheaper than ever. But $1/g, I never heard of anything like that over here. Reminds me of Jamaica the first time I went there, you could get about 3-4g for the equivalent of about 60 cents but a pack of cigarettes was like $8.
I think we have the most expensive cigarettes in the world. I think I saw the news mention another tax hike coming later this year. The increase in pricing was meant to act as a deterrent, however it appears to have had minimal/no impact on smoking rates. A pack a day smoker spends like 15 grand a year on darts alone (if they choose to purchase legally).
You’d think no one would still take up smoking… it’s no surprise we have a massive black market. Cigarettes are like a luxary item here.
I think your HS prices are better than our current prices. Everything is expensive in Aus. A meal at McDonald’s will set me back 15-20$, a tank of gas sets me back almost 100$… I didn’t choose the most economically efficient car…
I’m irritated about how expensive everything is. I wanted to go travelling at the end of this year. Europe was affordable last time I went. It appears Australia won’t let its own citizens leave for quite some time (apparently hotel mandated quarantine isn’t good enough?). As a result I’ve shifted my goal to travelling around Australia… That’ll cost me what? 200,000,000$ (I joke, but a beer at a bar/club is like 15-20$, hotels/hostels aren’t cheap, food isn’t cheap). It’s probably cheaper to just go overseas…
I can bitch about Australia all I want, but in reality we have good healthcare, low road related fatality rates, acceptable crime rates (we do have a youth gang problem though) and generally a good standard of living… Aside from all the poisonous animals.
That doesn’t sound right. Is cannabis supposed to be that potent? I thought 20% was considered “high potency”
How much is minimum wage?
I don’t understand why that weed is so cheap and other stuff is more expensive, they have other weed that is not that much stronger but more than double the price. Maybe the cheap weed tastes like shit or something, or it’s sprayed with a lot of chemicals?
About potency, I looked at the site again and there is weed that is supposed to be up to 28% THC, and shatter that is 75%.
All I know is that people who smoke tell me that the legal weed is much better and not much more expensive (maybe even cheaper online it seems) so maybe the black market is going to die out soon.
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19.84$ pretty good
… Terrifying…
We can hope! No recreational drug is good for.you, but if people are going to use I’d rather profits incurred go towards the government and/or business owners (preferably small business owners) as opposed to criminals/cartels that tend to be involved in other terrible shit like human trafficking, weapons etc.
You don’t think the government is involved in weapons and human trafficking? That’s what this thread is about.
Oh, I can’t tell if you’re serious or not (not being a dick, because I do have an answer for this).
I’m not an expert on this at all, but here’s what I’ll say in response. I don’t believe corruption free politics exist. Those with a predisposed towards being politicians probably have an affinity towards being in the spotlight, thus I’d garner it attracts plenty of narcissistic/psychopathic subtypes who have no problem getting involved with corrupt and/or seedy activities.
As to whether the government is involved in weapons/human trafficking, I suppose it depends… what government? If the “democratic republic of the Congo” has a government it wouldn’t surprise me at all, certain nations have extremely, openly corrupt governments. Certain politicians have been linked with Epstein.
Pedophiles/sex offenders are everywhere, no profession is free of pedophiles. I bet if you look up the sex offender registry within you’re neighbourhood you’ll find at least one. It’s disconcerting and it’s more common than we’d like to believe. Pedophilia appears to be comprised of neurological hardwiring (as in, it’s probably a sickness). I call it a sickness because pedophiles have the urge to commit actions of which cause serious harm.
That being said, I’d think pedophiles who act out on their twisted desires tend to cater towards jobs of which allow them to groom/be within close proximity to victims. So professions like being a priest/religious figure close with children, a coach etc would probably cater more towards these types of people.
I had a search for how wide spread pedophilia is in the general population - the best I could find is “less than 5%”.
The article did go to say that this doesn’t mean the person will act on their desires but 1 in 20 or even 1 in 100 is very troubling.
Pedos are going to be everywhere but I would want to see a significant under-representation in politics and if it is not then that is definitely something that should be looked into as I don’t want any pedo influence on public policy whatsoever.
I’m not educated on this issue. But you’re correct, there is a difference between a pedophile and a child molester. I’d think it’d be less than 1 in 100 within relation to how many people actually act on it.
Agreed
There’s apparently a similar issue going on within Hollywood. Corey Feldman has been very vocal about this. It’s super fucked up
It got so bad in Hollywood, when Corey Feldman was young he was going to change his name to Corey Felt Up By Men.
Seems like that is a fringe opinion these days, seeing as Trump and Biden are the two presidential candidates.
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If people worked as hard at actual jobs as they do avoiding work, they’d be a lot better off. Certain mentalities just are not sensible and some people make terrible decisions.
Correct.
Well of course we have pedophiles in politics, but thankfully we have QAnon on the watch for the deep state, pedophile democrats scheming to take down Trump! Don’t fear though as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has won the primary this week in northwest Georgia and will likely be elected to congress to be our first openly QAnon supporting congressperson. For those who don’t know:
“QAnon is a conspiracy theory propagated online that the FBI included last year in a warning about “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists.” The theory claims without evidence that “deep-state” traitors and child sex predators including prominent Democrats are plotting against Trump, who in turn is leading a plot against them.”
In a video posted online this summer, Greene said: “Q is a patriot,” referring to the supposed operative at QAnon’s center. “There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out.”
The problem with this sort of thinking is that there is evidence to suggest Trump was fucking underage girls at Epstein’s place.