“POT CALCULUS” UNDERWAY AT S.C. STATE HOUSE
|| By FITSNEWS || Legalizing marijuana for medical purposes could create a financial windfall for state government, sources familiar with pending proposals tell FITS.
S.C. Senator Tom Davis and State Rep. Jenny Horne are rolling out a new medical marijuana bill this session – although it’s not immediately clear what sort of revenue impact their legislation is projecting.
What is clear? People are starting to do the math in an effort to determine how much money would flow to the state in the event medical marijuana becomes legal. Under one concept floated to FITS, South Carolinians who receive a doctor’s permission to use medical marijuana would be required to obtain a one-time license at a cost of $25.
Assuming Palmetto State residents availed themselves of medical-grade pot at the same rate as citizens in other states, such a licensing fee could net the state anywhere between $5-10 million a year.
Obviously that’s chump change in a $25 billion (and growing) budget … but it’s also just the tip of pot leaf, so to speak.
The real money from legalizing medical marijuana would come from taxing its sale – at roughly $20 per ounce, according to one estimate. Again – assuming typical usage levels – state coffers could expect to ring anywhere in the neighborhood of $10-15 million per month (or $120-180 million annually).
Legalization opponents say these figures are grossly inflated. Meanwhile proponents describe the estimates as “conservative.” No surprise there, huh?
We’re not sure whose math is correct, but we would humbly submit that excessive taxation of prescribed medical marijuana (which has driven prices as high as $600 an ounce in some states) could cause a flood of black market purchases – driving down the state’s take.
That’s fine with us … government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has an addiction to new spending. And a refusal to cut non-core functions.
This notion that we should legalize pot – medical or recreational – because government “needs the money” is ludicrous. It also ignores the real reason pot should be legal recreationally: Individual liberty. And the real reason it should be legal medically: To help people who are suffering.
This website has long advocated for the decriminalization of marijuana for medical and recreational purposes, and we believe commercial activity associated with decriminalized pot (and other drugs) should be regulated and taxed in a manner consistent with the way alcohol is regulated and taxed. Perhaps even less stringently.
“Pot certainly shouldn’t be assigned an ‘extra’ tax simply because elected officials at all levels of government are failing miserably in their efforts to prioritize core functions of government,” we wrote recently.
Let’s hope lawmakers keep that in mind as they tabulate the “take” from medical marijuana …
14 comments
Off. Not off of. It’s the headline for Pete’s sake.
Where the hell is medical marijuana $600 oz? That’s insane!
Maybe we can get everybody’s newest rock star Rick Reames to have DOR tax it to death. Or is he too busy listening to all the fawning from the statehouse insiders?? Quit listening to your accolades and do your job!
The bible talks about feeding the hungry, healing the sick, clothing the naked and housing the homeless.
It turns out those aren’t just the right things to do, they’re some of the biggest markets in the world.
Legal Marijuana is already a $2.7B market, growing at 74% a year.
There’s a real gold rush going on. Whenever that is, lots of people make lots of money, especially people who sell picks and shovels.
There’s a lot of room for growth, considering that only a few states have fully legalized Marijuana. That its not legal at all in 27 other ones, and that its been the biggest cash crop in America for years, even bigger than corn.
The second half of the second decade of the 21st century may very well be “The Marijuana age”
Marijuana is a “Wonder Drug” for Cancer patients, for Kids who suffer from Seizures, and for so many diseases of so many kinds.
Its a fast and highly effective pain reliever, and its incredibly safe. Its the only painkiller that users can safely self-tirate over a wide range and is the only painkiller that is physically impossible to overdose on.
Its a rapid acting and incredibly safe and effective anti-depressant — it doesn’t takes weeks to start working like SSRIs, and rather than increasing the chances of its users committing suicide, a real problem when young people are given SSRIs, it reduces suicide rates.
When used recreationally, its far safer than Alcohol, and infinitely safer than Cigarettes. Its helped countless people detox from Alcohol and hard drugs and not relapse on them.
Marijuana, and its cousin, Hemp, feed the hungry (Hemp for food and Hemp animal feed), heal the sick (Medical Marijuana), clothe the naked (Hemp Fabric), and house the homeless (HempCrete building materials).
Marijuana oil may have been the “miracle” healing oil used in biblical times and talked about in the bible.
Its easy and cheap to grow and can be easily processed into food, medicine, clothing, paper, and housing supplies, at very low cost, with very little equipment, and that’s incredibly important in the third world.
People are going to make $Billions off of legal Marijuana, but that’s not the reason to legalize it.
The reason to legalize it is that its the right thing to do.
Every minute an American dies of Cancer. Cancer patients can’t wait.
Every American with Cancer deserves the right to have safe, legal, access to Medical Marijuana.
Please call the White House comment line at (202) 456-1111 and ask that the President issue the order to remove it from Schedule 1 Today.
SSRI’s are far superior to pot as an anti-depressant .It DOES NOT kill pain,but increases appetite.It can exacerbate pain,and trigger psychotic episodes. I have seen that first hand.
In some states,you have to get a new medical marijuana every month,and pot doctors make a million a year,so decriminalization is the way to go;anyone who wants it can get it.Medical Marijuana keeps it illegal,and under government control.I hate the stuff.It gives me bronchitis,just like tobacco.Luckily I quit both 30 years ago.
Don’t like it? Don’t use it. Simple enough.
You are full of shit. Take it from someone who KNOWS. SSRIs are not tolerated by everyone, they are not benign drugs, and they do NOT do anything for REAL pain, you moron. You have posted some of the most disgusting inappropriate sexual comments on this site, you need mental health help, because you are obviously addicted to porn or have serious behavioural problems. Any psychotic episodes clearly occurred to you and have never stopped. Apparently you are ignorant of the issues SSRIs present in a significant portion of the population. They have been around for decades–don’t you think it if they were effective pain killers the medical community would have noticed by now? The only drug allowed to be prescribed for mild pain is an SNRI anyway, and even that is highly questionable. But medical marijuana is prescribed for nausea to stop people from wasting away primarily, which SSRIs most certainly do nothing for. Shut up and sit down.
Time to legalize coke next! Don’t other with crack, there’s no money there.
Sounds good to me!
I can’t see any problems regulating marijuana for Medical needs the same way we regulate morphine
hey Sybil, What is wrong with taking my morphine patch and dividing it up in to 4 and selling quarters at the trailer park here in Clempson???
By Your comment it seems like you BOUGHT someones morphine patch, it’s not good for you
SC State University is an 1890-extension act school. Let them teach marijuana and hemp growing to small farmers in SC. Let a small crop tax help fund the bankrupt university.
It is time to end prohibition! It is our right as American Citizens. We should have a right to choose to partake in marijuana use as the same as alcohol. Let the cops do some real work & go after all the REAL drugs such as.heroin, cocaine, crack, & meth! That’s what law enforcement needs to be trying to fight! That’s why law enforment really wants to keep marijuana illegal so they don’t have to work as hard. They need to put our tax dollars to good use & get off there lazy bums & search for hard drugs.