Colorado barber shop bans people who stink of pot, says young customers' parents didn't like smell

And I say he has every right to do it. Besides who really wants to get a hair cut when they're high?

In the end it is just a different way to cut the pie. I would expect illegal drug enforcement budgets and alcohal tax revenue to shrink, among other changes. The real question to be answered is will the pie grow or shrink?

My guess is that it will increase, but not as much as people think. My experience is that grandiose expectations for revenue raised by sin taxes seldom come true.

Cousin Dave, Is that the government pie or the economic pie? I would hope the economic pie grows and the government pie shrinks (or at least grows at a slower rate than the economic pie.

Goo, my guess is that there will be a short-term gain on both sides. However, as evidenced by the post-Prohibition history of liquor sales, eventually more states will legalize it and there will be more choices of where to get it. Once this happens, some jurisdictions will have high taxes and some will be lower. And, just as occurs with liquor sales, the bulk of the sales will go to the lower-tax districts. Given its recently history, Colorado will be one of the former, and as revenue starts to trail off with purchases going out of state, there will be demands for tax increases, which will further decrease revenue as it heads down the back side of the Laffer curve.

Thanks Cousin Dave. Interesting.

I imagine like wineries and breweries, there will eventually be "token tours" featuring the latest fad in the weed world.

Can we expect news stories about how much legalized pot will be costing states in terms of extra police spending to enforce DUI laws, tax collection, etc.?

I won't hold my breath . . .

Y'know, Goo, I had not thought about that... but yeah, at some point (probably fairly soon) you're going to start seeing suppliers attempting brand differentiation. Makes you wonder where this is all going to go... flavored varieties? Gourmet? "Single field"?

There were a lot of stories and rumors back in the early '70s about tobacco and liquor companies having registered various brand names for marijuana, in anticipation of a legalization that didn't arrive back then. I wonder how many people are doing a trademark search on "Acapulco Gold" right now. (Or am I showing my age with that one...)

Just watch, all the tax money raised through pot sales will be spent on ... enforcing the new pot laws.

Here in Washington state, I know the liquor control board (enforcers of our new pot laws) is just rubbing their grubby little hands together. All those new employees, new departments and divisions, new fleets of vehicles. With the increased harassment, I mean enforcement, of the licensed growers and sellers, it'll just send it all back underground. Hence, less in taxes. Hence, increased enforcement by the liquor board as they try to retain their funding. Hence, not a fucking thing has changed.

Supposedly, here in Colorado, that money is supposed to go to building new schools.

I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm glad they legalized it though!

IIRC, that amount of money will fund the Florida school system for almost 9 hours. Oh boy.

Got a standard for impairment in industry yet?

Hence, not a fucking thing has changed.

Posted by: David Crawford at March 12, 2014 2:52 PM
_______________________________

Except, oh, that trivial matter of not treating peaceful citizens like violent felons. Not to mention what such treatment used to do to the offenders' families. Not to mention the millions (in Colorado alone) that were spent on such law enforcement.

(Not that illegal marijuana isn't CURRENTLY alive and well in CO, just as black-market tobacco is alive everywhere.)