And there are naive fools who think that legalising cannabis will mean no illegal supply
Published:
June 30, 2014 at 9:55pm
Anything addictive that has a high excise tax (cigarettes, spirits) is going to be traded in a parallel black market, as contraband. The contraband market in cigarettes is absolutely huge and highly organised through criminal networks.
Exactly why does anybody imagine that cannabis will be any different, especially when the criminal networks that trade in it are right there already. Does anybody imagine they are going to go legal and start subjecting themselves to excise tax?
Or are there people out there in this debate who actually think that a legal market in cannabis is going to be subject to no excise tax at all?
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140630/local/63000-contraband-cigarettes-found-on-boat.525742
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140630/local/baggage-handler-fined-90000-for-contraband.525697
The majority of smokers would grow their own. Imported marijuana is largely adulterated crap, lower than the lowest quality. And yes, hash can be and is frequently messed with.
(You did say legal).
[Daphne – The fact that cannabis use is legal does not mean anybody can grow it or sell it. All those three things are generally governed by separate parts of the law.]
As if anyone who smokes weed gives a shit about the separate parts of the law.
Precisely – which is why legalising its sale will not lead to better regulatory control or reduced use.
10.5 million cigarettes found at Malta Freeport http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130704/local/105m-contraband-cigarettes-found-at-the-freeport.476623
A sign of the times.
Contraband cigarettes have the same origin as legally obtainable cigarettes.
How likely is it that this is organised by an entirely different key source?
Such networks are known, identified and have always been protected.
They are simply stronger and more durable than the life of democratic governments.
With stronger expansion and development projects.
Recently getting increasingly more legit.
Even in Malta.
Or, Malta facilitates this.
And no one bats an eyelid.
Contraband cigarettes were and probably still are coming from Indian reserves in the USA and Canada and you are absolutely right, that these are the same cigarettes from the main and large manufactures.
So it is in the interest of these large tobacco firms to by-pass government customs, duties and taxes so to sell their product and have their product cheap and available to addict new customers, as their customer base dies away and new customers are sought.
A few years ago these tobacco multinationals were fined by many state and provincial governments for their complicity with the cigarette smugglers, but it was the usual slap on the wrist kind of deal.
The decriminalization not legalization of soft drugs is what is going to happen on this island. Although it won’t change the fact that it is imported or grown illegally, it will change the fact that people who use cannabis won’t be treated as a criminal just for choosing weed over alcohol. I hope the PN won’t play the conservative card on this one!
The government will cultivate it at Ghammieri and distribute it through the POYC system.
Hows that for a positive idea .
Oh. I thought that system was already in place. The only difference is that Gozo’s roundabouts are being used instead.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-07-01/opinions/no-to-recreational-drugs-5675450373/
And, yet again, someone else also stresses the destructive nature of drugs and softer drugs inevitably acting as the gateway to harder drugs. I don’t know why people still have to have these things pointed out to them by this point.
As much as treatment should be prioritised over imprisonment for drug-users, I just can’t fathom why anyone would want to make access to drugs easier. Contraband will still be there, and any gains the government hopes to make from excise tax will only have to be spent on future treatment of drug-users anyway. There’s practically nothing to be gained.
You can grow a cannabis plant and smoke it(just dry it out and enjoy)but you cant grow tobacco.
Its better to smoke Maltese weed then Sicilian weed.
The Sicilians sell it here and take the money back home.
It would be better to have a plant or two and smoke it at home for personal use.
Thats the difference.
Decriminalising the sale of cannabis doesn’t mean growing the plant will be made legal.
The argument about keeping Maltese money in Malta is the weakest possible sort of defence.
And who shall I turn to when my children fry their brains after constant smoking or turn inevitably turn to heavier drugs? Shall I take you to court for encouraging drug use?
If you want to smoke weed, take heroin, pop LSD that is your affair. However, when you want to decriminalise drug use for recreational purposes you are infringing on my rights as a parent and as a concerned citizen.
Illegal cannabis would still be traded in a legalised market regardless of any or no tax upon it. Age restrictions would be got around and create a target market. Added to that an illegal supplier can always undercut a legal supplier.
Ma ndumux ma naraw xi hanut ibiegh iz-zerriegha tal-medical marijuana jiftah il-belt vicin il-parlament gdid taghna lkoll bhal ma qed jigri Kalifornja.
It is not surprising that people with drug rotted brains would be stupid enough to say that the legal supply of any popular commodity would stifle the burgeoning contraband of that commodity. Experience proves otherwise. That is why customs departments are so ubiquitous.
The big difference between marijuana and cigarettes is that marijuana is illegal in most parts of the world. The reason there is a black market for cigarettes is that you can buy a pack of malboro for 2 euros in some eastern european countries. Ilegal drugs however, will always be a lot more expensive than legal drugs, especially when it’s a plant that will grow outdoors, and even when you tax it.
I also see a lot of non arguments here, irrelevant suspicions and only citing research when it comes in handy. How are Portugal, the Netherlands and recently the state of Colorado not perfect examples of the positive effects of decriminalization. Almost every expert agrees that looking at the grand scheme of things it is the lesser of two evils, and it’s not close either.
Colorado has pulled in almost a 100 million dollars so far (since jan 1st of this year) in tax revenues of marijuana. You can ignore this for no reason other than to get your point across, but it blows everything you say here right out the window.
The amount of people that smoke marijuana in the Netherlands is lower than in other countries according to research. Which is funny, because these are unadjusted numbers and you’d think that someone from the Netherlands would be less afraid to admit they’ve used.
At the same time, one of the most oppressive countries towards cannabis in europe, a country that’s behind the rest at least 10 years (malta) in this regard, has the highest rate of heroin abuse… How do these numbers not speak to you?
The countries that decriminalized ended up with lower crime rates, less violence and less problems with addiction and abuse. These are “studies” that reflect sample sizes of millions of people.
And about the mental health effects, there is no research that suggests that cannabis use in healthy people has negative effects, only short term ones, which is when one is actually under the influence and shortly after. The research that does point towards health effects is not conclusive, only in some interpretations by some media, I’d suggest you read the actual research though.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/11/05/idUSL5730185
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111116/local/Malta-heroin-shock.394115
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20121207/recreational-marijuana-health-effects
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/colorado-marijuana-revenue_n_5574650.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13624303