We should be up to date on the points of view so I offer this link.

It's is a well written article on what California faces when it legalizes.

https://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20090814.html




I find that he states We can Legalize in California or any State can Legalize cannabis but that Federal law may be a problem especially when you file taxes.

My question is: Isn't the Federal getting Tax monies already from Medical clubs?

[Tony Aroma]

I've often wondered about how people aren't allowed to discuss their state's medical marijuana situation in federal court (at least until recently). That's because federal courts view state's laws as irrelevant. But if a person files a federal tax return for a mmj dispensary, isn't that relevant? Income tax is a federal thing, so evidence of paying it should be allowed to be discussed in a federal court. Could that be a way of bringing up the medical issue in a federal court? If the federal government is taking their tax money, isn't that implicitly accepting the operation as a legitimate business?

[JWH-018]

Sadly, no. Even if you're slingin' that crack you've got to pay uncle sam: "According to the Internal Revenue Code, income derived from any source, including illegally earned income, is subject to income tax." (irs.gov)

That article was well written and raised some good points. I agree that any tax plan is unlikely to make nearly the impact predicted on the state budget. No one mentions that ab390 funds only go to drug treatment, lee's wouldn't pay the state a dime and others gloss over the fact that 2/3rds of the ca crop gets shipped out of state.

Otherwise though, he may make a decent law professor but he's pretty disconnected from the reality of it. He basically paints a picture of shady dealers in alleys and massive narcotraficante organizations with pallets of shrink wrapped money AFTER legalization. Which doesn't really fit with everyone else's plans for weed-marts and drug tourism. While some mmj businesses didn't or don't pay taxes out of fear, most just do it not to pay taxes. He forgets the other 75% of mid-size illegal cannabis that jump through hoops to clean up illegal cash and pay taxes so they can buy more than gangster bling. After legalization the DEA wouldn't be looking to the IRS as their chief snitch... they'd just log on to weedtracker if they cared.

That was an excellent couple of replies..

Yeah I agree that he writes well and I agree that it was little more than Intelligently written Refer madness type stuff..

Of all the Initiatives CaliforniaCannabisInitiative.o rg is the only one that does the people good.

We need to forge ahead IMO.. We will never get anywhere waiting for our elders to grant us cannabis freedom.

It's good to see the other side of thing yes?

[maxxim]

OK so the taxes are nominal....

You need to be finding out how many jobs are supported by pot....

The state of employment in this country right now is horrendous. If we had a plan for employing 500,000 or more people with middle class pay for cultivating and selling pot then maybe we could get a little more attention.

Seriously how many people do the dispensaries in just LA employ? How many growers are employed just to supply those shops? With that how many jobs nationwide could we create and what could we drop the unemployment % to if successful?

We already have public support IMO we just need to provide the vehicle for delivery of the plan.

Of course we need to work out that plan first....

[Tony Aroma]

Originally Posted by JWH-018

Sadly, no. Even if you're slingin' that crack you've got to pay uncle sam: "According to the Internal Revenue Code, income derived from any source, including illegally earned income, is subject to income tax."

I didn't realize that. Although I guess I should have. That's how they got Al Capone.

But even so, if you could show evidence that you paid federal taxes on a mmj dispensary, that would at least be a way to bring up the medical issue that federal courts don't want juries to hear about. Maybe just the knowledge that a defendant is operating a legal (in their state) dispensary and not the major drug kingpin federal prosecutors make them out to be might sway the jury.

I think folks are paying federal in Clubs...

There is something they are doing to stay right.. Paying but not reporting?

Shit is stupid.. If it becomes Legal then Things will change Nation wide.. I would think Oregon and a couple other states will be in by no later than 2012..

What can we do? We have to step up and change things or things won't change..

If it was me I would be sure to pay my Federal portion of any monies from business I'm supposed to.. Weather I would then claim that in my filing I don't know.. I bet the Federal government doesn't fine ya if you pay more than you have to or some such thing but don't it suck ass to owe at the end of the year? And Doubly so if Jail time is involved.

[poina]

Sadly, I don't think any 1 thing can save this sinking ship. Most of the blame can be set on the last 2 generations of Americans, who think they are ENTITLED to live the good life of consumption.

Add in elected officials who believe they are ENTITLED to live better than the rest of us, with no balls to make the case of living within our means, too scared to vote for fiscal responsibility for fear of being voted out of office.

Now with social security and medicare both bankrupt, and our insane passion of sticking our nose in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the right wing wanting a trillion dollar budget for the defense department, which in reality is a corporate giveaway. (remember Viet Nam?)

Goodbye Pax Americana

[j6p]

The article is right - states which legalize will not collect tax revenue from recreational mj any time soon, because congress will keep it illegal at the federal level. No one is likely to file a wholesale mj op if it will land them in federal prison. The article points out that the supreme court is leaving mj laws for congress to decide.

If Cali and other states legalize, they initially have de facto legalization for personal use. This should enable folks to have small PU grows etc without fear of state LEO. Congress will balk, and send DEA after larger ops in mj-legal states. But with the growing tide of mmj states leading the way, my prediction is that Congress will gradually relent, although it will probably take years. No tax money for the states in the meantime, but (hopefully) a few less people behind bars.