Legalizing recreational use of pot in CO

Didn't read the entire thread so if this was already mentioned please forgive me.

One of the reasons prohibition was overturned was that once the legislators saw all of the revenue they were missing it didn't take long to pass the 21st. Sure there were arguments made that it would cut down on the lawlessness (probably true and germane to this discussion) but standing between a congressman and money is a sure way to be trampled.
 
Mooradian said:
Since we have a Supremacy Clause, Article 6 of the US Constitution if I am not mistaken, technically someone could smoke pot and be fine around local police in CO but could still be arrested by Federal agents since the federal ruling that Marijuana is illegal reigns supreme over a state ruling.
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Except that, for federal officials, the amount of the drug present matters. I'm only seeing it from the USCG point of view (maybe there's a federal agency that can arrest for personal use). The quantities the U.S. Coast Guard can arrest for are large than small personal use amounts.

That said, "Say no to drugs."
 
LineInTheSand said:
Except that, for federal officials, the amount of the drug present matters. I'm only seeing it from the USCG point of view (maybe there's a federal agency that can arrest for personal use). The quantities the U.S. Coast Guard can arrest for are large than small personal use amounts.

That said, "Say no to drugs."
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Please forgive my ignorance on any nautical terms that I mess up on when I ask this question!

So if you (sic USCG) board a recreational craft and they have marijuana onboard if it's below a certain amount you don't charge/arrest them or detain them for local police?

If so I never knew that.
 
Boozebin said:
Please forgive my ignorance on any nautical terms that I mess up on when I ask this question!

So if you (sic USCG) board a recreational craft and they have marijuana onboard if it's below a certain amount you don't charge/arrest them or detain them for local police?

If so I never knew that.
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That's how it was explained in maritime law enforcement class....but now I can't find anything to cite....

I could be wrong...I've been wrong before. Any CG boarding officers would be good to weigh in.
 
Jcleppe said:
I fear that setting up a new department within the Liquor Control Board to monitor and run State stores that will be allowed to sell the Pot will off set a lot of the money that is brought in.
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I work for the WA State Liquor Control Board and I want to clarify a couple things in this post. There will not be a new department in our agency. The licensing will be handled by the same employees who currently license businesses for alcohol sales, we may need to hire a couple more people, but we don't know yet. We already have an enforcement section that monitors and enforces the alcohol laws and they will also be handling the enforcement of this new law. There will most likely be more enforcement officers hired but that has already happened since alcohol sales went privatized; more outlets selling = more people needed to enforce the rules. In the law it states the tax money brought in from the sale of pot will fund the additional enforcement officers and licensing employees in addition to other things.

Also the State of WA will NOT be running stores to sell pot, they will only be licensing stores like we now do for alcohol sales. Pot sales will be privatized from the start.

I don't doubt the cost of pot will go up due to the taxes but what remains to be seen is if sales will go up too. I know people who have been reluctant to buy and smoke pot because of the possibility of being arrested, these same people are willing to pay more per gram if they can get it legally and not have to risk arrest. There will always be a black market for those who don't care about doing things legally, nothing you can do about that, but law abiding people will choose to pay the taxes.
 
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