but what about the costs… family problems, healthcare (short term and long term), stoned driving…
lets be clear, there’s a LOT of downsides that people gloss over. it’s not like the majority of use will be by wealthy people buying this for responsible use in moderation… it’s a drug, people buy it to get high.
Because this is a democracy run by elected officials, so we do have control over everything but we’re too complacent to use our rights to destroy the patronage machine that has turned NY into the laughing stock of the Union. We’d rather just be helpless victims.
And because you touch yourself at night.
Most of these are already being faced now. The vast majority of people who want to smoke, do so, and the illegality has no impact. You’d be looking at MAYBE 10% of people who smoke being new users. That being said, you could divert a tiny portion of the huge amount of revenue coming in to better education and prevention on these issues, and it would solve most of the problem. This proposal has a whole lot less downsides than most if you’re pragmatic about it.
Prof from Harvard ran a statistical analysis and came back with, on a federal level, 15 billion in reduced spending and 13 billion in new income. Plus additional numbers for each state.
it’s not even marketed now… once it’s legal and the drug companies start to actively push it, I find it obvious that usage will go up exponentially… plus the illegal element won’t even go away since the legal product will be far weaker than the illegal stuff.
I don’t see any problems being solved, only new ones created.
We will see it in our lifetime. Hopefully sooner than later. This generation is much more tolerant of it, we just have to come into power.
There would be limits to it, just as there are cigarette marketing. Teen alcohol usage didn’t go up exponentially until they outlawed it. And the legal stuff will be just as strong as the illegal.
They should tax all soda, not just diet. And what is up with all fast food places getting rid of the small size cups, calling the mediums smalls, and bringing in the liter larges? Yuck.
Taxing the gas and cigs at the rez is something that needs to happen. The Indians could still buy tax free, so they won’t feel the increase. There is no reason why they should be able to sell tax free to non Indians. The Indians will just bitch because no one will drive out to the boonies anymore.
joe, now you’re just playing games with (unattributed) charts and numbers and making potentially false claims with cause and effect.
teen drinking “if” it went up after the age change could easily be attributed to more young people having better access to transportation as time went on along with a million and one other factors outside of saying it’s simply because it was now illegal.
like it or not, VAT tax will be the real solution to a lot of the current tax issues.
Chart came from here:
And it’s widely accepted that the outlawing of teen drinking caused its explosion in popularity. Hence the reason why many college presidents want to lower the drinking age.
I’m definitely way skeptical on both accounts. I firmly don’t believe there is accurate data on teen drinking from when it was legal. way too much jumping to conclusion on both accounts… it’s too easy to make the data do anything you want.
Joe,
Is there a total on what NYS spends on welfare each yr?I was just curious.
how much we spend no medicare is the problem, not welfare (because one of these two is very reducible).
I don’t even want to know. :io:
Probably, but I’m with Fry on this one. When they post up the proposed budget I’ll do a search for it.
but still, regardless of what the number is, it’s meaningless without context… so where are you going?
just like when people debate what a trillion dollars is.
Great. So the NYS is using the stimulus money to buy pop. Helloooo socialism. Wake up sheeple, the government is stealing your money!
/blue eyed devil
State leaders will credit the flow of federal stimulus money for being able to eliminate the controversial taxes, according to several people familiar with the plan.
BUT THE STIMULUS DOESN’T DO ANYTHING BUT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO BANKS AND PEOPLE WHO DONT PAY THEIR MORTGAGE! YOU WILL GET NOTHING FOR IT! ITS YOUR MONEY PEOPLE! YOU ARE BEING ROBBED!
lol…
I do kind of wish soda got a little more taxed, maybe up to the cost of milk. It wouldn’t only generate money, it would make people healthier.
Fine, tax soda. Everywhere it’s called POP will be exempt from said tax. For that matter, put a tax on calling it soda.
The government wasn’t created to make me “healthy”.