A Conversation with a Friend

This is a conversation I had with one of my friends via Facebook. I wanted to put this up because it shows a different point of view and I believe it is important to know what the other side of the conversation has to say. This is in response to my post Are You Telling Me The Government Can’t Tax Something? The link to this post can be found here:http://legalizeit-ryan.blogspot.com/2011/10/are-you-telling-me-government-cant-tax.html

I would like to point out that our discussion was civil and that neither of us got out of control. I pride myself on having intelligent conversations. Here is the discussion we had. Enjoy!

Friend: How would you tax it when anyone can grow it? There is no way to track the plant, so I see it being pointless. If the government can't track it how can they tax it?

Me: Good question. Granted anyone can grow a plant, but the goal would be to mass produce it and regulate it like any other U.S. crop. This way it can be processed and sold much like tobacco is today for example. I doubt that every user would try to grow it in their houses when it would be easier to buy it from a store that is licensed to sell it. Thank you for the comment I really appreciate any sort of feedback you have.

Friend: Yes I see your point but with all the pot smokers in the U.S. I think the smokers would just have one plant that they would use. You could grow the thing in your house. Corn and other plants are much larger and is grown for food. I just don't see how the government will get any money from it. All you need is to have your buddy give you a seed and then you grow it. How would the government know about that transaction? Or your buddy has a couple plants and he is selling some weed and you say hey could I get some weed from you and he charges you a couple hundred bucks for the pot. How is the government going to know you bought the stuff? Do you get my drift? I personally pot smokers are using the "taxation" as a means to legalize it and the government won’t be able to collect.

Me: I get ya. But someone would have to grow a lot of plants to produce enough for recreational use, and I don't think a lot of pot smokers would put the effort into to growing their own supply.

Friend: You would be surprised what people do for pot. I have seen false walls for a pot room in an apartment, garages, attics, and a bedroom. I have heard of people putting a sea container underground to grow pot in. Imagine it being legal.

Me: Yes this happens, but most pot smokers get there product from it being smuggled a crossed the border. Not all of them grow it themselves. And I don't see individual growing ever meeting the national demand.

The more we have discussions about marijuana the more people we will be able to reach out to. We need to keep the conversation alive in order to continue the movement. I urge all of you to go out and start talking about marijuana more so that we can affect more people.