Nov 30, 2009

George Will Rips Open a Giant Bag of Idiot

You can always count on George Will to be the biggest moron on any given subject. Today, he tackles the scary world of marijuana.

First, the horror of legalized pot.

Customers -- this, not patients, is what most really are -- tell doctors at the dispensaries that they suffer from insomnia, anxiety, headaches, premenstrual syndrome, "chronic pain," whatever, and pay nominal fees for "prescriptions." Most really just want to smoke pot.

Oh no. Dear God, no. George really cracked open this case.

George then explains that the majority of us Californians want pot to be completely legalized (Yes). Then he breaks down why that's a super bad idea.

State governments, misunderstanding markets and ravenous for revenue, exaggerate the potential windfall from taxing legalized marijuana. California thinks it might reap $1.4 billion. But Rosalie Pacula, a Rand Corp. economist, estimates that prohibition raises marijuana production costs at least 400 percent, so legalization would cause prices to fall much more than the 50 percent assumed by the $1.4 billion estimate.

Take that. A bunch of state governments think they will get major cash flow from a pot tax - but WILL KNOWS A DUDE who says different. Sorry, dude lady. She's all, "Uh uh." And George was like, "Wha?"

Furthermore, marijuana is a normal good in that demand for it varies with price. Legalization, by drastically lowering price, will increase marijuana's public health costs, including mental and respiratory problems, and motor vehicle accidents.


So. Wait. If we legalize it, the price will go down and more people will go crazy and die in car crashes? Wow. That's maybe the most retarded argument against legalizing pot I've ever read. Even a stoner wouldn't think something so stupid up.

States attempting to use high taxes to keep marijuana prices artificially high would leave a large market for much cheaper illegal -- unregulated and untaxed -- marijuana. So revenue (and law enforcement savings) would depend on the price falling close to the cost of production. In the 1990s, a mere $2 per pack difference between U.S. and Canadian cigarette prices created such a smuggling problem that Canada repealed a cigarette tax increase.

Wait. You mean a tax that doubled the price of a pack of smokes led to smuggling? You don't say. I'm amazed. Didn't you just say the price drop would lead to more car accidents? I'm confused. Please tell me about the scourge of alcohol smuggling we Americans endure due to it being taxed.

No?

Nothing?

You're a retard.

1 comment:

libhom said...

Maybe Will is bitter cause he's allergic to pot like me. I'm willing to live with chocolate instead, but maybe he just wants more.