[ridenrain]

We always hear the belief that if pot is legalized, it can be regulated and taxed, but that's not how it works. The link goes to an article in the Wall Street Journal report on cigatette smuggling in New York and explains how a legal and regulated product like tobbacco is smuggled in large quantities and the profits fund organized crime.


Story

$1:

On April 23, less than two weeks after Mr. Nablisi's arrest was made public, Gov. David Paterson signed into law a $1.25 per-pack tax hike on top of the state's $1.50 per-pack tax. That's in addition to New York City's own $1.50 per-pack tax. Come July 1, New York City's smokers will be paying on average $9 a pack for legal cigarettes.

But if history is any guide, most cigarettes sold will actually be trucked up from Virginia, or shipped in from China, by "butt-leggers" who can make over $1 million on each tractor-trailer load of smuggled smokes. The blunt fact, which politicians of both political parties are determined to ignore, is that high cigarette taxes in New York have led to a bloody, decades-long smuggling epidemic.

While the problem first surfaced during the Great Depression, tax hikes in the early 1960s created a major profit opportunity for smugglers and kicked the epidemic into high gear. By 1967, a quarter of the cigarettes consumed in the Empire State were bootlegged. New York City's finance administrator labeled cigarette smuggling the "principal stoking facility of the engine of organized crime."

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

[C.M. Burns]

The question is why wouldn't pot be any different than everything else?
Everywhere a dollar can be made it's being made - whether illegal or not. You've got yer bootleg cigs and yer bootleg booze and yer bootleg jeans and yer bootleg watches. Anything valuable that can be had for a cheaper price will be provided by somebody - gas, food, electricity, movies, DVD's. We steal, sell and buy everything! There's a black market for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics and sugar and spice and everything nice! Why would pot be the only thing that isn't on the black market! Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't already happening.

[ziggy]

And you have your pot dealers everywhere that the cops ignore but if cigs are being sold black market then the feds step in.Then it's shiny black vans with surveillance equipment,customs and excise people,and the tax boys all getting in there.

I watched one go down here in my little burg,a 6 month investigation showed that a retired disabled mechanic was selling native tobbaco to pay for his wifes medication so she could stay alive,because a buds x was involved I got the skinny on the whole thing as they seized everything she had and was going to take her kids unless she turned informant.This dragged on for 6 months with allmost 20 feds involved,they wound up charging one guy in another town and found the mechanic and his wife in the garage the next day with the engine running.They has seized all his bank accounts and was going to garnishee what little he had coming in and take all his possesions and auction them off.
He was making about $300.00/week on this,just enough to pay for med,s that he couldnt afford because he lost his Alberta Health Care years ago because it's expensive unless your on welfare or make next to nothing,then it's free.

So I'm just letting off a rant,this topic reminded me of that guy and what the fed's spent on making him feel like his 68 years he put into helping build this country was a waste of time.

Sure he broke the law but I'm sure most in the same situation would also if it meant keeping alive and not really hurting anyone except the tax department.

[Wally_Sconce]

if anyone can give me a tip on how to find boot legged gasoline, I'd buy it.

[ShepherdsDog]

I've seen on the news that stealing diesel and reselling it is getting popular

[Public_Domain]

ridenrain ridenrain:

We always hear the belief that if pot is legalized, it can be regulated and taxed, but that's not how it works. The link goes to an article in the Wall Street Journal report on cigatette smuggling in New York and explains how a legal and regulated product like tobbacco is smuggled in large quantities and the profits fund organized crime.


Story

$1:

On April 23, less than two weeks after Mr. Nablisi's arrest was made public, Gov. David Paterson signed into law a $1.25 per-pack tax hike on top of the state's $1.50 per-pack tax. That's in addition to New York City's own $1.50 per-pack tax. Come July 1, New York City's smokers will be paying on average $9 a pack for legal cigarettes.

But if history is any guide, most cigarettes sold will actually be trucked up from Virginia, or shipped in from China, by "butt-leggers" who can make over $1 million on each tractor-trailer load of smuggled smokes. The blunt fact, which politicians of both political parties are determined to ignore, is that high cigarette taxes in New York have led to a bloody, decades-long smuggling epidemic.

While the problem first surfaced during the Great Depression, tax hikes in the early 1960s created a major profit opportunity for smugglers and kicked the epidemic into high gear. By 1967, a quarter of the cigarettes consumed in the Empire State were bootlegged. New York City's finance administrator labeled cigarette smuggling the "principal stoking facility of the engine of organized crime."

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

Well you're right.

So let's criminalize Cigarettes and Alcohol then, I suppose?

It's all a matter of what's fair and what you'll allow to be fair.

I maintain the argument that Either pot should be legalized or Cigs and Liquor should be Criminalized.

And we all know the latter is hardly an option. Cigs are getting there, But liquor will never go on prohibition ever again.

[romanP]

If you want to eliminate crime, you're going to have to kill everyone. People committing crimes with stuff that a person can possess is always going to happen. Take away drugs, and it'll be contraband clothing or movies or pretty much anything that anyone can sell for a minor profit.

[Blue_Nose]

ridenrain ridenrain:

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

So how is showing that pot, alcohol, and cigarettes are all the same help your case that just one of the three should be illegal?

[Benoit]

The first thing to consider before legalizing any addictive substances or activities is the capacity of the most vulnerable persons in the population to stay in control.

[mtbr]

Blue_Nose Blue_Nose:

ridenrain ridenrain:

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

So how is showing that pot, alcohol, and cigarettes are all the same help your case that just one of the three should be illegal?

we have a problem with two substances so we should throw in a third?..we don't need any more legal drugs.

[Benoit]

mtbr mtbr:

Blue_Nose Blue_Nose:

ridenrain ridenrain:

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

So how is showing that pot, alcohol, and cigarettes are all the same help your case that just one of the three should be illegal?

we have a problem with two substances so we should throw in a third?..we don't need any more legal drugs.

If Earth would be hospitable, humans would fall in no artificial paradises.

[Zipperfish]

mtbr mtbr:

Blue_Nose Blue_Nose:

ridenrain ridenrain:

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

So how is showing that pot, alcohol, and cigarettes are all the same help your case that just one of the three should be illegal?

we have a problem with two substances so we should throw in a third?..we don't need any more legal drugs.

Maybe you don't. Maybe others feel differently. Who are you to telll them how to live thier lives, comrade?

[mtbr]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

mtbr mtbr:

Blue_Nose Blue_Nose:

we have a problem with two substances so we should throw in a third?..we don't need any more legal drugs.

Maybe you don't. Maybe others feel differently. Who are you to telll them how to live thier lives, comrade?

[Benoit]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

mtbr mtbr:

Blue_Nose Blue_Nose:

ridenrain ridenrain:

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

So how is showing that pot, alcohol, and cigarettes are all the same help your case that just one of the three should be illegal?

we have a problem with two substances so we should throw in a third?..we don't need any more legal drugs.

Maybe you don't. Maybe others feel differently. Who are you to telll them how to live thier lives, comrade?

The behaviors of drug addicts in the public space is everybody's business.

[Blue_Nose]

mtbr mtbr:

Blue_Nose Blue_Nose:

ridenrain ridenrain:

The question is, why wouldn't this happen to pot as it does to cigarettes or alcohol.

So how is showing that pot, alcohol, and cigarettes are all the same help your case that just one of the three should be illegal?

we have a problem with two substances so we should throw in a third?..we don't need any more legal drugs.

So freedom's only necessary when you need something?