Someone said decriminalize it and tax it. That won't do if you decriminalized it, it would still be
illegal therefore it could not be taxed. You can't apply legal taxation to an activity that is in fact
illegal. The real issue is , will any government have the political will to legalize these substances?
The tax money is appealing, just think the BC Liberals put their government in electoral hot water
sliding the HST under the door, for 1.7 billion. I don't know, if they want to go through the hoops
that legalizing pot would bring about.
Good catch. That's the Fraser institute for you. Some think tank.
One of the worst ideas is to think that Cannabis sales will some how save the day. It won't. For starters, the tax would have to be so low that the people who enjoy Cannabis or use it for medicinal purposes stop buying from what are at this point criminals. Government grown Cannabis is a failure. No one wants it because of poor quality.
Setting up regulation for a legalized Cannabis industry will cost money to enforce, and collect taxes off of to start with. If those taxes put the price of a bag any where near what it is from the local dealer, the dealer will simply lower the price to compete. So no taxes collected.
It's folly to think this could be changed with the stroke of the pen and for the most part, politicians don't have the knowledge to change this situation to start with.
So organized crime wins and the profits they make off of Cannabis sales will continue to buy guns, meth labs, gangsters, cops and politicians.