Portland Maine becomes first East Coast city to legalize marijuana

[-King-]

Portland, Maine, Legalizes Recreational Marijuana

By Robin Wilkey Posted: 11/05/2013 9:56 pm EST | Updated: 11/06/2013 12:06 pm EST


Portland, Maine, voters on Tuesday approved legalizing recreational marijuana for residents 21 and older. The measure, Question 1, passed with about 70 percent of the vote, making Portland the first East Coast city to legalize recreational pot.

Adult residents of Portland -- Maine's largest city -- may possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana under the referendum. The new measure does not permit the recreational purchase or sale of marijuana, nor does it permit its use in public spaces like parks.

"Most Portlanders, like most Americans, are fed up with our nation's failed marijuana prohibition laws," said David Boyer of the Marijuana Policy Project, a marijuana advocacy group. "We applaud Portland voters for adopting a smarter marijuana policy, and we look forward to working with city officials to ensure it is implemented."

Marijuana advocates anxiously awaited the city vote result:

Medical marijuana is already legal in Maine, and the Portland referendum is seen as largely symbolic, as it does not override state or federal laws. But the passage could spark further efforts to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, as it was in Washington and Colorado in November 2012.

"I think there's national implications, keeping the momentum that Washington and Colorado started last November in ending marijuana prohibition," said Boyert in anticipation of the vote. "This is just the next domino."

While the measure did not face organized opposition, some did raise concern over the Marijuana Policy Project's Metro bus ad campaign. Some said the ads promoted the use of marijuana, not just the passage of Question 1.

"It's highly inappropriate to be promoting pro-marijuana message in a place that has a large audience of people under the age of 21," said drug prevention group 21 Reasons spokeswoman Kate Perkins to local news group WCHS.

Metro officials reviewed the transit agency's policy and said the ads fall in line with political advertisements.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...n_4221919.html

[Dayze]

yep. If they can find a way to make money without alienating their voting base, they'll do it in a heart beat.

look forward to a "Growing Permit"; $100 per plant. Must be renewed every 6 months.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by -King-

The revenue was over $1.5 billion this year. Next year they say it will be over $2.3 billion making it the fastest growing industry in the nation. And that's just coming from 2.5 states (not all the way legal in California).

Originally Posted by Flachief58

Not to mention the money they will be saving by not having to criminalize people for having a joint on them

not to mention the financial blow it makes to the drug lords in mexico

which will lead to a more stable Mexico, good for the U.S.

[Cmd'r&Chief]

Originally Posted by L.A. Chieffan

Just go ahead and legalize crack and heroin. Sorry if i don't want my kids school bus driver to be Otto

Don't be a lesbian. A person can choose to smoke pot and drive just the same as they can choose to drink and drive. Smoking pot needs to be used with the same responsibility and consideration as alcohol.

Seriously though, quit being "one of those people". It shows complete ignorance and refusal to having an open mind on a subject you clearly have not educated yourself on. Just because school and politicians told you Marijuana was a gateway drug 30 years ago doesn't make it fact.

[Dayze]

Boom.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

not to mention the financial blow it makes to the drug lords in mexico

which will lead to a more stable Mexico, good for the U.S.

While true, the impact won't be as huge as some people make it out to be. Same source as before...

Does the marijuana trade fund drug violence in Mexico?

It has been widely asserted that Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) earn more than 60 percent of their revenue from marijuana. That figure has been used by advocates of strong enforcement policies as an argument for cracking down on marijuana users and by Proposition 19 advocates to bolster claims that marijuana legalization in California would diminish the profits of Mexican DTOs.

But the figure fits Ambrose Bierce’s definition of a prejudice: “A vagrant opinion, living without visible means of support.” The original source seems to have been a bar chart in the 2006 National Drug Control Strategy report displaying estimated Mexican DTO revenues from cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine. Without citing any data, the text accompanying that chart states that “61 percent of that revenue, or $8.5 billion, is directly tied to marijuana export sales.”

The serious, documented analyses estimate the dollar value of the U.S. retail market for cocaine to be roughly twice as large as the marijuana market, and the bulk of the cocaine comes into the United States through Mexico. So it’s hard to see how the 60 percent estimate could be true. Indeed, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has formally disavowed the 60 percent estimate, and RAND estimated that the actual figure was likely between 15 and 26 percent. Yet it would be overoptimistic to expect such an excitingly high figure to disappear from the discourse simply because it happens to be wrong; many years ago, Peter Reuter identified “the continuing vitality of mythical numbers” as one of the signal characteristics of drug policy debate.

Still, some DTO revenues do come from marijuana sales, and national legalization would reduce those sales to nearly zero (unless taxes were high enough to support continued smuggling for tax evasion). It is not clear how a 20 percent reduction in drug export revenue—to pick one plausible figure—would affect DTO violence. In the first place, a 20 percent reduction in drug export revenue does not imply a 20 percent reduction in total revenue. Despite the “D” in the acronym, DTOs are diversified criminal enterprises that parlay their capacity for violence into a variety of revenue streams including kidnapping, extortion, carjacking, and other activities.

It is not even clear that a 20 percent reduction in total revenue would lead to a proportionate reduction in violence. It might. Or it might prompt reallocation of “soldiers” from drug trafficking into other activities, some of which might generate greater violence per person or per million dollars than drug trafficking does. And even if the DTOs laid off these soldiers rather than reassigning them, the alternate work they sought might or might not be peaceful.

So there are many caveats about the effect of marijuana legalization in the United States on violence in Mexico. However, the basic point presumably holds that, at least in the long run, marijuana legalization would make a meaningful, but not decisive, contribution to reducing the flow of funds to violent Mexican DTOs.

[DaFace]

Regarding the taxes, they're definitely high, but a lot of the argument for legalization was about all of the money that could be made by taxing it that could then go to other programs (in Colorado's case, education). I would've been floored if the taxes hadn't passed given that there's still a bit of a concern about having enough money to regulate it.

After a few states go forward as guinea pigs, we'll have better information about what a reasonable tax level should be.

[SLAG]

Originally Posted by Katipan

Nancy Reagan's just say no campaign. Which I think was just the same slogan they used during the feminist movement.

Plus DARE. I remember lots of DARE.

LOL

I C WUT U DID THURR


and WoW

I had to do a double take as to who was replying to my post.

It really is you!

[the Talking Can]

[the Talking Can]

3 cities in michigan also passed bills:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...n_4221350.html


and I live in a state that won't legalize it for about 20 years, probably...fml

[Johnny Vegas]

lets just say if every state passed a marijuana legalization bill and the 50 states total averaged around $1.5 billion a year in tax revenue to the fed. At the deficit its at now around $17 trillion it'll take 225 years to wipe the deficit clean. $2.5 billion a year would take 136 years and if it increased lets say to $4.5 billion it'd take 75 years. Of course the deficit would continue to go up every year so how long would it really take and what exactly would the do fed with all that extra tax revenue? put it towards the deficit? I highly doubt it.

[Dayze]

hell no they wouldn't

[OrtonsPiercedTaint]

Demonizing tobacco and championing marijuana?

Unless of course baning public smoking is just setting the table for no public marijuana use....I guess. People

[durtyrute]

You guys are talking like they would do something good with the tax money. We spend billions of dollars a year making lasers and going to other planets. Meanwhile, there are schools around the country that are starving for financial assistance. If they wanted to help they could do it now. But look at it like this, if it did become legal, the police might be able to get lamborghinis instead of chargers.












































and more stun guns.

[Pepe Silvia]

Originally Posted by Johnny Vegas

lets just say if every state passed a marijuana legalization bill and the 50 states total averaged around $1.5 billion a year in tax revenue to the fed. At the deficit its at now around $17 trillion it'll take 225 years to wipe the deficit clean. $2.5 billion a year would take 136 years and if it increased lets say to $4.5 billion it'd take 75 years. Of course the deficit would continue to go up every year so how long would it really take and what exactly would the do fed with all that extra tax revenue? put it towards the deficit? I highly doubt it.

**** no, it will be going in their bank accounts.

[Fat Elvis]

Originally Posted by L.A. Chieffan

Just go ahead and legalize crack and heroin. Sorry if i don't want my kids school bus driver to be Otto

Yeah, we have enough problems with alcohol being legal and all those drunk-ass school bus drivers mowing down kids at the cross walk.