Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @12:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the first-sale-at-4:20 dept.

California launches legal sale of cannabis for recreational use

California will launch the world's largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana on Monday, as dozens of newly licensed stores catering to adults who enjoy the drug for its psychoactive effects open for business up and down the state.

It becomes the sixth U.S. state, and by far the most populous, venturing beyond legalized medical marijuana to permit the sale of cannabis products of all types to customers at least 21 years old.

Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada were the first to introduce recreational pot sales on a state-regulated, licensed and taxed basis. Massachusetts and Maine are on track to follow suit later this year.

With California and its 39.5 million residents officially joining the pack, more than one-in-five Americans now live in states where recreational marijuana is legal for purchase, even though cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law.

The marijuana market in California alone, which boasts the world's sixth-largest economy, is valued by most experts at several billion dollars annually and is expected to generate at least a $1 billion a year in tax revenue.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:46AM (1 child)

    by looorg (578) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:46AM (#616689)

    The downside of crime, it very rarely pays. I seem to recall having read numerous studies where they conclude that if criminals had just taken the worst of lowpaying McJobs they would in the long run have been better off. There is just a small group of criminals that actually make decent money and it usually doesn't last or the risks, as you have noted them, are staggering. Not only from the justice-system but also from other criminals.

    I think one of the interesting side effects might be what the legalization and industrialization of growing might to do to the (mexican-) drug cartels south of the border. It should be murder on their weed related business. There shouldn't be any point in smuggling in weed from outside anymore. I guess they have to shift their entire focus to harder drugs. One wonders if they might set up "legal" growfarms on the northern side of the border, might be a great money laundering facility if they can get into the network on the legal side of things.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:45PM (#616731)

    I'd wager that even if you somehow were able to go back in time and tell each and every one of the individuals, the criminals, the exact statistics - and have them somehow completely believe you - that they would still choose crime. There's more to life than maximizing expected income. Going the route outside of McJobs comes with the potential for massive gains as well respect. People who work McJobs are generally treated like jokes, and their potential for meaningful gains are near 0. That's not a pleasant existence, even if it may be the tortoise beating the hare in most cases.