Medical marijuana providers seeing green
Well Ralph, I guess you’re going to tell me I told you so and that my “old fashioned” conservative views on the legalization of marijuana for supposedly medical purposes has gone up in smoke knowing now that just nearly two months in, pot sales have surpassed those of some larger states and generated $2.2 million in sales.
I’ve said all along that this was a huge profit making scheme that is making a lot of people very rich, not to mention the fact how much the state is raking in as it relates to tax revenue.
In just this short period of time since the first “baggie” of pot was sold the state has collected $47,289 in sales tax revenues from May medical pot sales and that doesn’t include any city or county sales taxes. It collected another $55,396 from the privilege tax.
I am also told the there will be an estimated 40,000 legal pot smokers roaming around when this market matures and a market of that size is expected to rake in a whopping $2.5 million a year in sales taxes. This is all new revenue our greedy politicians and state bureaucrats are simply drooling over and I can’t imagine how much money the pot growers and pot peddlers are hauling in.
Just to date there are 15,743 Arkansans granted medical marijuana ID cards which allows them to patronize one of the expected 40 pot shops, or “dispensaries”, where they are charged as much as $15 a gram of pot compared to $10 per gram in other states. Currently there are just five pot shops opened for business but it won’t be long before another 27 will be operating at full capacity.
Listen Ralph, I don’t give a darn about people toking up to mask the pain of certain diseases, but let’s not be so naive to believe this whole thing from the very beginning was for a select few investors to get filthy rich.
And furthermore, Ralph, let me remind you of my earliest predictions that this pot venture for medical purposes was just the beginning of the overall goal to make pot legal for simple recreational purposes.
My prediction has come true now that I have just learned this radical group called The Drug Policy Education Center, run by Melissa Fults, will soon start the process of trying to bring pot for fun to a vote next year.
That’s right Ralph, this is the same woman who attempted to push her own medical marijuana initiative and failed so now she’s going full steam ahead to get pot smoking legal for any occasion.
I find it somewhat humorous in that Fults’s rollout has been stymied by legal issues and legislative meddling.
Fults is saying the politicians have simply ignored the wishes of the people they serve and that because of that she is pushing for full legalization which I feel will be a daunting task in light of recent legislation lawmakers passed making it much more difficult to get initiatives on the ballot.
Nevertheless, I have no doubt that there will be an initiative on next year’s ballot regarding this latest push and based on how voters overwhelming endorsed pot smoking for medical purposes they will surely do the same for smoking dope for no reason whatsoever.
Again Ralph, this has become a very lucrative venture for a select group of people and I guess I am jealous that I was not among those able to get in on a good thing.
