A coalition of 22 state attorneys general is calling on Congress to address “the glaring vagueness” that has led to legal cannabis products being sold over the counter across the country — including sometimes from vending machines or online.
A letter dated March 20 addresses the consequences of Republican lawmakers’ choice to legalize hemp production in the 2018 omnibus Farm Bill — a decision that perhaps inadvertently led to a multibillion-dollar market in intoxicating cannabis products that are arguably federally legal.
Now, the attorneys general want Congress to shutter the market it helped create. In the new Farm Bill, they want the legislature to enshrine in statute the idea that intoxicating cannabis is not federally legal — contrary to what the law currently states.
They don’t want to raise taxes on the rich. Here’s a massive way to raise taxes that won’t affect the income of rich people unless they want to buy a shit ton of weed.
And yet they’re still against it.
They pretend like a 100% tax free nation is a possibility.
When Kansas under Brownback, (with full control of the statehouse), went all-in on supply side and it was a objective failure that really shoulda been the end of the idea that R’s had any savvy regarding improving the economy.
Magical thinkers do not respond well to concrete examples.
They pretend like a 100% tax free nation is a possibility.
They know this isn’t possible. They want no income tax for the wealthy and increased taxes on goods and services, which will mostly affect the working masses.
Then shouldn’t they want highly-taxed cannabis?
I think you’re giving them too much credit. They’re ideologues that think taxes = bad. They just don’t care so much when they hurt the poor because they think the poor deserve to have bad things happen to them.
To prove your point, Colorado has collected over $1.5 billion is cannabis tax since it was legalized. That’s just a single state, and not a huge one at that.
Here’s even republican/wealthy friendly article talking about it: https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthoban/2021/05/23/the-success-of-colorados-marijuana-tax-dollars/?sh=14e60c79529d
Illinois got even more. $1.6 billion in 2020 alone. That’s where I buy from, although I cross the border from Indiana.
Is it expensive because of the tax? Yes it is. But I’m fine with that because legalizing and taxing it should be the model everywhere and I’m happy to support it.
As someone from MO, fuck IL’s tax. Went from paying $125 for a gram of wax to ~$40 once MO legalized.
It’s better than it being illegal, obviously, but it’s so clearly only that high so they can extort out of state buyers.
Sounds like an argument for national legalization. Which raising a bunch of tax money will encourage.
Oh absolutely agreed. The fact we have to play these games in the first place is bullshit
They pretend like a 100% tax free nation is a possibility.
Well sure there are, Haiti probably isn’t collecting any taxes right now, so they’ve got that going for them…
Even the worst Roman emperors knew not to fuck with what makes the crowd content. If those right wing motherfuckers think they can touch our bread and circuses without consequences, they will find out.
Wow, imagine Republicans getting worked up about the wording of a law being twisted in ways it was never intended when it was first drafted. That’s wild.
Started buying Farm Bill hemp products over COVID. I’m surprised really that it took them this long to start pushing to change it.
So many hemp products available these days. You can get hemp dog chews! My dog loves them! No, they don’t get her high.
I guess these AGs don’t want those businesses anymore.
I fully expected my state AG to have been one of the signatories on that (they’ve made a big stink about this in the past), but surprisingly they weren’t.
Our legislature did outlaw D8 last year, but somehow it’s still being sold (yay).
There are two companies in-state that rely on this law (Blue Ridge and Thrax). Blue Ridge is ran by veterans, and both would have been affected (read: shut down completely). I don’t know the details, but I want to say they lobbied and I guess are allowed to continue?
My AG is a complete scumbag, but I guess shutting down a family / vereran-run business was too much bad press even for him. The tax revenue is probably just a bonus.
As far as outlawing delta-8, I that’s going to be a losing battle, especially since there’s already delta-10. They can’t outlaw hemp because of the farm bill and, while it does take a lot of hemp, it’s pretty trivial to extract THC from it.
Unfortunately, my AG is a much bigger scumbag than yours. I live in Indiana. Guess which AG has the very first signature on this letter?
Todd Rokita may very well be the worst AG in the country. And he’s constantly wasting taxpayer money on things like taking trips down to the southern border, as if Indiana had something to do with it.
The party of taking things away from others. That’s the only way I can think of them anymore. For years now. It’s their entire platform.
Except obscenely rich people and giant corporations!
I prefer to think of the moral right side of any issue: Republicans are almost always against it.
I get an ounce delivered to my mailbox on a monthly subscription and occasionally order extra when something goes on sale. I keep trying to share about legal weed on lemmy whenever the topic comes up, but i just get downvoted. I don’t know if people think it can’t be real or just want something to bitch about.
Possibly because I’m from a legal state and wasn’t paying attention to it, but I’m not sure what you’re talking about if you care to expound?
Republicunts did not read or maybe comprehend a bill they passed during the Trump years which accidentally legalized THC products derived from hemp or products that technically are hemp and not cannabis because the delta 9 THC concentration is low enough.
From my also limited understanding cannabis can be harvested early before the delta 9 thc crystals form… from the precursor THCa already present in the plant
THCa on its own is not psychoactive however it breaks down into normal THC when exposed to sunlight … or heat when you smoke/vape it
So you can buy legal (for now) basically weed in the form of high thca flower online and have it shipped to your mailbox.
Im considering anonymously buying some online and having it shipped to my states AG office because fuck that dude needs to smoke some weed
Look up thca. Essentially cannabis doesn’t have thc until it’s burned, which the law targets. It’s technically full of thca which is generally referred to as thc. So companies are selling thca products with tests showing thc itself below the 3% limit because it’s technically legal.
The total THC test is early enough that it isn’t yet present. After that, only ∆9 is tested. It’s all the same thca you would get in a dispensary. DEA asked courts to change the testing requirement and limits. Court said the law is written as intended. There are many farms that sell online through their own websites or through other vendors. I’m in Texas and I’ve had so much delivered without a single problem. I had 5 lb delivered to my porch in one order– it was in big plastic bags in boxes. That order was mostly CBD and CBG, but still smelled weedy. I’m more worried about the neighborhood kids stealing it than I am about the USPS or FedEx.
Thanks for the additional insight. The package thief paranoia with these boxes is real! Feel you there
Sounds like not real weed because if it was, the DEA would be all over that shit……so probably not what you get from a rec or medical dispensary.
Personally I’m of the opinion that they can’t take it back now. It’s too late.
They cannot undo or erase the harms it’s caused. However they could regulate it…and that would be fair. No one under the ages of 18-21 should be able to buy or access this stuff ever; and the required packaging and regulations surrounding that should reflect it.
This should be no more heavily restricted than tobacco products; which already ARE restricted heavily through taxation, permitting, and ID checking at the Point of Purchase.
It would even be fine if you had to obtain these products from behind a dispensing counter; with no prescription needed…just an ID and a clue of the risks that these products carry. There is no need to amend the previous law, just make new ones.
Three words:
Roe versus Wade.
I think the loophole is going to stay in place. The hemp lobby has exploded since 2018, and has done a lot to keep the loopholes from closing in even very Red states. In the real world money is what talks, and I think there’s too much money at this point to put the genie back in the bottle.
But that’s my two cents. I could be wrong. Hope I’m not.
Besides that, the winds have changes with regards to weed as half the country has already legalized it while something like 38 states have some sort of MMJ. The genie isn’t going back into the bottle and the sky hasn’t fallen in the states that legalized.
Hilarious that their argument is that “these products are unregulated” when their solution is an outright ban which just shifts everything back to the unregulated black market. You know where these type of products are regulated? In states that have legal weed.
If someone wanted to purchase this legal weed, say, in South Carolina, is there a guide somewhere indicating what is legally available in that jurisdiction?
Asking for a friend…
