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lucidmode

User Profile Image lucidmode
Member since : Jun-03-2009 (Verified)
0 Ideas, 3 Comments, 52 Votes

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lucidmode 9 months ago
I for one think the next person (and everyone after) to make another additional redundant new thread regarding the birth certificate issue should receive a 3 day suspension from this site for abuse. If they do it again, permanent ban. They are no longer contributing to a good cause at that point, they are now playing a smear politics game on a website that is less about the politics of these issues and more about getting the issues out in the open and on to public discussion platforms. The Obama birth certificate conspiracy is not a new issue, its old news. Cluttering these forums with your whining hurts your cause even more. It will help you about as much as it helped the gays who were rioting and blocking traffic when prop 8 passed last year. Instead of having people back you're inquiry with support, you'll instead lose support from the vast number of individuals you're now being annoying to.

Besides, what do you expect to happen if they do find out he isn't a natural born citizen of the USA? That they'll go kick him out of office right away? Then we'll have Biden? Do you really think thats a better option? They aren't going to go pick Sarah Palin up ASAP and fly her to the white house, so don't have your hopes up for that.

My best advice to the whiners, start getting more involved in your local and state governments, and help us get better candidates for 2012 and 2016 elections who will address maybe... some of the issues brought up on this site?
lucidmode 9 months ago
Lets imagine for a second that marijuana is legalized. Lets also disregard the money saved from having people in prisons over this substance. Let us also disregard any social issues you might have with this substance. Let us do some very-dumbed-down math.

Now, according to the American Lung Association, 45.1 million Americans are smokers. The margin of error here doesn't factor in how many people are social smokers versus regulars versus one timers, etc. Now, not all people who smoke tobacco products are also marijuana smokers, however at the same time I personally know plenty of people who love smoking marijuana, but hate tobacco products. So lets keep the number at 45.1 million for sake of the example.

So we have some people who smoke a pack (or two, or three) a day, and others who will make a pack last a month. Lets assume for sake of this example that our marijuana cigarette smokers will go for two a day, or three packs a month. One before bedtime, and one when we wake up. I use this example scenario, because most people who I know who are long-term regular smokers who hold regular jobs (some government jobs even), tend to follow this trend.

So lets put a price on a pack of marijuana cigarettes. Now obviously if marijuana is legalized, the price will drop. But with a pack of cigarettes at 4-7$ (in California), lets drop a price tag on a pack of 20 marijuana cigarettes at 15$. We're not comparing a pack to the price of the amount of marijuana it would take to roll 20 joints. You're paying for the brand here, the box, the foil, the package. You don't have to roll these, they're already done with filters and all. I don't think this scenario would be too far out of alignment considering on average, Americans who do smoke, tend to smoke 13-17 cigarettes per day according to some studies. Thats almost a pack a day average per person who smokes! Our example is talking about a little less than a pack a week!

So if the Federal government made 100 cents per pack (the US median for taxes on Cigarettes), lets see what that would add up to if an equal number of people were smoking marijuana cigarettes. If 45.1 million Americans are smoking 2 marijuana cigarettes per day, or roughly 60 per month, or roughly 3 packs per month, this amounts to 135.3 million packs smoked per month. Thats roughly 1.62billion dollars a year, using tobacco rates, just from this example.

Now while these aren't land-slide huge numbers, it would probably be safe to assume that the tax rates would be a lot higher on a substance like this. It is highly likely that a product like this would be far less potent than a marijuana joint that we know and appreciate now (there would likely be heavy regulations on this too).

In 2007, state governments alone tallied up approximately 15.7 billion dollars worth of revenues from tobacco taxes alone.

Or we can just leave that money up for grabs by the drug cartels. Its no wonder they're out manning and out gunning our border patrols! What kind of firepower could you buy with 15.7 billion dollars a year (assuming thats ALL you were making)?

I say we should legalize it, and take the money earned and saved to buy Sarah Palin another new wardrobe collection!
lucidmode 9 months ago
Please take your whining elsewhere. You birth certificate whiners are the new Michael Moores of 2009. Would you like some cheese with that whine?