93 year old Great Grandmother tries Marijuana Legally in Washington State

[Serpo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSUX82NNf8w#t=13

[Serpo]

Legal marijuana shops targeted by IRS, often forced to give 70 percent or more of their profits to the federal government

On November 4, the citizens of Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C., voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. But unless Congress acts to reform or repeal War on Drugs-era federal tax laws, businesses that wish to sell marijuana may find it nearly impossible to survive.

As marijuana vendors in Washington and Colorado (where recreational pot is already legal) are finding out, the outdated tax codes make it extremely difficult to make a profit.

The tax code known as 280E, which was introduced in the 1980s at the height of the War on Drugs, says that businesses which sell Schedule I or Schedule II drugs -- which include marijuana as well as heroin, cocaine and other substances -- cannot deduct most of their business expenses.

This means that many of the pot shops are forced to give 70 percent or more of their profits to the federal government.

USA Today reports:

The rule means that the "costs of the product," like the soil and fertilizer used to grow plants, are deductible. But the "costs of selling," like advertising, rent and utilities -- even salaries for employees -- are not deductible.

The tax code is not only unfair; it's also complicated, leaving many new vendors wondering exactly how much they will be forced to pay when their taxes are due.

Some pot shop owners in Colorado and Washington have already ended up with tax bills that swallowed up to 90 percent or more of their profits, leaving them unsure of whether they can afford to stay in business at all.

Lawmakers in several states have asked the IRS (http://www.naturalnews.com/IRS.html) to stop enforcing the tax code, but the agency has only responded with a letter informing them that it would require Congressional action to "amend either the Internal Revenue Code or the Controlled Substance Act."

Mac Clouse, finance professor at the University of Denver, said:

The problem is that we have passed laws that allowed these medical marijuana and recreational marijuana companies to do business. But we have all these other laws, tax laws, federal (http://www.naturalnews.com/federal.html) laws that make it incredibly difficult if not utterly impossible to survive.

It appears to many in the fledgling marijuana industry that the federal government is using the outdated tax code to prevent their businesses from flourishing.

This effectively protects those who grow and sell marijuana illegally and, perhaps more importantly (to those in power who receive money from lobbyists), it protects Big Pharma companies who make billions of dollars from the opioid painkillers (http://www.naturalnews.com/opioid_painkillers.html) already on the market.

These painkillers -- like Oxycontin -- are overprescribed and are highly addictive. They are also very dangerous, causing more overdose deaths each year than heroin, and they have created an illegal black market of their own.

Another USA Today article reports:

Nationally, more than 22,000 Americans died of prescription drug overdoses in 2012, and more than 16,000 of the deaths involved opioids, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug overdoses were the leading cause of injury death.

It's important to keep in mind that no one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana. Its therapeutic and pain-killing properties have been proven in many studies. And as far as the recreational use of the herb is concerned, marijuana is far safer than alcohol -- 88,000 people die each year from excessive alcohol use in the U.S. alone.

It's time for the federal government to recognize the facts and change the tax codes accordingly -- it's highly likely that marijuana will be legalized in other states in the coming years, and someday perhaps in all of them.

Sources:

http://www.usatoday.com (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/03/irs-limits-profits-marijuana-businesses/18165033/)

http://www.usatoday.com (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/17/non-addictive-opioids-on-horizon/18810059/)

http://www.cdc.gov (http://www.cdc.gov/features/alcohol-deaths/)

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/047726_legalized_marijuana_opioid_painkillers_IRS. html#ixzz3JegZAoGq

[old steel]

You know a few years from now marijuana will be legal practically everywhere and people will wonder what the big deal was all about.

[mick silver]

selling before long will go back under ground and be cheaper . I may start a new barn 100 ft by 60 ft in hope it pasts here... http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/propaganda/images/rmadness.jpg

[old steel]

Nah, the medical marijuana they produce these days is so precise. They have it down to a science in varying percentages for THC and Canniboids.

Amazing stuff and it's only going to get better.

The stuff grown everywhere else will still be produced though, like you said at a cheaper price.

[Hatha Sunahara]

Marijuana was just legalized in Oregon, although it will still be illegal until next July, but the prosecutors are throwing out cases involving mere posession. I actually read the ballot measure that legalized it. All I can say is that it isn't really legal in Oregon. Yes, it stops prosecution of users of the weed, but for anybody who wants to grow it and sell it commercially, it is regulated so thoroughly, that you would want to think twice about getting into that business. If you are a commercial grower, you need to have a license (it's like driving a car--you can't do it legally without a license), and you have to inform the Oregon Liquor Control Commission where you are growing it, and there are lots of conditions on your grow site. Plus, if you process it into any form other than the raw flowers, there are rules and regulations on that processing, and you have to keep records so you can be taxed on whatever you turn it into. The tax is $25 an ounce for dried flowers and $10 an ounce for leaves. I had no idea the Federal government through the IRS was also regulating the sale of Marijuana. The only redeeming thing about this so called 'legalization' in Oregon is that anybody can grow 4 plants for their own personal use, and not bre prosecuted for having less than 8 ounces in their possession. I saw nothing about being taxed on what you grow for your own personal use. I would assume that because the law is the way it is, most people will grow their own, and commercial growers will sell their product to people who are too lazy or incompetent to grow their own supply. I think it's likely that a large 'underground' market will arise, and the government will not be able to control it any better than if it was entirely illegal. Also, we'll see some new legal issues arise--like roadside drug testing for people the cops think are driving under the influence. We'll see som wild infringements on drug testing. In Washington, the cops say that their test for driving while stoned is that your ability to 'multitask' is impaired. And they have a test for multitasking ability. The only problem is that multitasking is a learned ability, and not everyone learns it or practices it regularly. I seriously doubt that driving while stoned will be a big problem. Stoners usually drive slower than non stoners because of a heightened awareness of their condition. I do think that children will start using marijuana at much earlier ages because it will provide them with some degree of antidote to the dumbing down they get in the public schools. This will in my view only be a problem with the smarter kids, who will not only be beaten down by the 'authorities' but by their dumber cohorts as well. The real problems in this society have nothing to do with drugs. They have everything to do with authoritarian control of people and fearmongering. My hope is that when the economy and the money system and the imperial hubris all collapse, and when everybody is poor, people will learn to think for themselves and learn how to effectively control the authoritarians so they don't damage so many peoples' lives.


Hatha