Ganja in California if legalised for social use would save

[Sir X]

Would save 1 billion dollars in police enforcement and garner 400 million in revenue from taxes , what is Jamaica waiting for ?

1,000,000,000.00 USD = 84,500,000,000.00 JMD (law enforcement)

and 400,000,000.00 USD = 33,800,000,000.00 JMD (taxed if legal )

Thats just one year ,what are we waiting for ? we would be debt free in 5 years .

[Sir X]

Sorry thats 2.5 years lets say three worst case.

[Sir X]

Source ABC NEWS !

[Me]

Is so much revenue you expecting Jamaica to get if they do the same?

[Sir X]

Granted our revenue would come from the tourist market , it would be silly of anyone to expect the local market to generate that revenue after all they export for a living dont they ?

To answer you question yes , from the tourist market.What would happen in the local economy would be a huge savings of judicial cost that should be invested in health and education, if our budget is 50 million US a year on ganja eradication that 50 million would go a far way in education and healthcare.

Did you read the piece the European view on Jamaican ganja and the US study ?

[Me]

Granted our revenue would come from the tourist market , it would be silly of anyone to expect the local market to generate that revenue after all they export for a living dont they ?

To answer you question yes , from the tourist market.What would happen in the local economy would be a huge savings of judicial cost that should be invested in health and education, if our budget is 50 million US a year on ganja eradication that 50 million would go a far way in education and healthcare.

Did you read the piece the European view on Jamaican ganja and the US study ?

Dont the tourist who want ganja already smoke it? The Euros and Americans in Nergil and Sav dont seem to have a problem accessing it and the Country already has many visitors coming and wanting that. What is our Budget for ganja eradication? Is it that high?

What I see coming from this, is politicians and corporate Jamaica redistributing wealth from the small ganja man dem to the big land owners. If they want to legalize and regulate (a more important step than the legalization) ganja, I have no problem with that. However, looking at how Jamaica is set up, I doubt the people will benefit. The big man dem who allegedly export the thing and have ties to politicians and the private sector going to flood the market with cheap product and the little man will be bawling.

[Islandman]

Sometime me wonder how much time people like X really spend inna JA.

After me and me family was in Negril , my wife who has never smoked the thing say she think she could make a presentation on how to build and smoke a spliff, cause she never see people OPENLY building them and smoking weed so yet.

Legalizing the herb for personal use is fine . It would just be taking an un-enforceable law off the books anyway. But until it is legalized in other large markets to allow trade, the economic benefits will be minimal.

[Sir X]

A narrow way of thinking ..killing two birds with one stone .

That might be true that the tourist who wants to smoke , smoke it already but a what cost harassment ? Again what cost accessing it ? Yes the country has many visitors coming just for that but could a case be made that many more would come if legalized and promoted for that niche market , like some here advocate for promoting the homo dollar? Think about it we could have ganja hotels , with ganja clothing to recipes to herbal medicines for sale .
No doubt the Big man will monopolize it and try to water down the product that’s capitalism but as you know ganja smokers only seek the highest grade and the poor farmer who produces the best crop will get a good monetary return for it regardless if the Big man produces mass quantity of rabbit chow. Jamaica does not have to wait for it to legalized in large markets for it to have a positive effect on Jamaica , would the resource we spend to harass local and foreign individuals be plowed into education and healthcare , would the tax be plowed into the same avenues of nation building. Look in 1986 to 87 our assistance from the USA to enforce the eradication of ganja was 2 .6 million , I can just imagine what it is now and we haven’t factor in the military hardware that have been given to help with that enforcement.

Effect minimal ?

[Me]

A narrow way of thinking ..killing two birds with one stone .

That might be true that the tourist who wants to smoke , smoke it already but a what cost harassment ? Again what cost accessing it ? Yes the country has many visitors coming just for that but could a case be made that many more would come if legalized and promoted for that niche market , like some here advocate for promoting the homo dollar? Think about it we could have ganja hotels , with ganja clothing to recipes to herbal medicines for sale .
No doubt the Big man will monopolize it and try to water down the product that’s capitalism but as you know ganja smokers only seek the highest grade and the poor farmer who produces the best crop will get a good monetary return for it regardless if the Big man produces mass quantity of rabbit chow. Jamaica does not have to wait for it to legalized in large markets for it to have a positive effect on Jamaica , would the resource we spend to harass local and foreign individuals be plowed into education and healthcare , would the tax be plowed into the same avenues of nation building. Look in 1986 to 87 our assistance from the USA to enforce the eradication of ganja was 2 .6 million , I can just imagine what it is now and we haven’t factor in the military hardware that have been given to help with that enforcement.

Effect minimal ?

How much is spent harassing tourist smokers? most seem to smoke it quite freely.
Go any dance in Jamaica and spliff a bun quite freely.
Go football match and spliff a bun freely.
Who in Jamaica, who wants to bun a spliff has a hard time being able to do it?

Taking away the U.S. eradication, doesn't mean that money is filtered to somewhere else.

By adding the govt to the process of taxing, the country as a whole will probably have less benefit because of the inefficiency and corruption associated with that entity.

The ganja hotel seem like a good idea, but what impact does that have on some of the other tourists? Does that simply shift customers from the smaller hotels and the more rustic locations to the ganja hotel and does it negatively impact any of the higher scale hotels that may be close by (in the event that it is close to one of those).

Creating products from the plant definitely needs to be increased and promoted. Without strong planning and implementation with regards to the legalization, things will go bad quickly and the man who claim the system fight him, will be singing the same song.

[Sir X]

for every arguement you throw , there is a strong counter arguement , lets just make it short ,If its so free why are the courts being clogged up (sarcasm) ? why does the police complain about it as a nuisance ?

What impact does it have on other tourist ? thats the point what impact of it being iilegal having now ?with tourist complaing that ganja is being pushed on them(harassement) ? You see harrassement is two fold , one to the locals who push it from the police and two to the tourist that comes for the beaches and nothing else, Niche means you market it to a specific group excluding the rest hence Ganja hotels , it does not mean the other tourist will be deprived of better service or hotels.

Look Govt has to sort out its tax issue regardless , are we going to deprive the nation of an oppourtunity because of this ?

We agree on the last part a nice spin ..lol..Creating products from the plant definitely needs to be increased and promoted. Without strong planning and implementation with regards to the legalization, things will go bad quickly and the man who claim the system fight him, will be singing the same song.

[Me]

There is no spin. I think a market is there, but I think you may overestimating the impact of the incremental benefit that we will receive.

Courts clogged up. Do you really think the number of people charged is a significant percentage of the people who smoke? Go bleachers for a reggaeboyz game and herb a bun all bout. Go even to the uptown man dem all inclusive party and the herbalist in the back lighting up.
Take them away and our courts still clog up, with everything from man tiefing chicken, to do all sorts of abnormal things with the chicken.

As for the hotels, where do we position those. Close to the beach, inland? far enough away from the luxury hotels? Where do you build the Niche? all over or a particular parish? Again you say it is a Niche, but how many of those niche customers are already coming to Jamaica anyway for part of that experience? That reduces the incremental gain expected and is simply a shift of revenue from one party in the island to another.

You and I will differ on the revenue expectation, so the posts above is my last on that part. I am more interesting in how this will be implemented once legalized (it is inevitable).What do you suggest we do in terms of who gets to smoke it and in what locations? California's Proposition 19, would prohibit possession on school grounds, in public, while minors are present or to anyone under 21. Should Jamaica use 18 as the age instead? Do we still spend enforcement dollars to oversee compliance with the new rules. Should it simply be a ticket if someone does not comply. Or do you think it should simply be open to everyone as they choose.

[Sir X]

I am glad we agree that it should be legalized and I don’t think I overestimate my estimates on the impact it would have .

1st like you stated those charged who clog up the system are not only smokers but hustlers , again that’s the reason why we want it legalized the cost associated with prosecuting a hustler(seller of ganja) or smoker is a waste of money , it could be legalized taxed and put into education or healthcare, when I say healthcare and education , I don’t mean to simply educate and treat drug abusers of harder drugs but education in our school system and our holistic health care system.

Our system being clogged regardless of ganja does not mitigate the fact it will reduce the stress on our judicial system i.e. time and money as I said the police believe its a waste of time to prosecute ganja cases (nuisance).

The argument about niche , hotels and where we place them , how much we can get out of them will be dictated by market forces and a powerful one it will be , because it would be the 1st time that it is professionally marketed on an international stage as legal to use in Jamaica. Gone would be the days of underground marketing , harassment (local and foreign sources) and Big business would as you say try to monopolize it .

Imagine an ad in amersterdam ...escape to Jamaica for a natural high, Jamaica the finest ganja in the world by Hedonism ganja smokers only.

The last paragraph about laws will be determined by learned practical individuals that know the laws must be market driven , educational, practical and enforceable with a vision to protect Jamaicans interest be it financial , educational and health wise.

Thanks for the debate.

[Gamma]

is one subject whey wi pretty much si eye to eye.

clearly you have done more research than i have...but it is morally wrong for one of god's plants to be illegal.

[Sir X]

That is fact Gamma but dem no waan jah facts, dem want man made facts, so mi gi dem.

[Me]

That last paragraph I spoke of is the key to the whole thing working. if the "learned practical individuals" botch it, this is where those gains you are hoping for, may not materialize. Implementation is usually the part Jamaica struggles with.