The Core

Marijuana legalization passes in Colorado, Washington
By Aaron Smith @CNNMoney November 7, 2012: 7:56 AM ET

Analysts had projected the Washington voters would approve their legalization ballot, because it proposes a heavy tax for marijuana that made the proposal attractive to budget hawks. The Washington initiative calls for a 25% tax rate imposed on the product three times: when the grower sells it to the processor, when the processor sells it to the retailer, and when the retailer sells it to the customer.

The Colorado approval was more of a surprise, since the polls were split ahead of the vote.

Voters shot down a third legalization referendum, in Oregon, which was expected. Analysts had projected that it wouldn't go through and criticized various aspects of the initiative, especially the fact that it would have handed most of the regulating power in the marijuana industry to the growers rather than independent overseers.
There were half a dozen marijuana referendums in total, with three of them proposing legalization for recreational purposes, and the others dealing with medical marijuana.

Massachusetts voters approved a referendum legalizing medical marijuana, while Arkansas voters shot down a similar proposal. Montana voters approved a referendum to place restrictions on its existing medical marijuana laws.

Given that this forum is still dominated by brits, I doubt there are many who are upset here.  Relieved, maybe.  That said, the results -when you dig deeper, as in the state & local elections- point to a strangely split vote.  At the national level, we have a continuation of a government that will only be mostly deadlocked.  Still, the radically conservative were largely defeated. Elizabeth Warren in Mass. may turn out to be significant.  And Florida defeated all the conservative ballot initiatives ...that's sorta odd.

I predict this thread will not last long. It'd be nice if we could keep a cold, rational, and constructive discourse here but that's not the nature of politics.

<added>
Oh, I forgot. If anyone you know is moving to Canada because of the vote, tell them I'm offering 10cents on the dollar for their assets.

I'm looking forward to hearing about the impact of the 3x tax on it.  Many, including Richard Branson, believe this is the direction to head in.  Any ideas how much this will cost to the end user and how it would compare to beer or spirits?

The 420 guys still have to get past the federal law, curious what that will look like.

The election results didn't really matter long term, IMO. Neither of them really seem in tune with reality or willing (able?) to tackle the real financial problems we face.

This is going to be a state's rights issue.

Yeah, this is going to make the state/fed fight over medical marijuana in California look like a kindergarten spitting contest. It's an interesting issue, because "states' rights" has traditionally been a Republican cause while legalizing pot has not been, shall we say, a galvanizing issue among Republicans. Meanwhile Democracts are generally more pro-pot (even if notable Democrats "didn't inhale"), but have traditionally been less receptive to states' rights arguments.

Reddit is starting to realize that the state pot laws don't really do much until the feds change their laws.

As someone who lives in a national park, I can say that no matter what pot laws get passed in California, it wouldn't change my life because there are places and situations in every state where federal code applies.

I don't have strong opinions on this issue (basically feel like if alcohol is legal, pot should be too, but I'm not a pot smoker, so I'm more interested in it as fiscal and social policy than, uh, household policy). But I gotta agree with RC that this is going to be interesting to watch and this will play out over many years and will vary a lot depending on the political winds in Washington.

>taxing makes sense to me

Me, too. To paraphrase something I once heard in the tourism industry, I'm more than willing to let the suckers who can't stay out of the mini-fridge subsidize my room. Lottery tickets, cigarettes, pot... bring on the sin taxes!

I have to admit, I find this fascinating.  I also agree with all the thoughts posted, for sure, but to me, I don't even care about whether they make it legal or not, I'm interested in this debate because of the State vs Federal conflict.

A good buddy from high school's older brother has been making millions in CO with dispensaries.  We should build some websites (for in-state purchase) and ship through UPS:)  I'm pretty sure it's just 'company policy' not to ship drugs, but what are they going to do now? It's not illegal so no 'Town Deputy' or 'State Trooper' will touch it... and the Federal Government wont prosecute - and they surely aren't going to start with something less than an ounce.

So what are they going to do, besides smoke it?

Ok then, what if we set up shop in UK? Then form a CO corporation owned by the UK corporation... that drop shipped weed online, and shipped it via UPS in plain brown paper wrapped boxes, but only in CO? Would we be violating any laws? I guess international drug trafficking? But a uk company could legally own a US based corporation, as long as that corporation acted according to State law, right?

I don't know, I just think it's interesting idea.  I wouldn't do it because I'm not a fan of Federal Penitentiaries and it would be my luck to rank for 'marijuana' the day the Feds start their research:)