Life Imitates Reason.tv: Prop. 19 Edition
Yesterday, from an NPR story on unlikely supporters and opponents of Prop. 19, which would legalize and tax marijuana grown and consumed under certain conditions:
[Chris] Wilson says he's a small-time grower who ekes out a living cultivating medical marijuana for himself and a collective. "It's borderline legal, illegal, gray-area stuff," he says, "breeding high strain, high quality, high medicinal marijuana in a sacred way."
Wilson says Proposition 19 would put him out of business. He wouldn't be able to grow enough to supply himself , much less the collective. And he'd have to pay taxes and fees to operate.
"They're going to tax the hell out of me," Wilson says. "And I barely make it as it is. I'm just getting by. They're taxing everybody they can, just because California is in debt. They see the money can be made, like unbelievable taxation, enough to push me out of business."
Another grower named Jay…worries that legalization will flood the market as people grow their own marijuana and bigger businesses take over.
"Everyone's really scared of the prices going down," he says. "We all have invested money here, we all live here. I have a daughter here, my wife's a teacher. Everyone's scared because we don't know what the prices are going to be. Already, the prices have gone down and down. It's harder to sell it."
Reason.tv, almost exactly one year ago, predicted this wacky turn of events:
Via the Washington Examiner.
