MPP launches TV ads touting pot taxation as California budget fix

if you legalize pot you could close half the prisons and jails around the country and cal because parole and po violations from drug test failures almost wouldnt exist...pot is in your body 30 days cocaine pills and almost everything else is gone in 2 to 3 days.when people go to jail it doesnt end there.the gov keeps em coming back through probation and parole violations centerd around failed drug tests.this is their bread and butter to qoute tony sapranto on how he shakes down people only not legaly

Anybody I know who is willing to buy pot is also willing to buy illegal smokes.

Because they are tax-free.

I definitely understand where the other commenters are coming from. I am pro legalization because marijuana users should not be in jail- plain and simple. However, the recent upsurge in people believing that taxation of marijuana will basically fix all our problems is naive and not critically thought out. Wealth is not ‘created’ by taxation. I’m also thinking that just because MPP says that people want to pay taxes on Marijuana does not make it true. Some pot operations are probably not so keen on sharing the wealth. Instead of these people breaking the law because marijuana is illegal they will be breaking the law for not paying taxes.
Also, let’s not forget that most Medical Marijuana dispensaries in California DO pay taxes, the price of the weed they sell includes tax.
I haven’t really seen MPP do much for the marijuana movement besides these commercials.. maybe I’m not looking hard enough. I always get emails from them asking for donations and I’ve seen donation kiosks at dispensaries. But the most I have heard of them is that they have bitchin’ parties at the playboy mansion.... tickets 750.00 a pop.
I am glad that the idea of legalization and the realization that, yes, Marijuana is an industry in California is starting to reach the masses. I just think it is silly that so far the only way of making that happen is with hollow promises of a fixed economy. For a lot of people being able to use our sacred herb is a very spiritual and personal thing. I kind of find it insulting to the plant that people want it taxed and regulated just like alcohol and tobacco. I wish there were a happy medium between illegality and exploitation. If Marijuana is made legal and is regulated I will be happy but there is no way that I’m going to the corner store to pick up a pack of joints grown by the government. But thats just me, legalization without having to sacrifice personal and spiritual connection would be ideal.

There is an argument that legalization does not create wealth, it only moves wealth from organized criminals to organized corporations. In either scenario the government gets a good chunk of the pie in the forms of taxes, bribes, donations, a cut off the top, seized assets, or whatever. The only thing legalization does, in actual terms, is let people out of jail for using drugs. That is the core issue here, not the money that passes hands.

I am very much in favor of legalization, but I still think the taxation issue is a bit of a red herring. Taxation never creates value or wealth -- it just moves money around, taking it from one set of hands and putting it into another. Legalization would help economically, insofar as bringing the production and sale or marijuana above-ground would help to keep things in the local economy (in the current underground economy I'm sure that much of the money is funneled out of the area (and country) to distant "drug kingpins"), and it would increase the tax base, but let's be honest: economies are not created by taxation. It's not like the people who are now growing and selling MJ illegally in CA aren't spending the money they earn already; taxation just takes that money they're already making and spending and gives more of it to the state.

So one can argue for legalization because it's the "right thing to do." One can argue that in will grow the above-ground economy. One can argue that it will increase the state coffers, giving them more money with which to complete their programs. One can argue that the money spent of prohibition is spent stupidly. But those who argue that taxation helps an economy (or creates one) are, well, like I said, presenting a bit of a red herring. It wont make the economy that much larger; it'll just make a bigger portion of it above-ground.

(And the implicit assumption that governments have the God-given right to tax whatever they want at any rate they want bugs me deeply on a philosophical level.)

I couldn't agree more with you on the freedom and liberty angle but........
You must understand that there is a huge anti freedom and liberty movement underway on this planet. People in this country have been brainwashed to think that we were born as free as can be and that anyone who doesn't believe that we are already free is delutional. No we can't preach to the converted but we can't preach to the prohibitionists either. Their minds are already made up and they always will be. These ads are targeted to the middle of the road people and casual participants in life. The living dead. Zombies among us that are easily influenced. The ad does a fine job with persuation.

I agree with dreamdust completely. I got something from the MPP the other day in the mail and I just threw it away because i simply don't agree with them

As much as I like seeing them spend money on advertising, I feel this is the wrong way to engage the voters. The issue is and will always be, about personal liberty. About being able to do something that doesn't harm others or infringe their freedoms. This is the core of the issue and the only one which everyone understands.

We have to stop preaching to the converted. Prohibitionists won't engage this (stupid) argument. Every time I bring the economic argument against the unconverted they laugh it off completely. Of course every pothead I talk to thinks pot will save the economy and the world.... and that contrast shows in this ad.

I think every time we distract from the core of the argument against prohibition, which is personal liberty, all we end up doing is making ourselves look bad.... IE: "Pot will save the planet! Pot is harmless! Pot helps any medical condition! Pot will save the economy!" All these points are easily arguable. What isn't easily arguable is that using pot doesn't harm anyone else or infringe their freedoms. The personal liberty argument is the only one that transcends all social bonds.

Not to mention the ad is irresponsible for framing the budget crisis out of context for their own benefit. The economy isn't in the dumps because we are ignoring tax-money from pot consumers, the economy is in the dumps because the legislatures fiscal policies have been irresponsible! Another reason the ad makes us look bad...