A "CRACK TAX" IS ENFORCED IN TENNESSEE

"right now drug dealers owe the state of Tennessee more than $43 million in back taxes. The state's unauthorized substance tax calls on its Department of Revenue to collect money from people dealing in everything from moonshine to methamphetamine."
"hen drug dealers come into possession of certain amount of product, for example, marijuana, Tennessee law says they have 48 hours to pay taxes on it. They're supposed to walk into the office of Department of Revenue, fill out a form with their name, address, Social Security number - information that state promises to keep confidential - and in return they'll get a green sticker.

And according to the Tennessee tax commissioner, Lauren Chumley, they're supposed to go home and affix that tax stamp to their stash. Of course that's not necessarily what's been happening.

How many stamps have you sold?

Ms. LAUREN CHUMLEY (Department of Revenue, Tennessee): Oh, a whopping 726 stamps since January 1st of 2005"
A cop looked through a box of confiscated drugs, which included methamphetamine, CRACK cocaine, ecstasy, magic mushrooms, marijuana and lots of drug paraphernalia.

I MEAN COME ON!!

Entry #1: First Few Things I've LEARNED

Some economists (around 500) proposed a bill and signed a petition arguing for the legalization of MJ in the U.S. and how taxing would bring tremendous profit to Federal and State governments. Their report was called "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition" (June, 2005).The report estimates that "legalizing marijuana would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $5.3 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $2.4 billion would accrue to the federal government... [Also], marijuana legalization would yield tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. "

THINGS I NEED TO KNOW TO DISCUSS LEGALIZING & TAXING MARIJUANA IN NY!!

A few things I need to look up off the top of my head are:

• What law prohibits all use of marijuana?
• What economists believe are the benefits and cons of legalization and taxing it
• How legalization/decriminalization & taxing MJ have affected the economy of other countries
• Estimate of NYS population that uses MJ
• %-age of New Yorker's pro-legalization