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Cannabis and Reparations


 So: one municipality has decided to pay race-based reparations. 

How? with a tax on cannabis. 

As Spock would say: "fascinating." 

The trend toward state-level legalization of cannabis has gone pretty far, and there is now a friendly administration. Back in January 2017, when I attended a San Diego conference o the industry, there was a good deal of nervousness about the incoming administration and what action it might take. Well, it did not act as a friend, but it always had other things on its mind, so the state-legal systems have survived it.

The Biden administration might be willing to go further than to allow such systems to survive. It might integrate them with federal banking law in an important respect, which could lessen the amount of violent crime. After all, without that integration, cannabis merchants are mostly cash businesses. They leave a lot of cash around the premises, and that in turn attracts violent ctime. So ... let these legitimate businesses open bank accounts already!

But now cannabis has been targeted as a source of reparations money?  Why? Probably just "because it's there." Because cannabis merchants are still the disreputable folk who aren't allowed to keep bank accounts. Their profits aren't regarded as fully legitimate so they are easy targets. 

Is there a deeper connection here that I'm missing. (And please don't reply with "who used to pick George Washington's hemp anyway?") okay? 

Comments

  1. HenryApril 12, 2021 at 1:28 PM

    Wouldn't the government tax legal cannabis sales just as it taxes alcohol and tobacco sales, aside from whether cannabis merchants are "disreputable"? Does it make a difference that the tax receipts will be targeted for a particular cause?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ChristopherApril 12, 2021 at 4:29 PM

      Henry, It seems to me that The Powers That Be may have calculated that the aura of disreputability on the one hand, and the notion that "this money will be going to a good cause" on the other hand, may allow them to get away with a bigger share of the income from businesses in this area than they can get from liquor or tobacco sales. And I think that this could be a miscalculation, because the legit dealer in state-legal marijuana have to deal with competition from the continued black market, folks selling without benefit of sate licenses. Too much taxation at the retail level may drive the business back to the black market status whence it was only recently and partially raised.

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