Think about this: if you're involved in an unregulated, illicit market, there are no guarantees, often no product description, or quality described.
Of course, I'm talking about Pot. The illicit market in states where marijuana is illegal, or 'not legal," is completely without any regulation, as well as without any taxation. Not only doesn't the state get to tax the proceeds, and the municipalities or counties lose increased sales taxes, but the customers often don't know what they're buying.
In medical marijuana states, patients can ask for particular kinds of marijuana, and growers attempt to meet their needs, through breeding and selective cultivation. In Colorado and Washington, look for tailored tastes and moods. In states where the trade is illegal, you don't know what you're getting, or where it came from: illegal grows in trashed state or national forests, with chemical fertilizer and pesticides, instead of from certified organic farms with an address.
And, of course, illegality raises the price, sometimes as much as ten or twenty-fold. Successful drug dealers reap huge profits, but illegal drug costs are much steeper for the seller, too: it costs a lot to hire killers, or psychopaths and the risk premium is huge: you have to be able to cover your losses. Cultivation of the crop is the same or higher than it would be for a legal operation, but there are few incentives to tailor a substance like marijuana to particular needs: other than potency.
There is one reason only why New York state does not have at least medical marijuana: the dysfunctional state legislature. Medical marijuana bills have passed the Democratic State Assembly several times, but because of Republican control, the State Senate refuses to vote on them, or votes them down. In this current session, a Democratic majority was elected, but the Republicans, and reportedly, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, encouraged just enough disgruntled Democratic Senators to form an independent caucus and make a deal with them. In effect, the minority Republicans can, and have still, blocked medical marijuana, by again being part of the majority--with the rump Democrats.
Why? Andy is protecting himself, in case he can run for President: all those parts of the country that still abhor legal pot. Besides, he's more conservative than the state Democratic Party. If legalization keeps on gaining in popularity, though, count on Andy to lead the charge.
This has nothing to do with the Roman Empire, except no drugs or liquors were explicitly outlawed there, but distilled liquor wasn't invented until the 12th century. Wine was actually part of the Roman dole. I can't imagine how state-seized wine tasted, but most taxes were collected in kind in the last centuries of the Empire: currency was too debased to support the troops--or the dole.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013
Veteran's Day 2013
I'm a vet!
I was part of the Cold War contingent, and while I'm counted as a "Vietnam Era" veteran, I was lucky to be separated from the Army before the major escalation in that mistaken war, in late 1964 (after LBJ's landslide election).
I was stationed in Turkey 1962-1963, which was the standard tour, since it was considered a "hardship post." I wrote a novel about my experience, but it's unavailable except for one printed manuscript copy I saved in our latest move. Unfortunately, none of my electronic files survived, since the technology has changed so much. I couldn’t find it in my small batch of large format floppy disks: I wrote it in the early 80's, a story incorporating my experiences in the early 60's--after my new wife and I returned to the scene: Sinop, on the Black Sea.
My role in the Cold War was minor. I was a Traffic Analyst in an Army Security Agency mission, in which we monitored the radio-control transmissions of the USSR's Tyuratam Missile Testing site in what is now Kazakhastan. We knew what they were developing as soon as they did. That included their failed attempt to develop Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABM's). Sinop may be nearly Turkey's northernmost point along the Black Sea: Sinop Burun (nose, or peninsula) sticks out from the coast on a high headland. Our base was on its highest point.
The city of Sinop (Sinope) goes back before the 4th century BC, when Diogenes walked its streets looking for an honest man. Not true Turks, one Turk told me when speaking about Sinopians: most were converted Greeks.
I never thought about it until recently, but we were engaged in what NSA has now developed globally: surveillance of nearly everyone. I was trained at NSA before embarking for Turkey. It was surveillance that was easily justifiable: by international treaty, anyone could gain all the (unencrypted) data from another nation's rocket tests--if they knew when a test was going to happen: that's where we came in.
Later, when I was teaching in a maximum security prison, I had a student who had been a Soviet helicopter gunner: he had been stationed in the mountains east of the Black Sea. His unit was involved in attempting to control the restive inhabitants north of Afghanistan. His former empire was crumbling when I taught his Soviet Politics course in prison.
I wish ours were crumbling, too. Instead, it seems as if the American Empire will survive shutdowns and more, while Americans at home go without, to maintain our expensive military in over 100 nations abroad. We will impoverish ourselves, as Rome and other empires did before us. We continue to attempt to extend greater US control over the rest of the globe, even though we can no longer afford an expensive empire
I was part of the Cold War contingent, and while I'm counted as a "Vietnam Era" veteran, I was lucky to be separated from the Army before the major escalation in that mistaken war, in late 1964 (after LBJ's landslide election).
I was stationed in Turkey 1962-1963, which was the standard tour, since it was considered a "hardship post." I wrote a novel about my experience, but it's unavailable except for one printed manuscript copy I saved in our latest move. Unfortunately, none of my electronic files survived, since the technology has changed so much. I couldn’t find it in my small batch of large format floppy disks: I wrote it in the early 80's, a story incorporating my experiences in the early 60's--after my new wife and I returned to the scene: Sinop, on the Black Sea.
My role in the Cold War was minor. I was a Traffic Analyst in an Army Security Agency mission, in which we monitored the radio-control transmissions of the USSR's Tyuratam Missile Testing site in what is now Kazakhastan. We knew what they were developing as soon as they did. That included their failed attempt to develop Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABM's). Sinop may be nearly Turkey's northernmost point along the Black Sea: Sinop Burun (nose, or peninsula) sticks out from the coast on a high headland. Our base was on its highest point.
The city of Sinop (Sinope) goes back before the 4th century BC, when Diogenes walked its streets looking for an honest man. Not true Turks, one Turk told me when speaking about Sinopians: most were converted Greeks.
I never thought about it until recently, but we were engaged in what NSA has now developed globally: surveillance of nearly everyone. I was trained at NSA before embarking for Turkey. It was surveillance that was easily justifiable: by international treaty, anyone could gain all the (unencrypted) data from another nation's rocket tests--if they knew when a test was going to happen: that's where we came in.
Later, when I was teaching in a maximum security prison, I had a student who had been a Soviet helicopter gunner: he had been stationed in the mountains east of the Black Sea. His unit was involved in attempting to control the restive inhabitants north of Afghanistan. His former empire was crumbling when I taught his Soviet Politics course in prison.
I wish ours were crumbling, too. Instead, it seems as if the American Empire will survive shutdowns and more, while Americans at home go without, to maintain our expensive military in over 100 nations abroad. We will impoverish ourselves, as Rome and other empires did before us. We continue to attempt to extend greater US control over the rest of the globe, even though we can no longer afford an expensive empire
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