Today’s number: $126 million
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Rahmbo no likey the weed…
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday knocked down potential challenger Karen Lewis’ idea to legalize and tax marijuana, saying he doesn’t “think you should balance the budget by promoting recreational smoking of pot.”
OK, who’s talking about “promoting” it? Just get the government the heck outta the way.
* I’m kinda choking a little here as I write this, but I’m with Karen Lewis on this issue…
“I think it’s important for us to start thinking very differently about revenue sources,” Lewis said. “In Colorado, in the first quarter alone, the state generated $80 million. Come on. Not only that, but having a sensible drug policy stops a lot of other silliness.”
Told that the mayor criticized her idea, Lewis said the casino that Emanuel wants to build in Chicago to boost revenue would be much more damaging to Chicagoans than legalized cannabis.
“I know for a fact that casinos have a devastating effect on families and communities, and people have lost their houses because they have gambling addictions and problems,” Lewis said. “But recreational usage of marijuana is worse? Come on. How do you compare that, to you also promoting casinos, which damage families way, way, way worse?”
* Lewis has a very good point about revenues. In fact, NerdWallet just did a study on this very topic and concluded Illinois could reap annual revenues of $126 million.
- Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 3:57 pm:
Bruce Rauner and Rahm disagree? No, that can’t be.
- Abraham Froman - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 3:57 pm:
MCPP application numbers should be coming out as well today at 4PM
Rahm is needs to shore up progressive values somewhere but apparently he doesn’t want to do it this way. Perhaps he benefited too much from the private prison industry when he was working on passing all those mandatory minimum sentences during the Clinton administration
- Roamin' Numeral - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 3:57 pm:
They are both partially correct. We need to legalize the wacky tobacky AND put a casino in the country’s 3rd largest city. And while we’re at it, we need to put slots at the tracks.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:01 pm:
It is very difficult to rationalize decriminalizing pot while opposing legalization.
“One step at a time” is a smarter response.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:11 pm:
Good for Lewis. We need the revenue, and we need to move the model from one of total failure to one in which we reap some benefit–perhaps even a lot of benefit.
- independant - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:15 pm:
Be careful what you hear, it may not be correct. I think you will actually find that it didn’t raise nearly 80 million dollars of taxes in CO. They have more folks buying medical pot since its taxed less and it’s easy to get a prescription. The black market still exists as it’s not taxed at all. You may also find crime going up, traffic fatalities going up and underage youth use going up. We need to wait for a few years of actual data to judge but it is not all rosy.
- Responsa - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:15 pm:
I think Karen’s idea needs to be considered seriously. But not rushed into. I’d like to see at least a year or more additional hard data with respect to Colorado’s experiment. Tax revenues, crime, quality/purity of the pot, work accidents, driving under the influence arrests, etc.etc. etc. Then let’s talk about this policy matter with some actual data to weigh and balance.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:17 pm:
===You may also find crime going up===
Yeah, because the vast majority of pot users are SUCH hardened criminals. Get over it.
- Nieva - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:19 pm:
You are correct about the boats costing people their homes. I think most everyone would relate to a neighbor or friend that lost it all at the boat. Very few would be able to tell you about someone that had their life ruined over smoking a fatboy…
\
- allknowingmasterofracoondom - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:25 pm:
I agree it is a good idea in it’s right time. There are so many other laws that would be on a crash course with the legalization. For instance - you smoke a joint on Saturday night. On the following Wednesday, you are driving along perfectly sober when you accidentally run over and kill a small child, or rear end a car and someone dies. That would call for automatic blood tests, which would show pot in your system. So how do you reconcile what comes next? You did something legal in the comfort of your own home and 5 days later your life if ruined because of it? Simple example but the polar ends of the federal and state laws would be a total cluster.
- Ahoy! - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:27 pm:
–Illinois could reap annual revenues of $126 million.–
That’s nice, but the biggest issue would probably Dept. of Corrections savings and local courts & jails saving much much more than this.
My guess is that crime would actually be going down, because you just made something that was illegal, legal. The studies that should be coming from Colorado and Washington should be very helpful in the coming years.
I’m not opposed to legalization, but it’s a hard sale for a lot of people, so let’s start with decriminalization and stop ruining people’s lives now and figure out the rest later.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:29 pm:
–Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday knocked down potential challenger Karen Lewis’ idea to legalize and tax marijuana, saying he doesn’t “think you should balance the budget by promoting recreational smoking of pot.”–
“Having said that that, I sure would like the payday I could get from selling booze and fleecing sucker gamblers at my very own casino.”
“Bruce and I were talking the other day over a couple bottles of wine, and….”
- Dazed and Not Confused - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:31 pm:
Independent -be careful what I hear?
Facts are facts. Tax revenues for canabis sales for the first quarter were over $80. The second quarter is just now being finalized but it looks to be over $100 million. The projections now suggest tax revenue between $350 and $400 million! As for the black market it has all but collapsed driving sales to juveniles to a 30 year low. Be careful what I hear? What I hear is that the new laws are for the most part working very well. Yes, edibles need further regulation and there are some other minor issues. All to be expected. What has not happened is all the scare BS predicted by those who want us to be careful what we hear…..I suggest you might want to actually look into the facts and concern yourself less with what you hear……and deal in real facts!
- Carl Nyberg - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:33 pm:
I remember being in the Navy and my mom wrote me a letter to cast a vote for Carol Moseley Braun in the Dem Primary.
This left me voting for Governor. I looked at the candidates and figured that I would give my vote to a longshot pro marijuana legalization candidate. Don’t even remember his name.
Yes, I’m down with legalizing pot. It’s about time.
- Disgusted - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:34 pm:
I agree with Lewis, and with YDD comments about the contradiction, but what I find interesting is she’s much quicker on her feet than most first time candidates with her casino comeback. She would be a formidable opponent and keep Rahm on his heels. With Lewis out there freely doing Q and A with the media, Rahm won’t be able to respond with his usual scripted-bullet point, Rose Garden appearances. Rauner could learn a lot from her.
- Ain't misbehaving, much - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:37 pm:
Any dime (pun intended) of MJ sales taken away from criminal organizations and put into legit revenue is a plus. Any person who doesn’t have their life ruined because of a weed conviction is a plus since they will be more likely (not guaranteed obviously) to go on to a productive life instead of being kept down by the conviction. If someone is going to “lose their house” because of gambling, proximity of the establishment is NOT the darn issue. The can lose their house in Dubuque or Gary and all points in between right now. Signs don’t affect criminal behavior any more than Prohibition cured our ales (pun again!) then. 99.9% for people (number PFTA) can have fun at and with these vices and not self destruct. The others will have problems not matter what we do.
- Dazed and Not Confused - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:38 pm:
While we are on the subject you will never convince me that the Baron didn’t spark up a few doobies while at that bastion of liberal thinking Dartmouth. When I was there in the mid eighties there wasn’t any place around campus that you couldn’t find recreational drug use. Lots of it in fact. Probably true of most college campuses as well. Did the Baron inhale? Perhaps this explains his faulty memory on so many issues and business deals!
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:43 pm:
===you will never convince me that the Baron didn’t spark up a few doobies===
I’ve talked to him about this. He definitely wasn’t a pot guy.
- A guy... - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:45 pm:
It’s a good development generally. Rahm will win re-election with a mandate to legalize and tax pot. Now that’s working together. At that point, I wouldn’t be surprised at how many teachers will be swelling those tax revenues. LOL
- vole - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:52 pm:
Legalize and means test the sales tax so Rauner and Emanuel and Associate Recreational Celebrity Club Tokers pay 10X the sales rate of the common slubs who fork out the big bucks to enter the legal realm and keep the price high enough for the cartels to survive legalization. Jeez, couldn’t it be so simple as allowing everyone to grow a few free buds and be his own shaman?
- Phenomynous - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:55 pm:
===you will never convince me that the Baron didn’t spark up a few doobies===
==I’ve talked to him about this. He definitely wasn’t a pot guy.==
Tell that to his van.
- Dazed and Not Confused - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:58 pm:
Vole -makes more sense than what we are doing now! Maybe a minimal tax for home growers or tax over a certain amount. We can certainly do better than what we are doing now….criminalizing recreational users for life!
- Nonplussed - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:07 pm:
The war on drugs is over. The drugs won.
- Chris - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:18 pm:
“You may also find crime going up, traffic fatalities going up and underage youth use going up.”
You MAY find all three going DOWN, too. As you say, we don’t have sufficient data yet to *know*, so why are you concern trolling?
- vole - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:18 pm:
Nonplussed: Read the hometown newspaper’s court notes. Lots of folks still getting their reputations if not their lives ruined for possession of a few grams of weed. For everyone outside of Colorado and Washington it is still a risky deal — partake with a little paranoia noir.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:22 pm:
this is a hot button topic with majority supporting the idea that we can`t arrest our way out of war on drugs( prohibition is the experiment)he must have vested intrest in the drug trade not to listen to the people that elected him
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:54 pm:
what backwards thinking,don`t the mayor like brownies?
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:55 pm:
–The war on drugs is over. The drugs won.–
No but those who make money on the war on drugs have been winning for a very long time.
That includes those working the illegal side of it as well as those charged with enforcing it.
Asset forfeiture laws alone are a huge business all across the country. And abut the most un-American practice you’ll ever find.
- ZC - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 7:39 pm:
Border zone governments in Wisconsin and Indiana wouldn’t be fans, as their residents flock to Chicago to pick up the weed and drive back home. Some of that’s happening in Wyoming and Nebraska and Kansas right now; it’s technically illegal to buy to ship out of Colorado, but guess how much CO really cares about expending resources to enforce that part of the law. But I suppose that’s the neighbors’ problem, and maybe they should get with the program.
- Scaricare Fifa 15 - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:34 pm:
I love looking through an article that will make people think.
Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!
- vole - Thursday, Sep 25, 14 @ 5:22 am:
It is all about which hierarchies will dominate the trade of a weed that lends itself to an anti hierarchical way of thinking. How much reality revelation (BS detection) can the empire stand? Does the empire dare to enable this crossing of world views? Or continue to stone wall the stone, or to Hendrix, the beauty? Let people find the real, anti empirical Jesus, their Zealot within? Or continue to promote the beer and cheer on game day? Just how free can an empire allow one to be? When it boils down to a question of needing a $100 million dollars of tax support, by weed or by the wheel of fortune, to keep its wheels on something very fundamentally just ain’t right in pot hole nation. Too much rendering unto Caesar and too many roads built to Rome.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 25, 14 @ 7:50 am:
Vole, sounds like you had quite a night.
- vole - Thursday, Sep 25, 14 @ 10:26 am:
word, heheheh, that is just the morning coffee version of word slinging from days when all was not forgotten from revelations that penetrate to the soul
I know. Likely too radical even for Cap Fax. But hey, if it got a laugh or inspired a laughster, ok. Some know.
- independant - Thursday, Sep 25, 14 @ 11:46 am:
In looking at CO’s actual published taxs,licenses and fee’s for the first 8 months Jan 2014 thru August 2014 it totaled $13,027,709. Thats a far cry from $80 million.
- Anonymous - Friday, Sep 26, 14 @ 12:57 pm:
Not for nothing, but Greg Hinz is reporting that Karen’s numbers are really, really wrong–over stated by many tens of millions of dollars per quarter. Not debating the issue, but the facts matter.