Would Legalizing U.S. Pot Destroy Canada's Economy?

[hardboiled]

Would Legalizing U.S. Pot Destroy Canada's Economy?
By: Douglas Haddow

A thriving marijuana industry has aided Canada's economy – but political shifts in the US and at home are now threatening this

If you've been paying attention to some of the more peculiar side-effects of the global recession, you may have noticed that Canadians have been behaving uncharacteristically uppity of late. This new-found swagger is a result of Canada having the dubious distinction of being the "least-bad-rich-world-economy" – an honour that would be rather unimpressive if the rest of the G8 wasn't so persistently gloom-stricken.

While most wealthy economies are still stagnant, in decline or disrepair, the Canadian economy has outpaced allcomers and will avoid the possibility of a double-dip recession that continues to haunt the US. But beyond the chorus of self-congratulatory backslapping coming from Ottawa, there has emerged a new and immediate threat of economic crisis that is being willfully ignored by Canadian politicians.

This November, in an effort to increase tax revenue, California will hold a referendum on whether or not to legalise the cultivation and use of marijuana. If passed, the change in law would be devastating to the Canadian economy, halting the flow of billions of dollars from the US into Canada and eventually forcing hundreds of thousands into unemployment.....

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[FlyByNite]

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FlyByNite

[sh@dy]

is this true?
sorry but wtf?
fuck them growers and everyone else who is thinking about losing his busines when it gets legal.
No one gave you an insurance, you were doing a profitable thing so far and made a good profit....now this MAY be gone, think about something else, this is life, many people go through this situation.

so ridiciolous

LEGALIZE IT!

[USbongLord]

lets hope so...marc emery can blow me to hell

[hardboiled]

I think the point is that Canada's economy will shit the bed, because we've had so many years developing this 'trade' between our countries - it's a large part of our economy. Many legitimate business' will get hit.

From the article, you'll notice they estimate pot to be a larger business than our entire lumber + grain exports annually

The pressure here to legalize will be massive if it goes in Cali....I hope many of our politicians sleepwalk through this. They'll get a large surprise soon

(thx FBN)

[Ingwey Gooblebogger]

Would Legalizing U.S. Pot Destroy Canada's Economy?

Answer: NO!

1) Canada is the second largest country in the world (after Russia) in terms of area. Canada is a country full of natural resources that the rest of the world wants/needs, and the demand for such goods continues to increase.

We are the biggest supplier of oil to the US, and the demand from China for our oil, copper and other metals, diamonds, forrest products, intellectual property, amongst others, continues to show very strong demand.

With the Russian wheat crisis, Europeans may soon feel the pain of that issue, but Canada can step in and supply all the grains the Europeans require.

2) Another reason our economy is much stronger than those in many of the other Western nations because we did NOT allow our banks/financial institutions to freely fuck our citizens like those banks did in the US, UK, Europe and so on. (Although, my personal opinion is that we should regulate our banks even more than we currently do.) Hence, we did not have to hand over such huge shitloads of money to the fuckers that created this current worlwide economic meltdown!

3) Finally, most of the dope consumed in the US is grown in the US!

So, legalised Cali dope will have little effect on the Canadian economy.

I do have a question though: If Cali does indeed legalise cannabis will the other states, particularly those which border Cali, then build massive border fences and create border patrols to prevent contraband from Cali entering into the rest of the US?

If not, then those states might be flooded with Cali cannabis. This might then cause thse states to relax their penalties for possession, since people will be driving across state borders with dope and, with already over-crouded prisons they will have nowhere to house petty drug possession convicts. This relaxation of the laws possession laws, means that importer will feel less threatened, so the impact on demand for Canadian pot should be minimal.

If so, then US consumer demand for Canadian pot will only be diminished for those living in Cali. Hence the effect of Cali legalisation would be minimal.

[hardboiled]

3) Finally, most of the dope consumed in the US is grown in the US!

Can't find where you got that from.

Got a reference?

[Boner]

3) Finally, most of the dope consumed in the US is grown in the US!

Can't find where you got that from.

Got a reference?

I'd imagine most weed consumed in any given country is grown there, imported weed isn't as abundant as it once was thanks to the explosion of home-growing.

[colinzeal]

that canadian film "The Union: The Business Behind Getting High" talks about this issue. Naturally the vast majority of (commercial) growers are against legalisation as it will drive down the value of their goods i.e. weed is valuable because it is illegal. They also mention some interesting stats about the Canadian - US import export relationship, I cant remember the figures so I'm not going to guess at them but the jist of it was that a large proportion of canadian grown weed is exported to the US (often in exchange for coke or heroin) but this represents only a small proportion of US weed consumption and imports, something in the region of 10%.

At the end of the day most commercial growers anywhere are in it for the money, legalisation reduces the value of their product so they are against it.

Check out that film, its readily available streaming or at least was......

[hardboiled]

the US is a much bigger a market, yeah.

I prolly had it upside down in my head, cuz an often stated number here is that 70% of all the dope grown in Canada ends up in the states.