Marijuana won’t kill you, but the NJ taxes on it will (Opinion)

It was announced Tuesday that there is finally an agreement on a bill to legalize pot. The whores in Trenton (my apologies to professional whores everywhere) made a deal with Gov. Phil Murphy to see how much more money they can suck out of the citizenry. For them it wasn't about personal liberty, curtailing drug turf war violence or diminishing a dangerous and expensive black market.

No, for them it was all about the money they could squeeze out of people to feed the beast that is state government. It's a beast with a much more voracious appetite than a stoner with a chronic case of the munchies. Rather than be responsible, courageous and decent adults and tackle the problem of a bloated, antiquated and expensive way to run the state, they'd rather just tax the crap out of something that should never have been illegal in the first place.

This new bill will place a tax of $42 an ounce on marijuana. With the average cost of dispensary or street weed at around $300. This tax is triple the already high nearly-7 percent sales tax in New Jersey. Why triple? Because they can. And whatever makes them more money to feed the beast, that's what they'll do.

I have long been an advocate of legalization of ALL drugs. Not because I do them. I don't. Not because drugs are good for you. Most used recreationally are not. But to end the violent war on drugs that is destroying our inner cities and much of Latin America. Take the story of a Red Bank teacher beaten to death because she was mistaken for a drug dealer,  and the countless innocents and members of law enforcement that die every week in this senseless war.

With the taxes in the new bill, the cost difference between street weed and the dispensary will be negligible. It will take longer for those selling pot in New Jersey to realize they have to get a real job. Or they'll just start selling other illegal drugs and the violence of the "war on drugs" goes on. The whores at the State House in Trenton didn't do anything noble to further the cause of civil liberties or personal responsibility this week. They just made more money for their pimp. The insatiable big bad beast that is New Jersey State Government.

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