Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Detroit: We Have Had Insufficient Time To Arrange For Graft Opportunities

The City of Detroit decided to extend its ban on legal recreational marijuana sales in the city, for the alleged reason that they need time to figure out how to make sure it helps employment in the city and keeps those terrible suburb people from setting up well-functioning dispensaries and cashing in on the deal, and of course, to ensure decent opportunities for graft.

The Detroit News: Detroit Council extends ban on recreational marijuana sales to spring

Meanwhile, illegal sales of marijuana in Detroit continue non-stop while the City Council tries to figure out how they can milk this cash-cow of legal sales. Hilariously, they're claiming what they're doing by delaying it is to ensure employment for Detroiters - while preventing such businesses from opening in the city and actually employing Detroiters, natch. Even more hilariously, they claim that recreational marijuana sales is an opportunity to as they actually claim "make Detroiters whole" after the city bankruptcy and economic downturn.

That is highly unlikely, legalized marijuana sales and taxes on same is simply not a panacea for decades of financial mismanagement especially as there's no sign the council has learned the lessons of the past mismanagement. The city council purposefully delaying it until they figure how to get their fingers in the till of recreational sales make it even less likely to be such an overwhelming and overstated benefit will ever occur.

2 comments:

MrGarabaldi said...

Hey Aaron;

As I understand it, other states have done the recreational pharmaceutical route and the illegal stuff is cheaper from all the taxes and fees added to it. It ain't a cash cow or a panacea for all their "needs"

Aaron said...

MrGarabaldi: Yep, it isn't quite the panacea they claim it will be nor does it bring in the revenue proponents were claiming. Over-regulating and over-taxing doesn't help either, nor does the type of graft and corruption game that Detroit is famous for help matters much.