TODD: One other lesson from the separate countries of Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and other liberal cities is legalizing pot and taxing it. Okay, you get the money. You know what you don’t get? You do not get a decrease in the activity of cartels. You know what they go do?
They go break into the stores that have to pay tax on the weed and then they use their sales cycles to sell it and graduate people up into heroin. Rush helped a young man in Florida learn that to political people, everything is political, even issues young people connect to liberty, like weed.
RUSH: Matt in Jacksonville. You’re talking about medical marijuana. You want to know why it is a liberal issue. You want to know why there’s politics attached to it at all? Is that your question?
CALLER: I’m a Millennial. I’m 26 years old. I watch Fox News all the time. Every time it’s an issue about social issues it’s like, you know, the conservatives, all these talking heads, “Oh, medical marijuana,” why is it such an issue? It’s more than just medical marijuana.
It’s about liberty. It’s about liberty to do what I want to do, as long as I don’t affect anybody else. It can be controlled, you know, 18 years old, if you’re caught with it before 18, then, you know, all that, just like cigarettes, 18 years old you make your own decision.
RUSH: I’m gonna answer your question for you. In the first place Matt, learn something, please. Everything is political to political people.
CALLER: But why?
RUSH: Everything is. The reason medical marijuana is — medical marijuana is seen as simply a ruse to be able to get marijuana, period. Now, if you’ll notice, nobody ever mentions how having marijuana on the ballot in a lot of states in 2012 helped drive the Millennial turnout, but it did. Having medical marijuana or marijuana, period, on the ballot in 2012 really ratcheted up the turnout of people your age.
To people in politics, that’s politics. There’s a political reason why you showed up. Therefore there is a political appeal they think will resonate with you. Now, to you, if you’re being honest, you just want the freedom and liberty. If you need some marijuana for a medical reason, or whatever, you should be able to get it. It’s your life, it’s your body, you’re not hurting anybody.
CALLER: Exactly. I’m free. I’m a free citizen. What I put in my body — I don’t — okay, drug dealers dealing to kids, yeah, that’s bad. But when you get rid of the criminal element and it’s been proven, when you get rid of the criminal element, it’s not a big issue. My point is, it’s my choice whether I do it. But keep in mind, this goes beyond just medical marijuana. It’s the biggest issue right now —
RUSH: Okay, I understand. What about if you liked heroin instead of marijuana, would you have the same attitude about it?
CALLER: That becomes debate, and there’s debate. I don’t agree with it, but I believe someone should be at liberty to make their own choice.
RUSH: And that’s why you’re a Libertarian?
CALLER: Liberty is to make your own choice without government intervention.
RUSH: Right. I understand that. It’s an age-old argument, and it often delves into the role of public morality. The most common refute or refutation to your argument would be, “But it’s not just affecting you, Matt. By your using this drug, it’s affecting your employer, if you have one, because it’s gonna impact your performance.”
This is what they say. It’s gonna impact your family. You don’t do anything in a vacuum. Nobody does. And whereas you may think it’s a totally personal choice that has no effect on anybody else, public morality says otherwise. But regardless, whether that is something you believe or not, if government realizes that there’s money in it via regulation, then they’ll turn it as political as necessary to get the money out of it.
And if they see that the primary constituency group that wants this is young people, then, bammo, they’re gonna really politicize that. They’re gonna turn it into an issue to make you a voter. If they determine that’s all you care about, then there’s gonna be a political party that comes along to make you think that’s all they care about, you getting your marijuana, and they’ll promise you, and they’ll do whatever they can to get you to turn out and vote.
Everything becomes political in that regard.
The bottom line is that people who sell marijuana legally, the government’s gonna make more money off of them in taxes than they’re gonna make selling the product to customers. Drug-war-era law gives the government the right to tax the profits of the sale of it at 80 to 90%.
And if you want to know why there are efforts to legalize it, that’s all you need to know. It’s not about you exercising your freedom. It’s not that people want you to be able to get it, Matt. It’s not that people want you to get medical treatment. That’s all a bunch of BS.
They’re looking at it as a source of new revenue because we’re out of money, and they’re gonna exploit you and everybody like you as best they can. So now we’re not talking about just medical marijuana in these states that’s on the ballot.
This is recreational, because the federal government, the IRS, is looking at a tax rate of 80 to 90% on it, on the profits in legal marijuana stores. Follow the money, Matt, particularly in politics, and practically every question you have will be answered.
TODD: Follow the money and follow the liberty. So we’re keeping track. New York state now wants to legalized pot. It’s been legalized in the separate country of Washington state. The same areas that are championing a covid passport — yes, a covid passport in New York in order to enter a store — want guns taken away.
They want us tracked in our cars and blackmail pricing applied to our movement. You notice a commonality with the modern Democrats? That which builds up life or sustains freedom is to be attacked; that which does the opposite, is to be fostered.