California to Spend $100 Million Helping Pot Growers and Dealers Get Legal
By Daniel Greenfield
Rule of thumb.
When the government tells you that a particular tax will pay for something, it won’t.
When it claims that legalizing some sort of socially damaging industry will pay for something and get rid of organized crime, not only won’t it pay for it, or get rid of organized crime, but you’ll end up subsidizing the industry.
California is still fighting the drug war, this time against unlicensed drug growers and dealers, Mexican drug cartels are running rampant around the state, and taxpayers will bail out the legalized drug dealers to the tune of $100 million.
The California Legislature on Monday approved a $100-million plan to bolster California’s legal marijuana industry, which continues to struggle to compete with the large illicit pot market nearly five years after voters approved sales for recreational use.
The best part is where that money is going.
Many cannabis growers, retailers and manufacturers have struggled to make the transition from a provisional, temporary license to a permanent one renewed on an annual basis — a process that requires a costly, complicated and time-consuming review of the negative environmental effects involved in a business and a plan for reducing those harms.
As a result, about 82% of the state’s cannabis licensees still held provisional licenses as of April, according to the governor’s office.
The funds, including $22 million earmarked for L.A., would help cities hire experts and staff to assist businesses in completing the environmental studies and transitioning the licenses to “help legitimate businesses succeed,” Ting said.
This is a joke. But it’s also the Democrats.
Taxpayers will spend $22 million to fund Los Angeles’ plan to hire experts to help drug growers and dealers overcome the regulatory barriers created by…the government.
But since it’s California Democrats, this can only get worse.
The governor’s proposal to extend provisional licenses has drawn objections from a coalition of seven environmental groups including Sierra Club California, Defenders of Wildlife and the Nature Conservancy.
Environmentalists have wiped out much of California’s agriculture already while being funded by California taxpayers.
Taxpayers are funding the environmentalists fighting legal pot (because they hate agriculture and human civilization) and the government that is working with the drug growers and dealers.
The Newsom administration is warning of dire consequences if pot businesses are not given more time to get a regular license.
“Absent this extension, it is possible that a significant number of these licensees could fall out of the legal cannabis system, significantly curtailing the state’s efforts to facilitate the transition to a legal and well-regulated market,” the administration warned in its budget proposal.
If you don’t give us $100 million for our regulatory process, the drug dealers may go back to selling pot illegally which will rob us of the drug money that we will spend to help drug dealers navigate the regulatory process of legally selling drugs.
Jonathan Swift wept.