tax marijuana? it happens

I love it. Totally love it. In the great war on drugs in Canada there have been three major camps that I could see. We have our traditional conservatives that hold true to the old law of drugs and say 'we dont need better laws, we need stronger laws and stronger punishments to stop drugs'; we have the liberals saying 'we need to legalize it and then tax the living hell out of it'; and then we have the stoned out 60's throw backs going 'we need to turn the entire country into one big commune, smoking weed, growing cabbages and living in love, peace and harmony, dude!'. Well, it is good to see that the Canadian gov't has found a way of compromising. What is a compromise? some say it is "reaching an agreement to which both sides are unhappy with". I think, however, that the compromise that Alberta provincial judge has come up with sort of makes only the Conservatives happy and still ticks off the Liberals, but still using Liberal ideas. What did they do?

Turns out that Michael Fernand Paradis was handed 'a two-year sentence in April of 2004 and a three-year sentence in May of 2004 to run concurrently' for two pot grow-ops that he has served time on. Now, the Canada Revenue Agency is saying that he has to declare his income on taxes for that term and has to pay back taxes or face another 3 months in jail for default. I love it. So, let me see if I get this straight. We are keeping the Conservative idea of keeping marijuana as illegal to own or grow AND they are keeping the Liberal idea of taxing the hell out of it, but only for those people that grow and sell it. I wonder if this is going to be a trend. Tax the actual growers of marijuana when they sell the drug to a street seller as income for the grower, and then tax that same bag of pot again when the seller sells it to a user as income for the seller. Depending on how far that bag of pot goes, it could probably be taxed 3-4 times on someone's income til it finally gets smoked. Now, call me crazy, but sounds like the gov't is totally onto something here. It might just go down the chain a bit more. I mean, people always said for prostitution they should make it legal and then tax the prostitutes for their income. Good thing about that, though, is you can only charge a person once for the sex act, not like the bag of pot that could be taxed 3 times down the line.

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http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/07/20/taxes-calgary.html

Drug trafficker fined for not declaring grow-op income
Last Updated: Friday, July 20, 2007 11:53 AM MT

A convicted drug trafficker has been slapped with a $55,000 fine for tax evasion after failing to declare revenue from two marijuana grow operations in Alberta.

"By and large, every source of income that you are getting is going to end up being taxable," said Canada Revenue Agency spokeswoman Joanne Gorsalitz. "It's important that everyone pay their fair share."

A provincial court judge found Michael Fernand Paradis, 48, guilty of tax evasion Thursday in connection with two large marijuana grow-ops he ran between 1997 and 2001 in Sundre and Water Valley.

He will have to pay a $55,000 fine, on top of the taxes and interest he owes.

The Canada Revenue Agency estimates Paradis's potential yearly income from the grow-ops was $1.2 million or about $274,000 after expenses, so its asking him to pay back $74,774 in federal taxes, said Gorsalitz.

Paradis has served time behind bars for the grow ops — he was handed a two-year sentence in April of 2004 and a three-year sentence in May of 2004 to run concurrently.

If he doesn't pay the fine within two years, Paradis will go to jail for another three months.