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<p>[IRS</a> Hits Oakland Pot Shop With $2.4M Tax Bill](<a href=“FOX 5 New York”>FOX 5 New York)</p>
<p>I never thought I would love anything about the IRS, but I love this action. I am not a fan of potheads. Let’s close the budget deficit on the backs of evil corporate pot growers.</p>
<p>As someone who has been in those dispensaries with a friend that have now died of cancer, I am a little sad myself. That pothead was a 64 year old nun who taught inner-city kids.</p>
<p>Hmmm we tax cigs, we tax alcohol, and all kinds of discretionary purchases…why not tax pot. You don’t have to smoke cigs, you don’t have to drink alcohol and you don’t have to use pot if you don’t choose to.</p>
<p>Those of us who have used marijuana effectively during cancer treatment tend not to think of ourselves as potheads. We tend to think of ourselves as survivors who were blessed with an herb that quelled our nausea, allowed us to eat, and perhaps even elevated our mood when we were at our lowest point. And we tend to think of people like the OP as heartless fools. At least I do.</p>
<p>If it’s a licensed medical marijuana business, it should not be treated as an illegal enterprise and it should be allowed to make reasonable deductions. They should pay federal tax, but not as though they were illegal drug traffickers.</p>
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<p>If it is prescribed, shouldn’t it be deductible?</p>
<p>State drug laws do not supercede the Federal laws.</p>
<p>he back taxes, penalties and interest levied against Harborside Health Center came after the IRS examined its returns for 2007 and 2008 and determined a 1982 tax code prohibiting cost deductions for businesses that traffic in illegal drugs applies to the dispensary. </p>
<p>This is the IRS interpretation of the law, The company is free to appeal that finding ultimately it will be decided in tax court. In California the company was not selling illegal drugs. The company my win on appeal. Yes they also may lose.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I missed the report. Who was it that concluded “If we don’t tax marijuana it will cease to be sold.”</p>
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<p>Hey, it was the IRS and not the FBI or local cops that put Al Capone in prison.</p>
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<p>Indeed. Staight-arrow, law and order, God and Country types tend to moralize and condemn until they walk a mile in other’s shoes.:rolleyes:</p>
<p>I have arthritis, osteoporosis & fibromyalgia.
Traditional pain relief medications have severe side effects & over the counter isn’t effective enough to help oftentimes- while I never indulged very often with marijuana before I had children ( & not at all afterwards), I am now finding that certain types gotten at the legal dispensaries in our city, is very effective in relieving pain and as a sleep aid. ( BTW my children are grown/in college)</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with it being taxed and regulated- or prescribed for those who can benefit from it.</p>
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<p>I have the greatest sympathy for those who suffer from pain that cannot be reduced by any other measure than marijuana. There is no question there should be some way to help those people. But people who need marijuana as a last resort are few and far between.</p>
<p>The belief that there are 94,114 users in Oakland who need 30 varieties of marijuana and actually need marijuana as a last resort to cure their pain is simply a lie. The lie starts with thousands of patients who lie to doctors who pretend to believe the patients and issue prescriptions in order to collect fees from insurance companies. The real patients get lost in the flood of potheads seeking a high. </p>
<p>Those who really need marijuana as a last resort for pain management should not be mad at the IRS, they should be furious that anyone can get it and that so many people are pretending to have pain in order to get high.</p>
<p>I do agree that some physicians write prescriptions with a very broad brush & I also feel that that hurts those who really could benefit from it.</p>
<p>I don’t think that all those 20 somethings with prescriptions necessarily need them ( although I do not believe that pot is more incapacitating than other legal substances- like alcohol).</p>
<p>I would like to see it legalized and sold perhaps in state run shops for those who use it like liquor, & more research on specific strains and their effects for different maladies which are dispensed either at the regulated shops the way they are in my city, or at pharmacies.</p>
<p>I would be happy with just taking a pill as I suspect many people would be, but unfortunately that isn’t as predictable or effective.</p>
<p>If you read it carefully, this is not just taxing marijuana. It is disallowing tax deductions for a marijuana-oriented business. We allow businesses that sell cigarettes and alcohol to take legitimate tax deductions for their business expenses; why shouldn’t a marijuana dispensary?</p>
<p>This is an example of the government finding a loophole and exploiting it for the express purpose of harassing a business whose activities it doesn’t like. It has nothing to do with right or wrong. It has everything to do with overzealous, faceless bureaucrats in Washington doing something because they can, regardless of whether it’s right.</p>
<p>Let people smoke pot. So what if you’re not a “fan of potheads”? Go mind your own business. I’m not a fan of people who think the government is an instrument with which to impose their own morality on the rest of us.</p>
<p>The peculiarity of this case is that those hailing it will be the same people who usually condemn federal government intervention and support states’ rights. Go figure.</p>
<p>I do like the IRS, though, because they sent me a refund on my taxes after they determined that I had made an error.</p>
<p>mantori… i gree, they can tax marijuana if they want BUT, if this is a legal business they should be allowed any tax deductions that any business is allowed.</p>
<p>According to the state, it’s a legal business, but according to the federal government, it isn’t. That’s the problem.</p>
<p>I don’t see why it should be offered only as a drug of last resort, shouldn’t the most effective treatment options be available?</p>
<p>This is what occurs when State and Federal law contradicts itself. CA has a an ongoing problem of making its own laws - like sanctuary cities, immigration and border control enforcement as examples. Somewhere along the line the conflicts must be reconciled.</p>
<p>At a parent orientation of DD one mom asked if there would be a problem with her offspring filling their medical marijuana prescription at the campus health center. She was informed that as a public institution, the school was following federal law and thus would not be able to accommodate that request. The reason being Federal law supersedes State law. Oh, and, if caught with said ‘prescription’ product on campus, all Federal laws would apply.</p>
<p>While the original idea behind Medical Marijuana is honorable and humane, as is usually the case, things don’t stay within their normal boundaries. Any of the numerous free weekly magazines in my area will have page after page of Medical 420 ads - along with a toll free number to call to obtain an immediate over the phone prescription. So, yes, many of these place are running an illegal drug scam.</p>