Action Marijuana Hearing This Monday

Marijuana
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This Monday March 18 at 12 noon The Assembly Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on A4497 and S2703. Room 11 4th floor Statehouse Annex, Call and email the committee members and urge them to vote NO! See Committee list below.

Certain politicians in the New Jersey Legislature are pushing extra hard to legalize recreational marijuana with zero regard for the citizens they are elected to serve. Why? Perhaps it’s because recreational marijuana will be a cash business, ripe for money laundering and corruption.

Because recreational marijuana is federally illegal, federal banks will not touch this industry, pushing it to a cash business. Reputable state-chartered banks will not do business with a federally illegal marijuana establishment. So, the question that needs to be asked is how is this cash going to be handled? How is the cash sent to Trenton? Will the dispensary owner need to drive down to Trenton with cash in order to pay for the taxes? Once the cash is in Trenton how is it then handled? Does New Jersey have a designated bank for these cash deposits, or will New Jersey have a State-Run Bank like a third world dictatorship? What security is involved to make sure the cash is not tampered with?

Based on the dispensary operation does the State have a handle based on the number of plants grown using the cost of such an operation and what the tax revenue would be? Are employees of the operation going to be paid in cash? If not, then how are they going to be paid if the banks and federal law do not allow banking for this industry? Federal Taxes do need to be paid and as such this cash must be brought to a designated IRS office in New Jersey.

State Senator Ron Rice

Senator Ron Rice points out in detail why legalizing Pot is a bad idea in a letter to the entire New Jersey Legislature.

How will State Income Taxes be paid by the marijuana growers and distributors for themselves and their employees including NJ state disability and unemployment? What about Workman’s Comp? Are there insurer’s that work in this area? Since this is a cash business how does one fund a retirement plan? Will real estate be used as a way to launder the money? If the dispensary owns their own building could the pot dispensary pay rent to the real estate holding company which would then deposit cash into a legitimate banking account? Are legitimate businesses being used as a way to launder the cash? Because if so then we are advocating State-Run Money Laundering.

Forbes Magazine article written by Kevin Murphy chairman and chief executive officer of Acreage Holdings, the United States’ largest vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator.

If we flood the market with marijuana could it cause the price to go down and the perceived tax revenue to go up on a percentage basis and if so, could the “Weed Man” be more competitive? How are we handling the Weed Man? Since marijuana is about to be decriminalized, we have no way of knowing where someone bought their weed. Could we consult with the black-market seller of marijuana in terms of his money laundering methods? This would assist the state with its fiscal handling of the federally illegal marijuana revenue?

Since we will have a lot of cash does that mean that the snow plow contractors get paid in cash or our vendors for all that brine Governor Murphy has used? Will the State of New Jersey start making out money orders to pay our bills?

These are a few things that we need to understand with regard to this endeavor. Bottom line, there will be corruption from start to finish and additional costs that will translate to small revenue, causing the state to find other things to tax like the air we breathe. After all, we now tax rainwater.

Senator Shirley Turner

Letter to constituent on why State Senator Shirley Turner will vote NO on recreational marijuana.

What happens in an IRS audit to these federally illegal marijuana growers and distributors? Where are the bank ledgers, account statements to show profit and loss, expenditures and payroll, etc.? When IRS agents find criminality, they are mandated to report their findings, suspicions to the U.S. Justice Department.

These issues haven’t been addressed by New Jersey media. The bigger question is how invested are the personal finances of the legislators voting for A4497 and S2703 regarding the marijuana industry?

This Monday March 18 at 12 noon The Assembly Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on A4497 and S2703. Room 11 4th floor Statehouse Annex, Call and email the committee members and urge them to vote NO!

NJ STATE ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE
John Burzichelli Chair
Gary Schaer V Chair
Herb Conaway Jr. MD
Wayne DeAngelo
Gabriella Mosquera
Ryan Peters
Eliana Pintor Marin
Kevin Rooney
Cleopatra Tucker
Jay Webber
Harold Wirths
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