"Blue Laws". Which state is the strictest?

[catch22]

I'd think if the weed business is cash-only, that'd be a bit dangerous for the employee designated to take the day's proceeds to the bank after closing every evening. The less cash a business has to handle through the use of plastic or electronic payment systems, the less risk involved.

Every dispensary I've been to in IL has had security systems that rival those in casinos. 

But those security systems wouldn't stop someone from clubbing the courier over the head when they're getting in their vehicle to drive to the bank, or doing something to force them to stop while on the road, or waylaying them when they get to the bank to do the night deposit.

The best way to move large amounts of cash is via an armored truck, but that's not cheap.

Another way is to obfuscate who the carrier is.  Back in the late '70s/early '80s, a good friend of mine was the manager at a multi-screen movie theater.  This was before online sales, of course, and they didn't accept cards back then, so on a busy weekend day it was not unusual to have a nightly cash deposit north of $15,000 from the ticket and concession sales.

They had a bonded service that provided a courier (one of several on a rotating basis).  They would attend the last showing of one of the movies.  One of the management staff would find them in the back of the theater and make the cash handoff in the dark.  The courier wore clothes that could conceal a couple of night deposit bags.  They would then just leave with all the movie goers in a group and would then go to the secure drop area the bank had after they determined they weren't being followed.  Never had a problem in the time he worked there.

[kalvado]

Trying to wrap my head around hydration through beer...

Much safer than coffee. If you drink too much hot coffee and your belly ruptures, you risk burning your toes. Not a hazard in case of beer.

[jdb1234]

I remember in the summer of 1997 when I worked in Montgomery, Alabama, I was stunned that I could not buy beer on Sunday at the grocery store. No idea whether that's still the law.

Depends on the county.  For as long as I can remember, alcohol sales in Shelby County were not allowed on Sunday.  However, alcohol sales were allowed on Sunday in Jefferson County.  Shelby County voted to allow alcohol sales on Sunday about 5 years ago (like everything else, it required an amendment to the Alabama Constitution).

[Rothman]

Trying to wrap my head around hydration through beer...

Much safer than coffee. If you drink too much hot coffee and your belly ruptures, you risk burning your toes. Not a hazard in case of beer.

Um...how 'bout neither for hydration, then?

[Scott5114]

I'd think if the weed business is cash-only, that'd be a bit dangerous for the employee designated to take the day's proceeds to the bank after closing every evening. The less cash a business has to handle through the use of plastic or electronic payment systems, the less risk involved.

Every dispensary I've been to in IL has had security systems that rival those in casinos. 

But those security systems wouldn't stop someone from clubbing the courier over the head when they're getting in their vehicle to drive to the bank, or doing something to force them to stop while on the road, or waylaying them when they get to the bank to do the night deposit.

The best way to move large amounts of cash is via an armored truck, but that's not cheap.

Another way is to obfuscate who the carrier is.  Back in the late '70s/early '80s, a good friend of mine was the manager at a multi-screen movie theater.  This was before online sales, of course, and they didn't accept cards back then, so on a busy weekend day it was not unusual to have a nightly cash deposit north of $15,000 from the ticket and concession sales.

They had a bonded service that provided a courier (one of several on a rotating basis).  They would attend the last showing of one of the movies.  One of the management staff would find them in the back of the theater and make the cash handoff in the dark.  The courier wore clothes that could conceal a couple of night deposit bags.  They would then just leave with all the movie goers in a group and would then go to the secure drop area the bank had after they determined they weren't being followed.  Never had a problem in the time he worked there.

Of course, if the manager approached someone who wasn't the courier, that could get interesting...

[JayhawkCO]

That all seems pretty convoluted.  When I was managing a restaurant that regularly did $40K in sales per night, we'd have deposits of $7k-$8k regularly.  We just keep them in the safe and then the armored car guys would come once a week and pick up all of the deposits.  Worked fine.

Chris

[hbelkins]

That all seems pretty convoluted.  When I was managing a restaurant that regularly did $40K in sales per night, we'd have deposits of $7k-$8k regularly.  We just keep them in the safe and then the armored car guys would come once a week and pick up all of the deposits.  Worked fine.

Chris

Not every business has a safe, and the presence of one is often an attraction for robbers, even if there is a sign that says that on-duty personnel do not have access to it. A would-be robber can get frustrated and injure or kill an employee if they can't get the safe open.

[JayhawkCO]

That all seems pretty convoluted.  When I was managing a restaurant that regularly did $40K in sales per night, we'd have deposits of $7k-$8k regularly.  We just keep them in the safe and then the armored car guys would come once a week and pick up all of the deposits.  Worked fine.

Chris

Not every business has a safe, and the presence of one is often an attraction for robbers, even if there is a sign that says that on-duty personnel do not have access to it. A would-be robber can get frustrated and injure or kill an employee if they can't get the safe open.

I mean, what do they do what that $15k of money in the popcorn bag the movie theater BEFORE the courier comes? 

Chris

[catch22]

That all seems pretty convoluted.  When I was managing a restaurant that regularly did $40K in sales per night, we'd have deposits of $7k-$8k regularly.  We just keep them in the safe and then the armored car guys would come once a week and pick up all of the deposits.  Worked fine.

Chris

I don't disagree, but the owner (who did everything on the cheap) did not want any substantial cash left overnight, even though the place had a decent safe so this was the solution he came up with.

[catch22]

I mean, what do they do what that $15k of money in the popcorn bag the movie theater BEFORE the courier comes? 

Chris

It was in standard locking night deposit bags, and one of the managers would run them up to the projection room after the count (out of sight of the customers), and then at the right time walk them down via another staircase to the prearranged theater and seat.

[JayhawkCO]

I mean, what do they do what that $15k of money in the popcorn bag the movie theater BEFORE the courier comes? 

Chris

It was in standard locking night deposit bags, and one of the managers would run them up to the projection room after the count (out of sight of the customers), and then at the right time walk them down via another staircase to the prearranged theater and seat.

And were those night deposit bags in a safe? Or just loosey goosey around the theater?  AKA just as or less secure than just having an armored car guy pick them up out of a safe.

Chris

[golden eagle]

For those unfamiliar, blue laws, are mostly regulations held over from Prohibition. Dry counties, no liquor sales on Sunday, etc.

Before Covid last year my wife and I stayed with friends in Mississippi. As a thanks for letting us stay I wanted to find a nice bottle of wine for them. Culture shock, having lived in both California and now Oregon, you can't buy wine in grocery stores! 

I was a kid, I remember malls were closed on Sundays until a court struck down Mississippi's blue laws.

[Daniel Fiddler]

I am not sure if anyone has posted anything about Tennessee yet, at least not anything this thorough.

Tennessee does not have even medical marijuana (we have CBD oil, but not cannabis).

Counties are dry by default.  Citizens have to elect whether to allow liquor stores and liquor-by-the-drink.  There are wet counties and "moist" counties (wet cities within dry counties).  For example, Madison County is wet.  Henderson County is "moist" (Lexington and Parker's Crossroads are wet, the rest of the county is dry).  In a wet city / county, liquor is allowed, but in a dry city / county, only wine and beer.  It used to be that in a dry city / county, only beer, but wine was recently allowed in dry cities and counties.

Grocery stores and Walmart can sell wine and beer due to a recent law and gas stations and tobacco stores can sell beer, just not on Sundays.  All alcohol sales are prohibited on Sundays, even beer, in stores.

If liquor-by-the-drink is voted in, restaurants and bars can sell liquor, mixed drinks, and wine every day (including Sunday), but only if liquor-by-the-drink is voted in.  Beer is allowed everywhere though, provided restaurants are licensed.

The strangest case in the state is Sevier County.  It is dry...except Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  Gatlinburg has always been wet as far as I know, but Pigeon Forge was until two or three years ago dry, but that recently changed.  Sevierville is, as far as I know, still dry.  Restaurants that would not normally operate in a dry city / county operate in Sevierville and operated in Pigeon Forge when it was dry though due to the tourism industry and them I guess thinking they could make enough from food to offset what they would not make from alcohol.

[Plutonic Panda]

Wow that makes Oklahoma look progressive with its recent modernization.

[hbelkins]

Gatlinburg has been wet at least since Shel Silverstein wrote "A Boy Named Sue" back in the 1960s.

[Daniel Fiddler]

Wow that makes Oklahoma look progressive with its recent modernization.

Indeed.  Tennessee makes MISSISSIPPI and ARKANSAS look progressive, which is sad! 

I hate to say this, and this may be illegal and may get me banned (I hope not), but it's the truth.

There is too much money in PHARMACEUTICALS / HOSPITALS, especially in Tennessee.  Notice I differentiated that between the word "healthcare" because what we have is NOT true health care, as if we were interested in curing people, helping treating people in the interest of making them better, we would have medical marijuana.  No, there is too much money in keeping them sick.  Billions are made in keeping cannabis illegal here from hospitalizations and pharmaceuticals.  If it were legalized, they would lose that.  Not to mention private prisons.  And lobbyists in Washington, DC.  It's corruption to the core.

[Edited to remove discussion of a specific politician. -S.]

I am adamant about this.  My mother, maternal grandmother, younger brother, and I would greatly benefit from medical marijuana.  We NEED medical marijuana to help treat our illnesses!  Although none of us (except maybe possibly me, I would consider moving to Orlando if it were not 801 miles and 10 hours 36 minutes from my maternal grandmother's house since Florida is a medical state and I love Florida so much from when I lived there).

I am not completely against hospitals and pharmaceuticals.  They have their purpose.  I have undergone a few surgeries I needed.  And I have family in the medical profession.  Although at the same time, when progress is suppressed due to corruption, one should be concerned.

[hbelkins]

The prevailing school of thought in Kentucky is that marijuana legalization is being opposed/suppressed by the state's flagship bourbon industry.

Here's one thing I don't understand (and this may be veering off into verboten territory) but one of the arguments I keep hearing for legalization for medicinal use is the tax revenue it would bring to the state. Wait a minute. We don't tax medicine. So if medical pharmaceuticals aren't taxed, then why should medical marijuana be taxed? Where's the fairness in that? If it's medicine, don't tax it. If it's an intoxicant, tax it like alcohol.

[NWI_Irish96]

The prevailing school of thought in Kentucky is that marijuana legalization is being opposed/suppressed by the state's flagship bourbon industry.

Here's one thing I don't understand (and this may be veering off into verboten territory) but one of the arguments I keep hearing for legalization for medicinal use is the tax revenue it would bring to the state. Wait a minute. We don't tax medicine. So if medical pharmaceuticals aren't taxed, then why should medical marijuana be taxed? Where's the fairness in that? If it's medicine, don't tax it. If it's an intoxicant, tax it like alcohol.

For-profit companies that have pharmacies are taxed on their profits, so allowing marijuana sales would increase business tax revenue, even if there's no tax on the sales.

[SP Cook]

Here's one thing I don't understand (and this may be veering off into verboten territory) but one of the arguments I keep hearing for legalization for medicinal use is the tax revenue it would bring to the state. Wait a minute. We don't tax medicine. So if medical pharmaceuticals aren't taxed, then why should medical marijuana be taxed? Where's the fairness in that? If it's medicine, don't tax it. If it's an intoxicant, tax it like alcohol.

You bring up the very point.  The pot people have wrapped the legalization deal in medical terms and such.  Wearing lab coats and using terms like "dispensary"   and selling joints in brown drug store bottles and all of this. 

I personally could not care less if a person want to smoke pot all day or not (as long as they get a J O B to pay for it) but the danger in calling this stuff "medicine"  is real and dangerous.  I know several, highly educated, people who are convinced it cures everything from cancer to bad breath.  It doesn't.  It is a recreational intoxicant.  If it is medicine, then so is Budweiser.

Saying otherwise prevents people from seeking out real physicians for real treatments for real illnesses. 

[JayhawkCO]

Here's one thing I don't understand (and this may be veering off into verboten territory) but one of the arguments I keep hearing for legalization for medicinal use is the tax revenue it would bring to the state. Wait a minute. We don't tax medicine. So if medical pharmaceuticals aren't taxed, then why should medical marijuana be taxed? Where's the fairness in that? If it's medicine, don't tax it. If it's an intoxicant, tax it like alcohol.

You bring up the very point.  The pot people have wrapped the legalization deal in medical terms and such.  Wearing lab coats and using terms like "dispensary"   and selling joints in brown drug store bottles and all of this. 

I personally could not care less if a person want to smoke pot all day or not (as long as they get a J O B to pay for it) but the danger in calling this stuff "medicine"  is real and dangerous.  I know several, highly educated, people who are convinced it cures everything from cancer to bad breath.  It doesn't.  It is a recreational intoxicant.  If it is medicine, then so is Budweiser.

Saying otherwise prevents people from seeking out real physicians for real treatments for real illnesses.

I don't really know how you can make that statement.  Because of our country's policy of labeling marijuana a Schedule 1 drug, we can't even really do all the studies to determine all of the medical effects.  It's not that great of a leap that cannabis could have substantial medicinal properties just like a million other plants do. 

[SP Cook]

Exhibit 1.

[JayhawkCO]

Exhibit 1.

Of what?

[kalvado]

Here's one thing I don't understand (and this may be veering off into verboten territory) but one of the arguments I keep hearing for legalization for medicinal use is the tax revenue it would bring to the state. Wait a minute. We don't tax medicine. So if medical pharmaceuticals aren't taxed, then why should medical marijuana be taxed? Where's the fairness in that? If it's medicine, don't tax it. If it's an intoxicant, tax it like alcohol.

You bring up the very point.  The pot people have wrapped the legalization deal in medical terms and such.  Wearing lab coats and using terms like "dispensary"   and selling joints in brown drug store bottles and all of this. 

I personally could not care less if a person want to smoke pot all day or not (as long as they get a J O B to pay for it) but the danger in calling this stuff "medicine"  is real and dangerous.  I know several, highly educated, people who are convinced it cures everything from cancer to bad breath.  It doesn't.  It is a recreational intoxicant.  If it is medicine, then so is Budweiser.

Saying otherwise prevents people from seeking out real physicians for real treatments for real illnesses.

I don't really know how you can make that statement.  Because of our country's policy of labeling marijuana a Schedule 1 drug, we can't even really do all the studies to determine all of the medical effects.  It's not that great of a leap that cannabis could have substantial medicinal properties just like a million other plants do.

Millions other plants have relatively narrow acting medical properties. So do most synthetic meds, with some off-label use which may or may not be working great.
That is one thing that makes me pretty skeptical about advertised medical properties of marijuana

[wanderer2575]

I am not sure if anyone has posted anything about Tennessee yet, at least not anything this thorough.

Tennessee does not have even medical marijuana (we have CBD oil, but not cannabis).

Counties are dry by default.  Citizens have to elect whether to allow liquor stores and liquor-by-the-drink.  There are wet counties and "moist" counties (wet cities within dry counties).  For example, Madison County is wet.  Henderson County is "moist" (Lexington and Parker's Crossroads are wet, the rest of the county is dry).  In a wet city / county, liquor is allowed, but in a dry city / county, only wine and beer.  It used to be that in a dry city / county, only beer, but wine was recently allowed in dry cities and counties.

I've always been amused that Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey is made in a dry county (Moore) where it cannot legally be purchased.

[Daniel Fiddler]

I am not sure if anyone has posted anything about Tennessee yet, at least not anything this thorough.

Tennessee does not have even medical marijuana (we have CBD oil, but not cannabis).

Counties are dry by default.  Citizens have to elect whether to allow liquor stores and liquor-by-the-drink.  There are wet counties and "moist" counties (wet cities within dry counties).  For example, Madison County is wet.  Henderson County is "moist" (Lexington and Parker's Crossroads are wet, the rest of the county is dry).  In a wet city / county, liquor is allowed, but in a dry city / county, only wine and beer.  It used to be that in a dry city / county, only beer, but wine was recently allowed in dry cities and counties.

I've always been amused that Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey is made in a dry county (Moore) where it cannot legally be purchased.

Indeed.  Jack Daniel's can only be purchased at the Jack Daniel's gift shop in Moore County, and only be consumed on their whiskey tasting tour.