Community | June 14, 2009 | 29 comments

Should Deficit-crushed California Legalize and Tax Marijuana?

source: http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/06/should_california_legalize_and_tax_marijuana.php

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Seems to me a decision to legalize and tax marijuana sales would require a fair amount of work. Regulations on growing, marketing and selling would need to be worked out. Tax collection processes would need to be established. This isn't something that can just happen over night. Sure, they could decriminalize it overnight and stop putting people behind bars. But to start selling it over the counter at liquor stores would take some doing, I'd think.



California is a mess. Barring major intervention from the governor or legislature, it's about seven weeks away from a financial meltdown and crumbling under a budget deficit of $24 billion. Dark days call for drastic measures. If there was ever a time for a liberal-leaning state to start experimenting with illicit drugs or the taxable revenues thereof, this would be it.

State assemblyman Tom Ammiano made his pitch in February, a bill that would legalize the "cultivation, possession and sale of marijuana by people 21 and older." The bill would amount to about $50 per ounce tax on the drug, raising an estimated $1.3 billion for the state.

Are Californians cheering? Plenty are not.
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    Community,   Politics,   Culture,   Drugs,   1 more
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    News,  Politics,  Culture,  Drugs
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29 comments // Should Deficit-crushed California Legalize and Tax Marijuana?

  • hunzedog
  • brente
  • Michael_Atheist
  • KeineReue
    • 0
      KeineReue  

    • legalize it. tax the fuck out of it. everybody's happy. same as alcohol "no working or driving under the influence etc". but seriously, this country would be out of debt if we would just legalize it already.

    • 2 years ago
  • emilio
    • 0
      emilio  

    • Marijuana culture is too prevalent in California for it not to be legalized. Demand is high (pun intended) and it's not going to change.

      I hope that the stigma around hemp products and marijuana in American society and media starts to soften.

    • 2 years ago
  • netstorm2k8
    • 0
      netstorm2k8  

    • Nah, I say we start gladiator style combat with groups of convicted pedophiles armed with chainsaws in a televised arena that has an obstacle course style battlefield with traps.

      We let viewers make bets on their Visa cards over the internet, or they can use paypal if they prefer.

      Or we can just sell people weed.

      I don't know, it's a tossup.
      ; )-~

    • 2 years ago
  • brente
  • Varex_Sythe
  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  

    • they said if they raise taxes for tobacco it would fix the defecit and will force people to slow down on smoking...

      YEAP THAT WORKED WELL..

      for ever tax dollar we made we might be spending 10 dollars to fix the ills it cause in society..

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • GodsnLiberals:

      That's kind of horse poop. I'm 54 and a smoker. To date you haven't paid shit for my health care. I'm not ill. I am in excellent health. I don't take one daily pill.

      When they changed the laws in Ohio and no longer allowed people to smoke in public places, one of the managers at GM was sooo happy. He stated, he was tired of paying for smokers health care. I thought about it for a while and I told him, hell, you don't even pay for your own health care, GM does. Now apparently since we own so much of GM, we do.

      My point, within two weeks his daughter had a baby, which was premature. The baby only weighed a pound and a half. By grace of God he is okay, but no one thought his daughter should have her tubes tied, because we did not want to pay for any more premature babies. People are so quick to want to judge others, yet they want sympathy when their loved ones are ill. My dad died of emphysema. He was a smoker and a welder. It's hard to know, which was the cause. He wouldn't take the test for asbestos when it was offered. He said the steel mills helped him support his family, he would not sue them if he could.

      Many ills in society are blamed on smoking. It gives people someone to blame when they are ill. We have so many pollutants and other things which cause ill health effects, smoking is an easy target and it pits person against person, instead of corporate pollution, which adds to illnesses in America.

    • 2 years ago
  • blaino
  • GodsnLiberals
  • Robocloud
    • 0
      Robocloud  

    • Overall this would be a good thing, but it is not unlikely that large scale producers (if given the opportunity) would cut their product with toxic chemicals and space filling additives (kind of like what tobacco companies have done).

    • 2 years ago
  • unimatrix0
  • GodsnLiberals
  • unimatrix0
  • fun_size
  • idealist
    • 0
      idealist  

    • i dont know how many more ways you can phrase the reasons why legalization is the way to go, but! when they do!
      they are going to learn that it will bring in more money then they ever exspected!

    • 2 years ago
  • corndog67
    • 0
      corndog67  

    • What about penalties for people that sell it or furnish it to people under 18? Or do you guys think that it is OK for teen to smoke weed? That, I think, is the main problem with weed. It absolutely destroys motivation in young people. Adults, hey, no problem do whatever you want. But there are so many young people now smoking, and just sitting around wasting away, its ridiculous.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
  • timetide
  • bons
    • 0
      bons  

    • If pot was federally legalized, then the FDA would probably regulate it... them or the ATF.

      But on a state by state basis, each state would have to come up with its own regulatory body. I think there are a lot of questions to settle. Who can grow it? Who can package and market it for resale and public consumption? If the idea is to tax it, then independent growers who grow and sell outside the system would still be breaking the law, right? It just doesn't seem entirely simple. That's not a reason not to do it, but I just have lots of questions about what it would look like.

    • 2 years ago
  • thecoyote23
    • 0
      thecoyote23  

    • Its hard to tax and control a plant that is easy to grow, and grow everywhere. Its a weed! California should make hemp a cash crop and create a whole new business. The science is all out there sitting on shelves waiting to be used. Hemp seeds for food, fiber for paper, concrete, and a thousand other uses for the plant.

    • 2 years ago
  • RickLD
    • 0
      RickLD  

    • Making pot legal would not cure the problems in California. $1.3 billion is a lot of money but who would regulate it? You would need some group of people to set guidelines, and regulations. And, another to enforce those regulations. And ya know those people will not work for free. So their salaries will be taken out of the 1.3 billion raised.

    • 2 years ago
  • fun_size
  • timetide
    • 0
      timetide  

    • well duh. but the lovely idiot we have as our gov. is more willing to fuck over the most needy in our society than entertain the idea.

    • 2 years ago
  • fun_size
    • 0
      fun_size  
    • timetide:

      Wait who are you referring to? The Governator tried to open up discussion about legalization of marijuana as a means of making money but the state legislature ignored him.

      If you are talking about Obama thats a different story all together... it would be political suicide for him to side with marijuana reform.

    • 2 years ago
  • mymountain
  • Robroy1
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