Legalizing pot would generate $1.4 billion, Calif. officials say

there won`t be any drug wars if cops don`t get paid?


Legalize it. Let all the drug criminals out of jail, pink slip half the cops and prison guards and the budget deficit will shrink by more than $1.4 billion.

and you can make whisky...

but making good whisky is an art....


Get some bad whisky, you could go blind, kidney failure, maybe even die. Dangerous stuff that alcohol.

I'm afraid the $1.4 billion figure is total BS. Most of the figure is based on the price paid and the tax.

But who is going to pay $50 or even $25 an ounce for a plant that grows so easily? People will still be selling it among friends.

The reason given for the proposed law is merely a sop to pretend it would help raise state revenues. It won't.

there won`t be any drug wars if cops don`t get paid?


Legalize it. Let all the drug criminals out of jail, pink slip half the cops and prison guards and the budget deficit will shrink by more than $1.4 billion.


Sorry but that is politically unacceptable. In these troubling times of the Global Financial Crisis and the Global Economic Recession, you cannot afford to be putting people out of work.

So you can't sack all those cops and prison guards. You have to make something else illegal to balance it out.

I'm afraid the $1.4 billion figure is total BS. Most of the figure is based on the price paid and the tax.

But who is going to pay $50 or even $25 an ounce for a plant that grows so easily? People will still be selling it among friends.

The reason given for the proposed law is merely a sop to pretend it would help raise state revenues. It won't.


$50 an ounce is half-price in my neck of the woods. Add friendly competition between manufacturers for better quality. We'll have everything from generic on up to top-shelf. It would end up brand-based, just like everything else (more specifically alcohol and tobacco) You can grow tobacco and you can make your own liquor, but who wants to? Very few. I'll have a box of Kronic 100's please!

SAN FRANCISCO – A bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California like alcohol would generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped state, according to an official analysis released Wednesday by tax officials.

The State Board of Equalization report estimates marijuana retail sales would bring $990 million from a $50-per-ounce fee and $392 million in sales taxes.

The bill introduced by San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano in February would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess, grow and sell marijuana.

Ammiano has promoted the bill as a way to help bridge the state's $26.3 billion budget shortfall.

"It defies reason to propose closing parks and eliminating vital services for the poor while this potential revenue is available," Ammiano said in a statement.

The way the bill is written, the state could not begin collecting taxes until the federal government legalizes marijuana. A spokesman says Ammiano plans to amend the bill to remove that provision.

The legislation requires all revenue generated by the $50-per-ounce fee to be used for drug education and rehabilitation programs. The state's 9 percent sales tax would be applied to retail sales, while the fee would likely be charged at the wholesale level and built into the retail price.

The Equalization Board used law enforcement and academic studies to calculate that about 16 million ounces — or 500 tons — of marijuana are consumed in California each year.

Marijuana use would likely increase by about 30 percent once the law took effect because legalization would lead to falling prices, the board said.

Estimates of marijuana use, cultivation and sales are notoriously difficult to come by because of the drug's status as a black-market substance. Calculations by marijuana advocates and law enforcement officials often differ widely.

"That's one reason why we look at multiple reports from multiple sources — so that no one agenda is considered to be the deciding or determining data," said board spokeswoman Anita Gore.

Advocates and opponents do agree that California is by far the country's top pot-producing state. Last year law enforcement agencies in California seized nearly 5.3 million plants.

If passed, Ammiano's bill could increase the tension between the state and the U.S. government over marijuana, which is banned outright under federal law. The two sides have clashed often since state voters passed a ballot measure in 1996 legalizing marijuana for medical use.

At the same time, some medical marijuana dispensary operators in the state have said they are less fearful of federal raids since U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would defer to state marijuana regulations.

Advocates pounced on the analysis as ammunition for their claim that the ban on marijuana is obsolete.

"We can't borrow or slash our way out of this deficit," said Stephen Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "The legislature must consider innovative sources of new revenue, and marijuana should be at the top of that list."

Ammiano's bill is still in committee. Hearings on the legislation are expected this fall.

Also Wednesday, three Los Angeles City Council members proposed taxing medical marijuana to help close the city's budget gap.

Council members Janice Hahn, Dennis Zine and Bill Rosendahl backed a motion asking city finance officials to explore taxing the drug.

Hahn said that with more than 400 dispensaries operating in the city, the tax could generate significant revenue. The motion pointed out that a proposed tax increase on medical marijuana in Oakland, which has only four dispensaries, was projected to bring in more than $300,000 in 2010.

Meanwhile, marijuana supporters have taken the first official step toward putting the legalization question directly to California voters.

A trio of Northern California criminal defense attorneys on Wednesday submitted a pot legalization measure to the state attorney general's office, which must provide an official summary before supporters can begin gathering signatures.

About 443,000 signatures are necessary to place The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act on the November 2010 ballot. The measure would repeal all state and local laws that criminalize marijuana.
[link to news.yahoo.com]

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."


Just replace the gin with pot and there you have it, a bunch of drug induced lackies that would let big brother have his way with them as long as they got to smoke weed.

Loser=stoner.

When all the people who start smoking dope quit their jobs to start playing guitar or paint than California will be in an even bigger economic mess.

Don't give in to the loser dope fiends, Arnold!



I agree. Pot smokers, by and large, in my past experience, do not make the best and most productive members of society.

Keep the stuff illegal, it took us years to get rid of the damn hippies anyway.



We never left. Dude we are everywhere, and you dont even know it. you must be blind.

Keep the stuff illegal, it took us years to get rid of the damn hippies anyway.



We never left. Dude we are everywhere, and you dont even know it. you must be blind.



Thank God, my hippie roots are the only thing (and God) that keep me semi-sane these days!!

Then itl be cocaine, than lsd, then pcp. come on guys, its a slippery slope

Whats your problem with LSD?

I'm afraid the $1.4 billion figure is total BS. Most of the figure is based on the price paid and the tax.

But who is going to pay $50 or even $25 an ounce for a plant that grows so easily? People will still be selling it among friends.

The reason given for the proposed law is merely a sop to pretend it would help raise state revenues. It won't.


$50 an ounce is half-price in my neck of the woods. Add friendly competition between manufacturers for better quality. We'll have everything from generic on up to top-shelf. It would end up brand-based, just like everything else (more specifically alcohol and tobacco) You can grow tobacco and you can make your own liquor, but who wants to? Very few. I'll have a box of Kronic 100's please!

Keep the stuff illegal, it took us years to get rid of the damn hippies anyway.



We never left. Dude we are everywhere, and you dont even know it. you must be blind.



Thank God, my hippie roots are the only thing (and God) that keep me semi-sane these days!!

Me too! I'm sending you some Nag Champa incense via this website. Hope you enjoy it. LOL

Then itl be cocaine, than lsd, then pcp. come on guys, its a slippery slope

Whats your problem with LSD?


they are polygamists and wear holy underwear

I wonder the amount of costs that could be diverted to something else if pot was legalized. These costs (prison costs, DEA, police, administration etc.) could also be in the billions.

Legalize everything that grows on mother earth and tax it. People are using it anyway, so better regulate it and make money with it! That would be something done by a government of the people for the people. Nationalization of banks could bring back profits for communities by elevating the lower class of society.

That is not communism, it is common sense for a future, cause in the direction we're heading right now, there is none...

I'm afraid the $1.4 billion figure is total BS. Most of the figure is based on the price paid and the tax.

But who is going to pay $50 or even $25 an ounce for a plant that grows so easily? People will still be selling it among friends.

The reason given for the proposed law is merely a sop to pretend it would help raise state revenues. It won't.


yeah you can grow tobbaco too....

and you can make whisky...

but making good whisky is an art....

and people with money would pay a good price for the good stuff....

cause with good pot you don`t need a lot to get high..

two good hits....

and you`re flying higher than a kite....

I dont see how anyone could argue pot would be more dangerous in any way than alcohol if it become legal.

and what 60% of people in jail right now are in there because of weed?
really?

I wonder the amount of costs that could be diverted to something else if pot was legalized. These costs (prison costs, DEA, police, administration etc.) could also be in the billions.

Why would I pay for weed if it was legal to grow?