Marijuana Tax To Help California’s Finances?
A California state assemblyman from San Francisco has introduced legislation that would legalize and tax marijuana, a move he hopes will help shore up the state’s finances.
The bill by San Francisco representative Tom Ammiano, would legalize the cultivation, possession and sale of marijuana by people 21 and older.
The law, which would make California the first state to legalise marijuana, would inject an estimated $13bn a year in revenue into California’s empty coffers.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signed a $130bn budget that raises sales and income taxes, and dramatically slashes spending.
States across the country are facing massive revenue shortfalls, as income and real estate tax receipts fall and outlays for unemployment insurance and health coverage rise.
“It is simply nonsensical that California’s largest agricultural industry is completely unregulated and untaxed,” Marijuana Policy Project California policy director Aaron Smith said at a news conference announcing the bill.
“I think substance abuse is just ruining our society,” Assemblyman Paul Cook told a California newspaper, as if it were slothful dope-heads and not, say, gluttonous financial services executives that had wrecked our economy.
Theresa Loya, 43, of Mariposa, said the bill indirectly could affect children.
President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged smoking pot in his younger years, has said he does not favour legalisation of marijuana, but has indicated he would end federal drug enforcement agency raids on medical marijuana suppliers in states that allow it.
Since 1996, 13 states have enacted laws allowing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
