TIME: Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?

Time:

Could marijuana be the answer to the economic misery facing California? Democratic state assemblyman Tom Ammiano thinks so. Ammiano introduced legislation last month that would legalize pot and allow the state to regulate and tax its sale - a move that could mean billions of dollars for the cash-strapped state. Pot is, after all, California's biggest cash crop, responsible for $14 billion a year in sales, dwarfing the state's second largest agricultural commodity - milk and cream - which brings in $7.3 billion a year, according to the most recent USDA statistics. The state's tax collectors estimate the bill would bring in about $1.3 billion a year in much needed revenue, offsetting some of the billions of dollars in service cuts and spending reductions outlined in the recently approved state budget.

Read the whole story: Time

Comments

[puhibay]

What alot of people don't know is, if pot is decriminalized alot of the other drugs will go away.
Hawaii used to have alot of pot.
Then the CAMP program started to wipe pot out on the islands.
What happened?
Meth and Ice took over, and a major violence epidemic broke out and still is happening today on 2009 on all the islands.

[LeaderofMen]

"The last thing we need is yet another mind-altering substance to be legalized," says John Lovell, lobbyist for the California Peace Officers' Association."

Excuse me, John, but maybe you don't understand what $14,000,000,000 looks like right now. RIGHT NOW. That's the amount of money changing hands ALREADY for this 'mind altering substance' that does NOTHING whatsoever to cause the problems that cocaine, heroin, meth and other extremely dangerous drugs cause in this nation.

Once pot is decriminalized the nation will awaken to the absurd amount of money being spent to STOP normal everyday Americans from enjoying a bong load or two

[Kasado]

What does he mean, "...another mind-altering substance..." ? The only legal one I know of is alcohal and it has caused more damage to society than all the illegal drugs put together.

[fumes]

arrest these potheads now!!!

http://www.veryimportantpotheads.com/index.html

and make the streets safer

one pothead at a time..

[Kasado]

Only if the Gov criminalizes cigarettes, booze, porn, fastfood, and anything else enjoyable in life.
Right Moral Crusader?

[Nicon]

you new to sarcasm or what?

[slarabee]

One thing is clear about the debate. The arguments that the opponents of legalization use have been proved fallacious over and over again.

If I heard even one good argument against legalization I might be persuaded to oppose legalization but all I ever hear is the same old BS that has been being repeated for decades.

[Phalanxman]

The opposition is from cops -- who would lose some of their power and authority -- and a pharaceutical guru -- who would lose his own profits in anti-depressant or anti-insomnia and other medications. The fact is, for millions of Californians (and Americans) life sucks, then you die. They know they are not going to rise to elected office, to a position of great authority in any corporation, they will never amass a million, they will never pay off their mortgage (if they even have a mortgage). For these people, putting in their eight-a-day and going home and getting stoned is as good as life will ever get. Why deprive them of it? Give the People their soma.

[fumes]

lol..

aldous.. is that you?

[VOTER]

Legalize the sale of marijuana and prostitution.
Thanks to BushCo, it is time.
Funny how when he and his gang sold out America, they, also, sold
out the arguments made by the far-righters against these issues.

Legalize, tax and bring stability into areas currently being used my many,
including many far-righters.

[iblogleft]

Why not legalize Cannabis Hemp and Cannabis Sativa?

Major alcohol corporations would lose 10% of their business on day one.

Farmers want food crops to be used for fuel, it drives up cost.

Pharmaceutical companies stand to lose a billion dollars a year to medicinal Cannabis.

The prison industrial complex is driven by arresting Marijuana users. 870,000 people were arrested last year on Marijuana charges, 80% of those for minor possession. The entire Judicial process in inundated with these cases, and for hire lawyers don't mind one bit.

Oil wants no more competition than is already here.

Drug Cartels stand to loose 100 billion a year in Cannabis and Cannabis Hashish profits worldwide.

There is MASSIVE (private) profit in keeping Cannabis illegal. They do not wish to send that profit to the government in the form of taxes, or see the price of Marijuana drop to next to nothing.

Cannabis Hashish and Opium fund terrorist organizations in the middle east. Drop the price to almost nothing, and there is no more money to kill U.S. and Allied troops.

[doublehelix68]

Plus it's a weed and can grow just about anywhere by anyone.

The powers that be would lose their control over a useful sustainable resource.

[pangurban]

The big issue in the big budget fight in CA was over raising taxes. The Repunks don't want taxes on anything..this would never get thru our legislature

[iblogleft]

It is the second longest fiber plant, next to flax.

It was the draft of the constitution that was written on hemp paper.

Hemp will replace cotton. It is 3 times more soft, requires little pest or weed control. Cotton is less than 5% of our crops, yet uses more than 50% of the pesticides.

Hemp oil was listed in the U.S. Army manuals as the top choice for lubricating oil. If spilled, it is completely biodegradable.

The Cannabis Hemp seed is second in amino acids only to soybean. It is bought by the pound in India and many other countries. It is one of the most nutritious seeds on the planet.

Cannabis has one of the largest latitudes of growth of any crop.

Cannabis Hemp has 8 times the cellulosic fuel capacity of corn.

Industrial hemp could be fertilized with human urine.

Henry Ford built a car body made mostly of hemp, and had his photo taken in front of his hemp field with hemp fueled tractors.

Hemp is one of the strongest fibers on earth.

Hemp could replace wood as a building material and paper supply.

Hemp is carbon neutral.

I think I could go one, but I think you get the picture.

[SamKnause]

Thank you. That was an excellent post. I always blog on the subject and try to educate people about it. The government has totally brainwashed most of the population and they seem to be scared about legalization because they don't have the facts.

[iblogleft]

Thank you.

Oh, I should have said "strongest natural fibers on Earth."

By the way, all the hemp we use in the United States is imported. They say you can see the crops from Vermont.

[AntonBursch]

I have never used pot nor any other illegal drug, but I'll move to California if they legalize pot.

I will move to whichever state first removes it's lips from the @sshole of religion.

Religion is the only reason pot is illegal.

Religion's con is to declare pleasure a sin.

[ObjectiveRealist]

That's brilliant! Throw people in prison by the millions for distribution of taboo chemicals because you don't want somebody else's pursuit of happiness to differ from yours. Ignore the superiority of marijuana for anxiety disorders and prescribe lethal, mad chemist's experiments. Then, eventually do the right thing only out of desperation when you're dead broke. The drug war and all its proponents are pathetic trash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd_3HowvKlA&NR=1

[undrgrndgirl]

this is only a small part of the picture for legalizing cannabis - legalization would also offer HUGE benefits in terms of industrial hemp...food, textiles, plastics, paper...california needs to stop growing soil damaging and water thirsty cotton and replace it with hemp - the days of king cotton and king corn are over, it is well past time for king hemp!

[drumz]

Yup, it's a great commodity but big pharma has too much to lose because it being basically a weed is really easy to grow.

[pangurban]

Sure, try to collect taxes from people who grow it on their patios. Nonenforceable just like the HOV lanes and the hands free while driving cell phone laws. I see violations of both daily.

[undrgrndgirl]

i can grow tomatoes or brew my own beer on my porch, too, but i don't and i doubt you do either...most people will gladly pay for someone else to do the work and pay the taxes on the produce.

[pangurban]

much easier to grow tomatoes than brew beer....just saying the enforcement and regulation part of this would cost the state a fortune and we are broke. and it would never get thru the legislature here...they were so overdue on the budget the state could not pay its bills and issued IOUs. I would like to see it legalized too but I don't think it will happen.

[ObjectiveRealist]

Many people use more than can be grown on a normal-size patio, and would prefer to buy the rest through legal, regulated, quality-controlled channels. If the government wasn't so stupid I would object less to paying taxes in general.

[slarabee]

That may be true but the fact is growing and processing marijuana into a usable product is a lot more work than you think. I would bet that the majority of people will just buy marijuana from a licensed grower and seller.

In the Netherlands the government takes in and estimated $600,000,000.00 annually in tax revenues from marijuana and hashish. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/dutch_marijuana_tax

Not to mention just because people smoke marijuana does not mean that they have a propensity to break the law and I would assume that the average person that smokes marijuana if given a choice between doing it without fear of criminal penalty and doing it in an illegal fashion and risk being arrested I would guess they will choose the legal avenue.

[slarabee]

If you read through these forums http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing/ I think you will get an idea of how much work it really is.

[Sepulchre]

How many people do you see growing thier own tobacco? It can be done but for the most part it is time consuming, a hassle, and takes up to much space (espeically for those with no balconies). Way more people would buy it than would grow it.

[Coinyer101]

end the war. stop the violence. simple.

[CosmicSpaceTurtle]

I have yet to see one rational explanation for marijuana being illegal. It's far safer than alcohol. No person in the history of civilization has ever died from overdosing on marijuana. How many people die in one YEAR from alcohol poisoning?

The government has no reason to outlaw marijuana. It's one of the most bizarre laws I can think of, and I'm completely puzzled as to why politicians can't see the common sense here. They're also hypocritical, because we all know most of them have at least tried it.

Legalize it. Tax it. Put the same laws and restrictions on it as alcohol. States get some extra cash, and the government/law enforcement can stop wasting time on prosecuting people for such a trivial and ridiculous issue.

[pangurban]

Anyone can grow it. Making your own wine and spirits is difficult. Not a good analogy.

[undrgrndgirl]

ok, better analogy - i COULD grow my own tomatoes, but i don't. i don't have time to get into all the nuances of cannabis prohibition, but it goes back to the pharmaceutical industry and opiates (1937); there are also components of racism and keeping minorities in their place...then throw in the paper, chemical and cotton industries over the decades and it turns into a real cluster f*ck...

[ObjectiveRealist]

It's the same as the argument against gay marriage: "I don't want to do it therefore everybody who does has something wrong with them." Taboos cannot be debated rationally, only de-legitimized by merciless mockery.

[slarabee]

"merciless mockery" I like that. :)