Taxing and Regulating Makes Sense for California

Regulating and taxing pot makes sense for California


By F. Aaron Smith
Updated: 06/09/2009 05:13:05 PM PDT


THE resounding defeat of five ballot initiatives aimed at closing California's enormous budget gap should be interpreted as a clear message to Sacramento: Voters want innovative solutions to this budget mess, not more of the same old gimmicks and borrowing schemes.

One such outside-the-box proposal that should be passed immediately is A.B. 390 - Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's bill to tax and regulate marijuana.

California's marijuana crop brings in nearly $14 billion a year - more than our vegetables and grapes, combined. But the state sees no taxes from this massive industry - a direct result of laws prohibiting marijuana that have completely failed at their intended goal, to curb marijuana use.

When California first outlawed marijuana in 1913, it was virtually unheard of. Now, one in 10 Californians report having used marijuana at least annually and more than 2 million monthly. Marijuana has become so pervasive in our culture that it's the subject of a popular Showtime series and the futility of prohibition has become fodder for comedians and late night talk show hosts.

Even Gov. Schwarzenegger - a past marijuana user himself - once joked that marijuana isn't a drug but merely "a leaf."

The truth is that our marijuana laws have been a disastrous failure and are by no means a laughing matter.

Marijuana prohibition is clearly no joke for the victims of Mexico's drug cartels, which obtain at least 60 percent of their revenue from illegal marijuana in much the same way mobsters benefited during alcohol prohibition.

California taxpayers forced to pay for costly enforcement efforts that have done nothing to stop illegal marijuana dealers from getting rich without any oversight or taxation aren't laughing either - certainly not while the state is in the midst of a fiscal meltdown.

Astonishingly, Schwarzenegger told CNN May 27 that marijuana prohibition in California "has worked very well." Is he serious? Despite 74,000 marijuana arrests and millions of plants seized at great expense to taxpayers every year, marijuana is our state's top cash crop, and more California teens smoke marijuana than cigarettes. And all of the profits go to criminals rather than legal, law-abiding businesses.

If that is success, what on earth would failure look like?

Historically, states have routinely been ahead of the federal government in driving public policy on a number of issues - from women's suffrage to environmental protection. California's unique budget challenges and Ammiano's bill present a golden opportunity for the state to finally replace the failed policy of prohibition with a sensible marijuana policy that could serve as a model for the rest of the nation.

California voters are taking marijuana policy reform more seriously than ever before. A recent Field Poll found that legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana is one of the most popular revenue-enhancing proposals being considered in Sacramento today. More than 55 percent of voters support taxing marijuana - that's more than double the support for supposedly more mainstream ideas such as sales or gas tax hikes.

Voters aren't too keen on making many budget cuts either. Faced with drastic cuts to schools, police and health care and the possible closure of more than 200 state parks, Californians are understandably upset and angry. Prison spending is the only part of the state budget that a significant majority of voters are willing to cut.

A good place to start would be with nonviolent marijuana offenders - a segment of the prison population that has exploded in recent years.

Nobody claims that taxing and regulating marijuana will fix California's budget crisis by itself. But with a strong consensus that marijuana prohibition isn't working, fixing this failed policy should be one of the easiest pieces to the long-term budget puzzle.

Before moving on to the more controversial budget solutions that will undoubtedly be required in California, Sacramento's policymakers should get behind Ammiano's marijuana legislation. It's not only sound public policy, it's good politics.


F. Aaron Smith is the California policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project (www.MPP.org), a national advocacy group working to end marijuana prohibition.


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