There are some things that seem just too weird to be true. For decades Orange County, California has been a protected retreat for right-wing "we're against everything" Republicans. The county's main newspaper, the Orange County Register, has been a steadfast and reliable voice for the "Party of No".
That's why it is shocking to learn the Orange County Register is urging California voters to legalize and tax marijuana. You've got to read this one for yourself:
"One of the most sensible ways to mitigate the government's budget crunch is unlikely to come through the legislative process, though a bill has been introduced and passed by one committee. But California voters will have a chance to get ahead of their leaders in November by approving an initiative to tax, regulate and legalize marijuana use for adults. Doing so would also help our neighbor Mexico, given that some 60 percent of the revenue of the Mexican cartels involved in the current tragically deadly drug war are said to come from marijuana. Legalizing marijuana in California would dry up a significant part of that illicit revenue."
"Although marijuana is not without its potential dangers, scientific studies validate that it is less organically dangerous to human beings – as in no documented overdose deaths over thousands of years of use – than the legal drugs alcohol and nicotine. In the form of hemp, it is also valuable for food, fiber and fuel. Legalizing it would invigorate California's agricultural sector."
"The benefit to California's budget would be twofold. Police focusing on the hopeless task of eradicating marijuana could focus on real crimes, and enforcement costs would decline. Fewer lives would be ruined by people being arrested for marijuana use, and the jail and prison population would decline. And if marijuana were taxed it would bring in considerable revenue. The state Board of Equalization estimates that a $50-per-ounce excise tax would bring in $1.4 billion to the state, and decreased costs of investigation, prosecution and incarceration would be at least several billion. That wouldn't close the budget deficit but it wouldn't hurt."
Read the full and original story from the Orange County Register
Learn more about taxing cannabis from Tax Cannabis 2010
Watch this interview with CA Assembly member Tom Ammiano:
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