How can California benefit from legalizing pot?
In these tough economic times, a pro-marijuana group is taking advantage of an opportunity to try and legalize marijuana in California once again. The group will launch a television ad claiming that taxing the drug could help solve the state’s budget problem.
With California’s state legislature eager to close a $26.3 billion budget deficit, the offer may be tempting.
The 30-second spot, airing Wednesday and paid for by the Marijuana Policy Project, features a retired 58-year-old state worker who says state leaders “are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes.”
“We’re marijuana consumers,” says Nadene Herndon of Fair Oaks, who says she began using marijuana after suffering multiple strokes three years ago. “Instead of being treated like criminals for using a substance safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share.”
According to Fox News, bill supporters estimate the state’s pot industry could bring in more than $1 billion in taxes.
The marijuana trade is already an exploding underground industry, MSNBC reports.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, between 1990 and 1996, the estimated number of new marijuana users increased from 1.4 million to 2.5 million and has remained at this level.
Is legalizing marijuana worth the revenue it will bring in? What are some problems that might arise if the popular drug is legalized? Will legalizing it make smoking pot more culturally acceptable? Should it be?
Will legalizing pot also encourage people to smoke pot? Will Americans assume pot is safe simply because it is legal?
*cough* What?
Americans have known pot is safe for over a hundred years. Officials in California probably want more citizens stoned so they forget what a crap-hole the state has become.
If California does it, so should Illinois
Legalized pot=common sense-To are way to many good reasons to legalized pot.The main downfall is what is consider an safe legal limit,and ways to test for a legal limit.That gonna be a tough one to figured out.
what does its legality have to do with saftey? alcohol is legal and it is 100 times more dangerous. It should be legalized and taxed country wide.
I have never be able to figure out why pot is illegal, it is much safer than and alcohlic beverage out there as well as the personal response of the person smoking it is usually very calm. I am sure someone in the big world has had a bad reaction from pot, but 99.9 of the people who smoke it donot have violent outbreaks, become difficult to deal with and can function completely.
I personelly donot smoke pot nor do i care to smoke pot, but i have been around pot heads for 35 years and never seen any type of negative behavior from any of them.
the won’t legalize it be cause the dea is making tons of money from busting people over pot. main source of income for the dea and drug task force for local Police.
what is the problem that pot should be illegal. I have never known of any serious side affect cause by pot.
Yes, legalizing it is worth the revenue by far, especially considering it could be taxed at a very high rate. The only problem it poses is for those who profit from the law enforcement industry, and this is a main reason why I support this legalization. Will it be more culturally acceptable? Only the older generation (those above 50) has a problem with it in the first place. Will it encourage people to smoke it? No. They’re smoking it already as it is too easy to get. The safety aspect is a controversial one, but essentially it is no worse than smoking ciggies or drinking alcohol. Similar arguments have been made against both and surprise - people still smoke & drink (and they DEFINITELY do both in St. Louis bars).
i live in ca, i like pot. but this state is so f-ing stupid that we wouldn’t let homosexuals get married, however, i think the possibility of pot being legalized isn’t that farfetched of an idea. it’d probably happen since everyone and their mother use it here. but hey, maybe if everyone’s high they’ll rethink a lot of CA social & political policies!
Burt-Nearly anybody at all that “came of age” in the 60s, has no problem with pot at all. We were raised on it. It’s the kids of the 50s who might, I say MIGHT, have a problem with it but not us.
not only will it bring tax revenue…it will decrease current expenses by eliminating some law enforcement and emptying overcrowded and expensive prisons. It will also help drive new industries in home growing supplies.
a win - win for everybody….except the few old people who still think a natural plant should be kept illegal.
I also think that if it is not legalized, potheads should begin to throw their excess seeds into public rights of way and highway medians etc. to show the politicians how impossible it is to stop a plant from growing (just try to to plant any on areas that children frequent for PR purposes). I would love to see this Weed, return to being a Weed that grows in every drainage ditch in america.
I think you would find that a very small percentage of people would oppose this. Even after all the years of government telling us how bad it is.
How could this benefit society -
1) Tax something that is not being taxed already
2) Create a new industry - more employment and those taxes
3) Pot may be a bridge drug to harder drugs - legalization essentialy takes away that bridge.
4) People won’t go to jail for selling pot
Sounds like a winner to me