UNLV STUDY: MARIJUANA TAX COULD BRING NEVADA $28 MILLION A YEAR

(AP) - A UNLV study funded by backers of the marijuana ballot initiative
estimates that Nevada could get $28.6 million a year if it taxed sales of
the drug.

The report by the Center for Business&Economic Research estimated the
amount of marijuana that would be sold and the assumption that federal law
would allow taxation.

Question 9 on the Nov. 5 ballot calls for the state Legislature to craft
regulations"for the cultivation, taxation, sale and distribution"of
marijuana to adults. Stores licensed by the state would sell marijuana
taxed like tobacco products.

Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement paid the UNLV center $5,000 to
conduct the study released Wednesday.

Researchers assumed that 75,000 people, or about 5 percent of the state's
adult population, would buy _ and use _ an average of 12 grams of marijuana
per month. The state would get $22.1 million yearly in marijuana taxes and
$6.5 million in additional sales taxes if marijuana was sold at an average
price of $250 an ounce.

If the initiative is approved by Nevada voters next month, it would face
another popular vote in 2004, and a marijuana tax could not be levied until
legislators vote on regulations in 2005.

The initiative would allow adults to possess up to 3 ounces of pot for
private use.

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal