A NEGLECTED REVENUE SOURCE FOR CALIFORNIA - MARIJUANA

Only if you lived in a cave could you avoid news about California's
dire financial situation. The governor and legislators still disagree
about what to do, but all of the proposals aimed at closing the
state's $42 billion budget gap are painful and politically unpopular.
One obvious way to take a big chunk out of the deficit - without
closing schools or putting the sick and elderly out on the streets -
hasn't even been discussed. Tax marijuana.

New sin taxes are likely going to be part of the solution to our
financial woes. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a nickel-per-drink
alcohol tax increase last year. More recently, Assemblyman Tom
Torlakson, D-Antioch, introduced legislation to tack on an additional
$2.10 per pack in cigarette taxes. Yet marijuana, California's largest
cash crop, is completely untaxed.

The marijuana crop is valued at $13.8 billion annually - nearly double
the value of our vegetable and grape crops combined. Our state is the
nation's top marijuana producer. Indeed, the average annual value of
our marijuana crop is more than the combined value of wheat and cotton
produced in the entire United States.

According to government surveys, 14.5 million Americans use marijuana
at least monthly but both the producers and consumers of this crop
escape paying any taxes whatsoever on it. While precise figures are
impossible given the illicit nature of the market, it is reasonable to
suggest that California could easily collect at least $1.5 billion and
maybe as much as $4 billion annually in additional tax revenue, if we
took marijuana out of the criminal underground and taxed and regulated
it, similar to how handle beer, wine and tobacco.

Marijuana prohibition costs us in other ways as well.

Last year, the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP)
eradicated 2.9 million marijuana plants. CAMP and similar efforts have
never made the slightest dent in the availability of marijuana, but
they do involve many thousands of person-hours of effort and the use
of helicopters and other expensive equipment - all at taxpayers' expense.

It gets worse. Some 70 percent of the plants CAMP seized were on
public lands - often remote corners of national forests, parks and
other wilderness areas. These clandestine gardens pose a threat to our
environment as well as the safety of hikers and other visitors to our
parks. Regulating marijuana would remove incentives to grow these
secret farms on public land and save millions in eradication and
environmental clean-up costs. After all, there's a reason we never
hear of criminal gangs planting illicit vineyards in our national forests.

California's taxpayers are also paying law enforcement officers to
arrest marijuana consumers. According to FBI statistics, California
arrested 74,119 people on marijuana charges in 2007 - nearly 80
percent of those were for simple possession. Chasing down people for
using this plant costs us real money and isn't proving an effective
strategy for curbing its use.

Every lost revenue source or misplaced expenditure is another deep cut
into public safety, schools, and other essential services. It's time
to tax and regulate the state's largest cash crop.