LEGALIZED MARIJUANA IS NOT A BUDGET CURE

A Letter to the Editor on Monday once more offered the possibility of
legalizing marijuana in California and slapping a "high" tax on it to
help balance the budget. That suggestion always raises at least two
questions regarding the results:

First, unlike tobacco and liquor, marijuana is almost literally a
weed, meaning practically anyone with enough skills to grow a zucchini
plant can grow marijuana. So unless its cultivation remains outlawed,
how many people would pay a purchase price and large tax necessary to
buy their doobies from state-sanctioned marijuana merchants?

Secondly, if the illicit profit is removed from marijuana, will
dealers simply get a job flipping burgers, or switch to acquiring and
vending more harmful and lucrative substances which can't be easily
produced by the average consumer, such as meth, cocaine and heroin?

Sometimes simple solutions aren't really solutions - they're just
simple.

Steve Bankhead

Watsonville