REEFER-TAX MADNESS

For a California Assemblyman's proposal to regulate and tax the sale
of marijuana to work, the federal government would have to alter its drug laws.

Today's culture warriors have better things to argue about than
pot-smoking hippies, yet federal marijuana laws are still stuck in
the Nixon-era days when conservatives feared that reefer madness was
destroying the minds of America's youth. Amid that time warp, efforts
by California and other states to nudge Washington in the direction
of more sensible drug laws have largely been welcome. But whether or
not you're in the camp that thinks marijuana should be legalized, a
proposal to regulate and tax its sale as a way of helping to balance
California's budget is an idea whose time has not come.

A bill from Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco -- where else?)
that would do precisely that was introduced Monday. It would, first,
decriminalize the possession and sale of marijuana under state law,
and, second, set up a system for regulating and taxing it. The sales
and taxation part only happens, though, if the federal government
decriminalizes marijuana too, or at least allows states to make their
own decisions about the drug.

Ammiano and his supporters argue that the state is losing out on more
than $1 billion a year in tax revenues because its biggest cash crop,
marijuana, is illegal and therefore not taxable. Further, they argue
that by passing the law, the state would send a strong message to
Congress and the Obama administration about revisiting federal
marijuana policies.

It is almost beyond dispute that the federal laws are unjustified by
science or common sense. Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act,
cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has no medical use and
cannot be prescribed by a physician. The many medical uses of
marijuana are well documented, and it is not nearly as addictive or
intoxicating as less-restricted Schedule 2 drugs such as cocaine and
methamphetamine. Moreover, the active ingredient in marijuana, THC,
can be sold in pill form as a Schedule 3 drug. So what makes the
plant so dangerous?

The problem with Ammiano's bill, AB 390, is that it would only widen
the gray area between California and federal laws on medical
marijuana. Though the state's acceptance of medicinal marijuana has
brought many public benefits, it also has resulted in even more
illicit cultivation in places such as Humboldt County, as well as
legal and regulatory chaos. AB 390 would do nothing to increase tax
revenues in the absence of federal action, and would probably only
further enrich the state's marijuana black market.

The Obama administration should reexamine the Controlled Substances
Act because it's the right thing to do, not because of an
ill-considered taxation scheme from California.