WEEDING OUT SOLUTIONS

Well, it's official. California is in trouble.

Social services are being slashed left and right, prisoners are poised
to be released and our state is in complete fiscal
prostration.

The question these days is: what are we going to do about it? Where do
we turn as our state's future seemingly has gone up in a puff of smoke?

Ironically, many residents have suggested just that: the smoke, the
brownie and the vapor. I'm talking about marijuana-going green, so to
speak.

No longer does the line dividing the legalization of marijuana
movement from the rest of the world abruptly end on the peripheries of
our college campuses and left-wing strongholds like Berkeley. It has
become a distinct, politically viable possibility.

In fact, the line has become so blurred these days that fiscally
responsible Californians are being swept up into the belief that
decriminalization of the popular, yet illegal, herb is not only
socially progressive, but would be a windfall gain for a state in
desperate need of a pick-me-up.

Levying a special sales tax on medical marijuana, much like the one
recently instituted in Oakland, and even the full-blown legalization
of cannabis now not only represents the shedding of archaic laws that
are out of touch with our more modern sensibilities, but would supply
the state with a budgetary boon. The "Kief for cash" program or
"banking on the blunt" stimulus package, if you will.

Tasteless slogans aside, problem solved, right? Well, to be quite
frank, no.

What most Californians don't realize is that legalizing marijuana is
not as cut-and-dry an issue as it may seem.

First of all, legalization wouldn't come anywhere near to shoring up
our state deficit. The State Board of Equalization reports that
marijuana sales would bring in approximately $1.4 billion in revenue
for the state, factoring in a 30 percent increase in consumption each
year-an exorbitant increase for a state that already consumes 500 tons
of marijuana annually.

In other words, cannabis is far from being the panacea it's heralded
as. In fact, it would barely put a dent in next year's budget, which
is already projecting a deficit upward of $7 billion, let alone this
year's which is relying on loans of $8 billion to $10 billion to keep
the state afloat.

Furthermore, marijuana production in the state is extralegal and has
no incentive for going clean. Marijuana sales in California are not
coming from your innocuous local hippie who still believes that Nixon
was the devil reincarnate. Rather, Mexican drug cartels and other
gang-affiliated distribution networks growing illegally on
California's 31 million acres of public forest have carved out a 65
percent market share of production and distribution.

So why would an industry conservatively estimated to be worth $40
billion a year change its practices or passively let itself be
replaced by legal distribution networks? It wouldn't.

Consider the black market industry of counterfeit cigarettes.
According to a new report by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists, clandestine cigarettes are being peddled
across the nation, generating billions of revenue dollars per year for
organizations such as the Pakistani Taliban and the Italian mob.

Marijuana would be no different. As taxes are hiked and regulations
are instituted, the illegal infrastructure would adapt and ultimately
blossom. Its prices would hover just below market-value as profits
increased exponentially.

Like the cigarette industry, consumers would be unable to
differentiate between legal and illegal cannabis, leaving them at the
mercy of law enforcement which even now struggles to contain
marijuana's extralegal proliferation.

So do we forget about marijuana altogether? Chalk this one up as
another unrealistic, phantasmal miracle-cure? Not so fast.

$1.4 billion is nothing to scoff at. With the revenue from marijuana
sales, California could reinstitute the $80 million cut from child
welfare programs, the $61 million from Medi-Cal and the $52 million
from AIDS prevention and treatment programs.

If you are thoroughly confused at this point, I don't blame you one
bit.

All I'm trying to say is, in a crisis, our society tends to act far
too hastily, opting for an idealistic or easy solution when prudence
and pragmatism should win the day. We thirstily perceive a solution
and stoop to drink without properly considering a lifesaving oasis'
contents.

California, let's slow down, take a collective deep breath, count to
ten, and reconsider our options.