Cash Crop?

LEGALIZING AND TAXING MARIJUANA WOULD BENEFIT SOCIETY

California's budget turmoil is the worst in the nation. Sacramento
closed a $42 billion deficit this summer only to face tens of billions
more red ink already. Most expect another round of tortured budget
balancing that further slashes aid to the most vulnerable, raises
taxes and fees and kicks the can down the road with billions more in
borrowing.

Meanwhile, California's largest cash crop is being largely ignored in
the frenzied search for politically-viable revenue. The state's
marijuana yield is conservatively valued at $14 billion annually -
nearly double the combined value of our vegetable and grape crops. The
state Board of Equalization estimates that taxing adult marijuana
consumption like alcohol would generate $1.4 billion in new revenue
for the state. While that's only a modest contribution toward our
fiscal woes, it's one more incentive to end decades of failed
marijuana prohibition. In fact, the financial and human price that we
currently pay for criminalizing pot is far too high.

California, which decriminalized low-level marijuana possession in
1975, arrested more than 78,000 people for marijuana offenses last
year alone, a nearly 30 percent increase since 2005. Of those
arrested, four out of five were for simple possession, and one in five
was a child under the age of 18. Police disproportionately arrest
young people of color, many of whom permanently enter the criminal
justice system and suffer severe limitations to their educational and
employment opportunities.

California spends hundreds of millions of dollars to enforce marijuana
prohibition. While law enforcement focuses ever-increasing resources
on arresting marijuana users, there were 185,173 reported violent
crimes in California in 2008, but only 125,235 violent crime arrests.
Where are our priorities?

Opponents of marijuana reform have mostly abandoned "reefer madness"
rhetoric and allude instead to "societal costs" associated with
marijuana consumption. They assert that revenues generated from taxing
alcohol and cigarettes don't approach the damage those substances
cause. It's a fair issue. However, marijuana is objectively far safer
for adults to use. Regulation, which has dramatically decreased
cigarette use among all age groups, is precisely the way to address
concerns about youth access, potency and consumer safety - as well as
take the financial incentive away from the violent black market.

Despite the enormous death and suffering wrought by alcohol and
cigarettes, who thinks we should abandon regulation and cede control
to violent cartels by making them illegal? And who is measuring the
profound societal costs of criminalizing tens of thousands of
otherwise law-abiding citizens each year simply for smoking marijuana?

The U.S. ended alcohol prohibition just over 75 years ago, when its
failure - in the form of unchecked violence, official corruption and
routine violation of the law by millions of Americans - could no
longer be ignored. But what finally hastened its demise was the
Depression itself, as public opinion and a progressive new president
insisted the waste of resources and potential revenue had to stop.

The sheer scale of our current fiscal misery demands a similar reality
check: Marijuana already plays a huge role in the California economy.
It's time to end the unjust charade of marijuana prohibition, tax this
flourishing multibillion dollar market and redirect criminal justice
resources to matters of real public safety.