TAXING MARIJUANA

Long Beach City Council members voted 8 to 1 this week to consider
taxing medical marijuana sold in legal outlets. But city officials
haven't figured out how much revenue the tax would bring in.

The tax would be in addition to a $14,742 permit fee charged to outlet
owners. Currently Long Beach has about 85 outlets. That number would
be reduced to 30 outlets that are expected to survive a lottery.

The proposed tax, which would be on an outlet's gross receipts, surely
would be passed on to consumers, who can buy marijuana for medicinal
purposes only. The proposal is similar to one in Oakland, which
assesses a 1.8 percent levy that is estimated to bring in about $1
million from four dispensaries this year, according to the LA Times.
The Long Beach tax, if approved, would be 5 percent, plus an
undetermined footage fee for cultivation sites, a city official said
Wednesday.

Medication is not taxed, while alcohol in moderation, which some
studies claim helps ward off heart and other diseases, is taxed, along
with cigarettes, which some people claim calms nerves.

We Americans love to tax our sins, but medical marijuana doesn't
always fall into that category. Users say it helps them deal with pain
and the nausea caused by cancer treatments. Still, it's no secret that
getting a doctor's recommendation for whatever ails you - real or
unreal - is done easily and often.

A proposition that would legalize recreational marijuana for people
over 21 is on the November ballot. Sales of recreational
marijuana would bring in far more revenue than medical marijuana, as
outlets increase their supply of the weed. (Marijuana is California's
biggest cash crop.) It wouldn't be a sin to tax recreational users,
just as consumers pay a variety of taxes on alcohol and cigarettes.
The 9.75 percent sales tax on recreational marijuana would help make a
dent in Long Beach's $18.5 million deficit and the state's $19 billion
deficit. It's estimated that if marijuana grown in California were
taxed, the state could reap billions of dollars. Under Long Beach's
proposal, sales of recreational marijuana, if approved by voters in
November, would result in a 10 percent tax.

If Proposition 19 were passed, the distinction between medical and
recreational marijuana would be blurred, and presumably as outlets
compete with each other, prices for medicinal users would fall anyway.
If Prop. 19 passes, the sin tax makes good sense.

The Long Beach tax proposal will be aired at a public hearing Aug. 3.