WHERE THE MONEY IS, MAN

What's abundantly clear is that there is big money in marijuana. We
had always suspected that, of course, because so many people have
risked arrest by selling illegal weed over the years, and many are
still going to jail for it.

It seems the City of Beaumont has come to that conclusion as well -
about how lucrative the medical marijuana business really is. The City
Council appears ready to permit sales of medical marijuana in a
section of the city, with a battery of regulations controlling them,
including that distributors stay 500 feet from schools. The city will
likely smack these distributors with a $1,000-a-day "franchise fee."

Now any outfit able to pay about $360,000 a year in local fees is a
business generating big money. No wonder these medical marijuana
joints are springing up all over under the state's Compassionate Use
Act, which allows sales.

What business in Beaumont, Banning, or in any city - except perhaps
Walmart - could afford what is essentially a local tax of $1,000 a
day?

There are unanswered questions in the Beaumont pot proposal, such as
where this medical marijuana will come from. We aren't jumping on the
medical pot bandwagon. Still, we won't criticize Beaumont's elected
leaders if they do. This question was settled in a statewide vote
about 15 years ago.

Beaumont has shown itself to be a progressive city. Remember, it had a
local business stimulus plan before the feds did.

One thing is clear, and it is obvious to Beaumont, that if the city is
going to allow medical marijuana to be sold to people who have a
doctor's order, the legal sales should be "taxed" at such a rate as to
minimize the financial impact on the city, in such areas as regulatory
oversight and added police services.