Calif. tax officials: Legal pot would bring $1.4B

AP via Yahoo ^

[Slapshot68]

A bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California like alcohol would generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped state, according to an official analysis released Wednesday by tax officials.

The State Board of Equalization report estimates marijuana retail sales would bring $990 million from a $50-per-ounce fee and $392 million in sales taxes.

The bill introduced by San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano in February would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess, grow and sell marijuana.

[Slapshot68]

Here we go....the moral is: it's bad for you unless we need the money.

[JamesA]

Next it will be Heroin, Meth, Lsd, Opium, how foolish to allow this and it will spread to other states.

[org.whodat]

I would reply to what you said but I keep forgetting what you said I was replying to.

[bamahead]

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[Blood of Tyrants]

I would be happy if I could raise industrial hemp on my farm.

[CIB-173RDABN]

Do they really think people will pay the tax?

[ScottinVA]

And, “revinooers” will be empowered to smash any home-grown cannibis plants.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

And how much would it cost?

[ScottinVA]

Why not just harvest body parts from gangbangers convicted of murder and sell them on the open market?

;-)

[wendy1946]

IDEALLY you’d want to legalize some of it but not all of it. Nonetheless we’d be better off legalizing it all than to continue the present insane policy.

[EEDUDE]

Not locking people up for simple possession would save a bunch of money too.

Costs at least 150.00/day to incarcerate someone.

[Wolfie]

I’ll drink to that.

[VeniVidiVici]

That’s it? A billion dollars?

[tflabo]

Let them have their Pot Nirvana in Ca. When they figure out how much the govt. taxes them for it perhaps they will get a lesson in conservatism. People have a right to waste their lives away if that’s what they choose. Free Republic!

[The Californian]

Frankly, as someone who lives in the heart of the marijuana district and is opposed to Pot..... I welcome the state of California regulating the industry. It is so destructive the way it is now. Let them be taxed and regulated like everyone else. It can’t possibly be worse than what we currently have (absolutely NO oversight of an enormous problem).

Sticking our head in the sand and pretending like it isn’t one of California’s biggest cash crops is stupid. Let the stupid Pot growers deal with the IRS, the EDD, CalOsha, regulators, etc. etc. etc.

Maybe we could transfer some of the timber industry regulators over to the pot industry. The regulators have driven most of the timber plants right out of the state. That way we don’t have to lay any state employees off :)

That will probably end the profitable pot trade faster than anything else. Because that is what the government does.

[MplsSteve]

That’s an excellent question. I’d be willing to be NO. I can’t picture a ganger-banger from Watts stepping into a local Revenue office and saying “Yo bitch, here’s my tax money foh all the weed I be selling.”

Here’s another thought...

Let’s say (for the sake of argument) that marijuana is legalized and taxed in California. The state govt would have to create a new bureacracy to deal with the taxation issues, IOW, more state jobs and more feeding off of the public trough by public employee unions.

And here’s another...

if California legalizes it, could that run afoul of any federal laws concerning manufacture and possession of marijuana, perhaps along the line of a multi-state drug-selling operation?

In short, it sounds like a disaster.

[Gomez]

I don’t know where you live but nobody in NY goes to jail for “simple possession”. In fact, possession of 7/8ths oz. is not even a crime.

[rogue yam]

These pot tax calculations always assume the price of pot stays what it is and everyone pays the tax. Once pot is legal to grow the price will plummet and almost nobody will pay the tax. There may be other reasons to legalize pot, but it won’t generate a billion a year in taxes.

[Slapshot68]

I know this may ruffle some feathers around here, but I’ve always been for legalizing pot. It seems a bit hypocritical to me for society to have a bar/liquor store every other block but waste so much time and cost on busting people who smoke marijuana.

As far as the tax base goes, however, I agree...this will not be a good source of future tax earnings.

[Harold Shea]

Me too,that hemp still comes up where it was grown here
during ww2 for rope.

The stuff has been disapointing kids and grown-ups
trying to get a buzz off it ever since.

Not me tho/sarc