The California Tax Board has told the state that if they legalized marijuana, the state could raise $1.4 billion in revenues. This assessment looks at an actual bill pending before the CA Legislature:
The bill (Assembly Bill 390) by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, is still awaiting its first committee hearing and is likely not to be considered until next year. It would impose not only sales taxes but a $50 per ounce fee on marijuana sales, which would be licensed by the state much as alcoholic beverages are regulated.
So the taxes would be pretty steep, and I have no idea how this just doesn’t jump start a grow-your-own effort. But I wonder if California may just cross over the next revenue-generation frontier — legalizing drugs just because there is money to be made. This is, after all, the trajectory that gambling has taken — legalized and managed so that the state gets a cut plus some taxes AND some favored businesses get some goodies in the name of creating venues. I’d rather see a straightforward legalization (of marijuana certainly) rather than get there because the state needs money, but hey — this does do the trick. So what do you think about this?