Hot Topic (8/4): Should marijuana be legalized so it can be taxed?

[Cafe GroupAdmin]

 (CBS) 

There is talk in California of what you could call a radical idea for the cash-poor state to raise money. It's controversial, but proponents say the plan could smoke out more than a billion dollars for the state, as CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.

It is an unusual commercial: taxpayers demanding a new tax. It's an offer by marijuana users to help the state's battered budget.

"We're marijuana consumers. We want to pay our fair share."

It's estimated that $14 billion worth of marijuana is sold illegally in the state. Making it legal and taxing it at $50 dollars an ounce would bring in approximately $1.4 billion a year. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has been pushing the idea.

"I thought it was high time - no pun intended - that this was on the table," he said.

As many see it, marijuana is already virtually legal in California where state law allows it for medical use.

At one Los Angeles dispensary, The Farmacy, the cannabis comes in buds so you can smoke it of course, but you don't have to. There's also cookies and candy bars, also drinks with cannabis as the active ingredient, and gelato - so you can take your medicine like ice cream or lollipops.

One dispensary gave out free pot to anyone with a valid prescription. The line was out the door.

While many doctors say marijuana has valid medical uses, like treating nausea in chemotherapy patients, critics say California's medical marijuana dispensaries sell the drug to almost anyone.

"That system is a sham," said Bernard Melekian of the California Police Chiefs Association. "98 percent of the people who are acquiring marijuana at these dispensaries do not appear to have the conditions for which the law was intended to apply."

At a dispensary in L.A., users claim a wide array of ailments - chronic neck pain, an ankle injury that required 10 screws and a metal plate, and so forth.

In Oakland, a patient named Charles says marijuana is good for his mental health. "It relieves my anxiety and allows me to cope," he said.

Users in Oakland now pay a special city tax on medical marijuana - a first in the state, but maybe not the last. Marijuana tax promoters say a lot of potential revenue is just going up in smoke.

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Your reaction?  Do you think this is a good or bad idea?

Do you think that legalizing marijuana is a realistic way to raise tax revenue?

Do you think there is a downside to legalizing marijuana?

[Goodwoman614]

MJ should be legalized for a slew of reasons that come before consideration of taxing it.

[rocklovinggirl]

Your reaction?  Do you think this is a good or bad idea?
Good idea! Alcohol and cigarettes are a whole lot worse than pot, for starters. Too much money and space is taken in jailcells for people caught with a joint. There is way more important things to worry about!

Do you think that legalizing marijuana is a realistic way to raise tax revenue?
Yes, it could bring a lot of money in!

Do you think there is a downside to legalizing marijuana?
Yes, I would not want it to mess up parenting skills or people to drive high... I personally know I can not drive high but I have ridden with people (sober) who drove just fine high. And as far as parenting, some might care about just getting high but those people probably smoke it now anyway! Also, some people zone out and may not pay any attention to their kids while some it has the adverse effect.

[morningdove831]

Your reaction?  Do you think this is a good or bad idea?   It's a great idea.  People use it all the time so we could probably fix the economy by taxing it at the rate cigs are taxed.  Alcohol is FAR more dangerous than marijuana, but it's still legal - and quite expensive.  Plus, legalizing it would also free up room in our prisons where the REAL criminals belong. 

Do you think that legalizing marijuana is a realistic way to raise tax revenue?  Absolutely. 

Do you think there is a downside to legalizing marijuana?  Of course, especially if parents use it.  There's a downside to any drug, especially if you legalize it. 

[JakeandEmmasMom]

Your reaction?  Do you think this is a good or bad idea?

I think it should be legal, but not because of the tax benefit.  It should be legal because the government doesn't have the right to tell a responsible adult what they should or shouldn't do with their own body.

Do you think that legalizing marijuana is a realistic way to raise tax revenue?

Yes.

Do you think there is a downside to legalizing marijuana?

To legalizing it?  No, not really.  I think that people who are inclined to use it will use it whether it is legal or not.  And for the most part, people who are not inclined to use it probably won't use it whether or not it is legal.  Besides, there are bad side effects to lots of legal substances.  It still doesn't give the government the right to tell you that you can't use them.   

[emilysmom1966]

OK , CAFE MOM HAS CHANGED MY STRONG OPPIONS ON THE MATTER!!!!YES, OK, LEGALIZE THE DAMN THING! I am still against the use of it, but it is just as dangerous as cigarettesand alcohol! There I said it! But you do realize that the government will control it! Which is fine with me. They should tax it and take some of  those drug dealers off the streets. I still think it's a mind altering drug

But what next? Leagalize crystal meth?

[iluvmommyhood58]

I really think taxing would be the only reason they would legalize it and why they haven't legalized it yet. It always comes down to money.

I guess the rising White Castle revenue, as a result, would be good for the economy too. lol. Then again, nothing else would ever get done... (I'm not a fan of pot, just some personal resentment)

[Shiiloe]

Your reaction?  Do you think this is a good or bad idea? Good idea.  I don't use it and I never will, but I think that it should be legalized.

Do you think that legalizing marijuana is a realistic way to raise tax revenue? Yep

Do you think there is a downside to legalizing marijuana?I think in the beginning it will seem like a bad idea, but when the novelty wears off, I think it will be better overall. 

[athenax3]

Not only for the tax and regulation that legalization would allow, but then our police can focus on actual crimes and stop running around chasing pot heads- plus, this eliminates the need for lower level drug dealers- and many won't deal in the harder drugs for fear of harsher penalties and more crazed clientele- so I say do it. It seems that most of those enforcing the laws regarding marijuana smoke it anyway- in Florida and Washington state (the only two states I can claim any familiarity with) I was SHOCKED at the class of people that smoke a boatload of pot, doctors, police, even a drug counselor I met, lol....apparently it's more prevalent than non smokers (like myself) would ever realize.....

[mrs_khan07]

I'd love to help our economy by smoking a joint. I'm pretty bitter that I can't smoke now. Well, I can but it's not worth the risk of criminal penalties and getting my kid taken away. If they legalize it, I'll light up again. See, potheads aren't out of control drug users, take me for example. I have been smoking marijuana since I was 13 years old, it's a family past-time, and I mean the whole family. I don't smoke now but I'm not going crazy needing to smoke, I'm just fine. I just wouldn't mind smoking a joint. Naturally I hate the idea of the government taxing it and turning it into just another consumer product, I would prefer to just be left alone, but if that's the only way to decriminalize it, the good outweighs the bad greatly.

$11,913,373,728. Pretty big number huh? That's the ammount of money spent on the drug war so far this year. That number literally grows each SECOND. My, my, what could we do with all that money?

[tericared]

Quoting Goodwoman614:

MJ should be legalized for a slew of reasons that come before consideration of taxing it.

 

 

I agree....