Legalized marijuana consumption could generate $1.4 billion a year in state and local taxes
The Latest Fiscal Buzz? Medical Marijuana
 www.cannabisnews.org Published: July 15, 2010
California — Here’s a sure sign that marijuana dispensaries are on their way to becoming big business: On July 13 the city council of Berkeley, Calif., asked voters to approve a 2.5 percent tax on the city’s marijuana outlets, three of which grossed a total of $19 million last year, all cash. “This is huge,” says Mayor Tom Bates. The tax will not only help close a $16.2 million budget gap, but it also makes sure that as the sale of pot goes mass market, the local community benefits, not outside business interests, Bates says. “We don’t want to have Philip Morris coming in here, sucking up all the money.”
Taxing pot sales is a growing trend across the nation as fiscally challenged cities eye the public’s budding acceptance of marijuana use. Denver has generated $1.2 million since December, when the city began collecting sales taxes from its 256 dispensaries. On June 15, Washington, D.C., approved a 6 percent tax on what will eventually be five dispensaries.
Eighteen states now have laws allowing marijuana use for medical purposes. Nowhere is the revenue opportunity as large as in California. Therapeutic marijuana was originally intended to relieve cancer and AIDS patients’ pain and nausea; California now allows it for insomnia, appetite loss, or any condition a licensed physician thinks marijuana would ease. The Board of Equalization, which supervises tax collection in the state, estimated in October that fully legalized marijuana consumption could generate $1.4 billion a year in state and local taxes. On the same night that Berkeley officials acted, the Sacramento City Council passed a similar measure, and the city of Long Beach adopted one on July 6.
More Golden State communities may follow if California voters approve a ballot initiative in November that would make it legal to possess an ounce or less of marijuana for recreational use. That measure, known as Proposition 19, allows cities to regulate and tax recreational uses of pot. Recent polls suggest voters are evenly divided in their support for it, although Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on July 12 said she would oppose the measure. If the initiative passes, marijuana advocates and researchers describe a scenario in which drug tourism floods the state, resulting in tasting rooms and specialized bed and breakfasts in the Northern California counties of Mendocino and Humboldt, where the plant is cultivated.
Marijuana advocates are conflicted. They want to see more respectability for the drug and at the same time don’t want to pay more for it. “We’re struggling with this,” says Kris Hermes, legal campaign director at Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland (Calif.)-based nonprofit. “We know local governments are cash-strapped and looking for creative ways to raise revenue.” Others see taxation as a sign of progress. “Citizens pay taxes, criminals don’t,” says Steve DeAngelo, the executive director of the Harborside HealthCenter, a marijuana dispensary in Oakland that campaigned for and won a marijuana tax in that city last year. “We should step up to the plate and pay our fair share.”
The bottom line: Cash-strapped cities increasingly are turning to marijuana dispensaries to raise tax revenue and close budget gaps.
Palmeri is a senior correspondent in Bloomberg Businessweek’s Los Angeles bureau. Marois is a reporter for Bloomberg News in Sacramento.
Source: Business Week (US)
 Author: Christopher Palmeri and Michael Marois
Published: July 15, 2010
Copyright: 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Contact: bwreader at businessweek.com
Website: http://www.businessweek.com/
published Tuesday 17 August 2010 20:17
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| Legalized marijuana consumption could generate $1.4 billion a year in state and local taxes |
I have been thinking about the lobby to legalise maryjuhuana in canada.
And based on my extensive research, I have concluded that legalisation
is inevitable. More and more of our best and brightest, in the universities
are experimenting with pot, and finding it harmless.
the common sentiment is that pot aleviates stress, helps with loss of apetite, and with the interocular pressure which results in glaucoma.
In this particular application, pot is being found to be a workable alternative to the instalation of an ocular shunt.A medical proceedure which allows interocular fluid to drain from the eye, through a small tube.
Or health care system must embrace organic alternatives. they are at the door, and certainly worthy of consideration and review. Yet our laws and social mores are considerably narrow in scope, and clumsy in application.
My review of the efforts of the proponents of legalisation has shown a few shortfalls in their collective efforts, in particular, and their sociopolitical profile in general. Clearly, legislators and the public, are not persuaded to consider a worthy deferance to these dedicated crusaders of social development. the emphasis on legalisation is ever stifled with the specter of "recreational use". this "focus" generally stifles an intelligent and informed review of all the facts. Generally too few facts are taken into consideration by the public, and legislators. too much emphasis on "use for pleasure" has disbalanced the debate from a faculty of "enlightened review. Part of the problem stems from a very nieve approach on the part of the proponents of legalisation. they do not present an argument which would command a certain respect from the parties which oppose them. The opposition is a savy collection of business people and lawyers in government, highly educated, highly capable, and highly competetive. And certainly adept at the classic repate of negotiation and debate.
I am writing this letter in order to solicit funding for a strategic review committee. I have worked out the essential planks of a new PR platform and an overall negotiation strategy. I have considered the problem thoroughly, and have isolated one instrumental flaw in the approach.
Lawyers and business people expect negotiators to have an itemised agenda of demands, expectations, arguments, and reasonable points of settlement. Succinctly, the classic negotiation strategy employs a very confident and demanding opening move: Ask for much more that you expect to get, in case your opponent is sleepy and unprepared. If you do not do this, you will not be respected as a shrewd negotiator, and by extension, you will not be respected as a capable and serious man. this is the most essential and common ethos of negotiation. Ask for more. And let the opposition talk you down. this "engagement" allows for a lively , and therefore committed debate, and the satisfaction of a hard won settlement.
the instrumental plank in my platform is unabashedly demanding for this reason. And for the same reason, stands a high chance of victory. It is realistic in terms of the general framework of arbitration strategies.
I am demanding much more than legalisation. I want pot to be mandatory. Mandatory for everyone above the age of 18. Pot should be in the water and in the air that we breathe. It should be in the food we eat, and in the fuel which propells our vehicles and heats our homes. It should be in people’s underwear and socks, as a sturdy insulation gainst this horrible canadian winter. Pot should be grown ornamentally around the UN Building in New York, as a statement of purpose and mission. It should be mandatory among all people serving in the military. Especially the one’s who prefer RUSH.
I see a day when we will be writing on pot paper and wearing pot shirts.
I see a day when a man or woman will not be judged by the colour of their skin, the ethos of their creed, the content of their character, but by the quality of Cush which they provide at social gatherings. I see a day when there will be a pot leaf on every mirror, and on every bumper sticker. I see a day when hemp diapers will be saving the planet from disposable brands. Tragic deaths of dogs and wildlife will be aleviated by 98 percent from disposable diaper ingestion. If we achieve only this, we will have a considerable victory. I envision a day when the Rastafarian will have the same social credibility as a colonel in the salvation army. I see a day when the hippie creed will enlighten the droll and colourless into broad vistas of transcendental joy. I shall greet the day when boy scouts will reforest clear cut swaths of our blessed wilderness with multitudes of Indicas and Sativas and that ever evasive Cush. I see a day when parliament will be opened in the name of her royal majesty and proceed with the lighting of the bong. And will continue with debates on the meaning of life, liberty and the persuit of happyness. capital hill in america will be awash in the delicious treats of krispy kreme. People willgreet each other with a knowing nod, and "hooking up" will be the standard of social conciousness.
At this point , I believe , the opposition should be invided to partake. Here they will be rivetted into a logical quandry. Either admit they do not know what they are talking about, or smoke up and join the party. Nevertheless they will be sufficiently disarmed and glowing with respect for the approach. "That’s what we want to hear", they will say, and nod and smile/ "It is good to discuss these things with a man of capability and understanding. "There is strength and dedication in your ranks", "and we respect you as warriors"." Live and let live", they will say. "the smokers of the herb are focused and full of joy, and their celebration of conciousness has enlivened our multitudes, surely we shall rock on"....
In order to achieve all this , I need cash. Lots and lots of chash. As much as Guy Caballero could ever want or need. Lobbying is expensive. Booze and Prostitutes are eminently expensive. And Plying the will of the political elite has never been a cheap proposition. It is a monumental undertaking and will require mountains of money. Your contributions will be tax deductible after the legislation has been changed. And all surplus will be cheerfully refunded, in product.
Vote Dragi Now
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by Drago
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