Time Asks: Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?

Could marijuana be the answer to the economic misery facing California? 

That's what they are talking about over at TIME.

According to TIME, marijuana is  California's biggest cash crop, responsible for $14 billion a year in sales. The  state's second largest agricultural commodity:  milk and cream which brings in $7.3 billion a year, according to the most recent USDA statistics.

So what if the state of Cal. taxed marijuana?

 The state's tax collectors estimate the bill would bring in about $1.3 billion a year in much needed revenue, offsetting some of the billions of dollars in service cuts and spending reductions outlined in the recently approved state budget.

State assemblyman Tom Ammiano   introduced legislation last month that would legalize pot and allow the state to regulate and tax its sale - a move that could mean billions of dollars for the cash-strapped state. 

 

 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that states should be able to make their own rules for medical marijuana and that federal raids on pot dispensaries in California would cease. 

In 1996 California became one of the first states in the nation to legalize medical marijuana. Currently, $200 million in medical-marijuana sales are subject to sales tax. If passed, the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act (AB 390) would give California control of pot in a manner similar to that of alcohol while prohibiting its purchase by citizens under age 21.  

Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray, a longtime proponent of legalization, estimates that legalizing pot and thus ceasing to arrest, prosecute and imprison nonviolent offenders could save the state $1 billion a year. 

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