That's the title of today's latimes.com article.
I closed my browser out, my diary draft got deleted before auto-save, so this is gonna be brief.
"We tax alcohol. We tax cigarettes. Why wouldn't we look at taxing marijuana?" Long Beach Councilman Patrick O’Donnell said. "We're turning over every rock to find new revenues, and under one of those rocks may be marijuana.
(flip)
It's interesting to watch the public discourse evolve from the Neolithic era to present day. We still have a long way to go.
The City Council on Tuesday will consider a proposal to place a measure on the November ballot that would levy a 5% tax on medical marijuana collectives.
Another tax of up to 10% on other marijuana businesses would go into effect only if California voters also pass Proposition 19, which would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for recreational use.
Long Beach's proposal, drafted by the city’s Department of Financial Management, also calls for taxing medical marijuana cultivation sites at .0075 cents per square foot.
The growth of pot dispensaries -- and the drug’s potential legalization statewide -- has presented a rare opportunity for cities desperately searching for new revenues. Berkeley and Sacramento are considering similar measures.
Long Beach is facing an $18.5-million budget deficit, and for some on the city council, which voted in May to regulate medical marijuana collectives, taxation is the next logical step.
We see everyone hop on the bandwagon to tax the hell out of weed, but not as many folks make noise about civil rights aspect. (however, I do commend the CA NAACP for endorsing Proposition 19)
Long Beach Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske voiced similar frustrations, calling it "hypocritical" to tax marijuana because under current laws, it's sold either as an illegal drug or as a pharmaceutical.
"If marijuana distributed at a collective is considered 'medicine,' how could we tax it?," she wrote Friday in a blog post. "California does not tax pharmaceuticals -- so how then is it okay to tax this medicine?"
Now, of course we can't let marijuana dispensaries self-regulate as they did in Los Angeles....only BP, Enron, Lehman Brothers, and Big Coal are allowed to self-regulate, silly ! In any case, the "Tax, Control, And Regulate Cannabis Act of 2010" will enact stricter regulations for marijuana than currently exist for cigarettes or alcohol, two substances that are conclusively identified as more dangerous substances.