As everyone knows the state of California is knee deep in debt and the outlook doesn't look very promising for the future to get their economy jump started even with the stimulus bill being passed. Finally a state assemblyman had a lightbulb moment to make some money on the biggest cash crop going that doesn't get taxed -- pot.
Taxing marijuana to raise revenue for your state, it almost sounds like a no brainer but California will be the first state in the country to tackle this. According to the news story that ran this morning at
NORML this idea has caught fire with the California State Assembly. The estimate of the amount of revenue raised is close to one billion dollars a year.
California is just such a trend setting state and even though I live in Arizona this idea if it worked would spread like wildfire through the rest of the nation. This is the biggest news story of the year about marijuana reform and taxing it would not interfere with the medical marijuana laws since they are totally different issues.
Here in Arizona we are gearing up for a medical cannabis initiative to go on the ballot for 2010 so things are just moving along.
So what does everyone think about this turn of events? It's almost too good to be true since this has been a hot topic at DailyKos for months.