Regulating Marijuana Sales Would Rake in $1.4 Billion Annually
[Editor's note: This post is excerpted from today's NORML weekly media advisory.]
A revised budgetary analysis by the California State Board of Equalization (BOE) estimates that taxing and regulating the retail sale of cannabis by adults would raise approximately $1.4 billion in annual new state revenue.
The BOE’s estimate, released late yesterday, assesses a $50 per ounce tax on the retail sale of cannabis (among other state-imposed costs), as recommended under Assembly Bill 390: The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act. This act seeks to license and tax the commercial production, packaging, and retail sale of marijuana to those 21 years of age or older.
As introduced, AB 390 would not impose taxation or licensing requirements on the non-commercial production of cannabis (up to ten mature plants), or on the not-for-profit distribution of pot. Further, the bill would not alter existing legislation on the use of medicinal cannabis, nor would it impose new taxes or sanctions on the medical cultivation of cannabis.
According to the BOE’s revised calculations, the enactment of AB 390 would raise an estimate $990 million annually from the proposed $50 per ounce levy on retail sales of marijuana in addition to another $392 million in yearly sales tax revenues.
The BOE assessment did not assess whether the enactment of AB 390 would reduce existing law enforcement and prosecutorial costs, which have been estimated by California NORML to average some $200 million per year. In 2007, a record 74,000 Californians were charged with marijuana offenses – the largest total since the state ‘decriminalized’ the personal possession of small amounts of marijuana in 1976.
The BOE report acknowledged that legalizing pot for adults would likely result in a “substitution effect” where consumers gravitate toward the use of marijuana “and away from cigarettes and alcohol.”
According to a May 2009 California Field poll of 901 registered voters, 56 percent of Californians say that lawmakers should “legalize marijuana for recreational use and tax its proceeds.” Presently, the state is facing a $26 billion budget deficit.
Assembly Bill 390 is presently before the Assembly Committees on Public Safety and Health, which are expected to take up the issue early next year.
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If marijuana is legal ,we should be able to buy it in stores.But way tax it at $50.00 at OZ?
This state is going down the commode faster than a skinny model can get to the bathroom after dinner. I guess they feel like they are losing the battle to screw up the next generation of CaliPORNians through homosexual activism so they are not resorting to screwing up the minds, vs the bodies, of the kids in schools. Does the nightmare there ever end?
Well if it passes this will make organized crime bosses in CaliPORNia very happy indeed, they are losing money right and left as it is, the whole state is bleeding money, like a nose bleed gone wild.
Lets see they want PORN in the school systems, they want to sexualize our children , I guess getting them high would help. You wonder if all the cops are like Michael Corbitt in Double Deal, crooked, its either that or they have all turned to woman and Id prefer to think the former first. Just my thoughts.
Why is that no matter what the article is on, you must refer to homosexuality ? This article, and others you have commented on, have absolutley nothing to do with anything homosexual. Straight people smoke pot too you know. If you aren't taking shots at the school system, then it's gays in the school system.
At this point, I can only surmise that you are the most repressed homosexual you could possibly be.
the typical bashing response. What you forgot to call me homophobic.Im hurt.
I think my hatred of homosexuality started right after I was attacked at home for my faith. And that occured because I sent letters opposing a bill or something regarding giving added protections to homosexual teachers in California. And then the harassment and then the finished touch the attack at Yuba College. All of this because the homosexual community got scared, yes scared, because I witnessed the death of a young 17 yo boy die at my feet after he tried to defend himself from a homosexual man who was trying to rape him.
And I thought maybe they were just heterophobic, I was wrong, they were just criminals!
Thank you for the comment, trust me, Ive been to hell and back and satan himself couldnt hurt me with words.