Legislative 2

Tax dreams of drug decriminalization
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43946.html

Constitution Connection
All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives


California may become the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana if Proposition 19 is passed. Proposition 19 is a case where California might legalize marijuana. Their strongest reason for legalizing marijuana in the state of California is because $1.4 billion could be generated for tax revenue. This amount is higher than the taxes obtained from tobacco products and alcohol. The only problem would be the difficulty trying to obtain taxes for this product in California. The number of marijuana growers in Califfoornia might increase but they probably won't grow large amounts at a time. The article states that usually marijuana cases are dismissed when its under a certain amount. Growers that strategize like this would know that they would be escaping state taxes and also federal sanctions. The marijuana growers would be even more likely to grow for themselves and avoid state taxes because they might know that there will be a state database with the dealers information and federal agents would be paying close attention to the taxes they bring in. There has not been very good experiences with this law. I think that this article had some good reasons for why not to legalizing marijuana in California. I don't think that this would be a good idea. Today, and im sure the prices are around the same in California, marijuana prices aren't that expensive and if the state begins to sell this product, they won't make much money. Most drug buyers have a designated dealer that they trust and buy drugs from. So I don't think that they will start to purchast their drugs from the state just because it's legal now.