California maybe catches a clue

California, it appears is considering catching a clue, having only taken 76 years to notice. They've observed an untaxed and unregulated cash crop larger than the rest of their agricultural base combined, and whose legalization could be a boon to industry.

Prohibition doesn't work

Not for a product in serious demand. It didn't for alcohol, and it hasn't for pot. Hasn't done that well for much of anything else large numbers of folks want, either. What Prohibition consistently gives us is a hideously expensive enforcement and punitive structure, crowded courts, diminished respect for the law, and infringements on civil and property rights as the Inquisition Du Jour is attempted - doing damage even as it is doomed to failure.

California is looking at, should they legalize, 13.8 billion of taxable revenue annually - and getting 1.7 billion of enforcement costs off the books. Assuming a 10% tax on sales, California would realize 1.3 billion of revenue, get another 1.7 billion (est.) in savings, for a net gain of roughly 3 billion - not to be sneezed at in a state presently 15 billion in the hole this year, and due to be 42 billion in the hole next year.

Toss in a major hit in revenues to criminal organizations (they have a hard time competing when you can pick up an ounce of pot at the local Safeway, an ounce with actual quality control) and at the end of the day, you've a fair-sized win on your hands.

Let's hope that, for once, the silly asses passing as elected officials in California get it right - tending to ones own business in this instance isn't just a good notion, it's downright profitable.