Oakland approves taxing marijuana

Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday became the first city in the United States to assess a tax on marijuana. [ABC News]

Clerk Intermittent Chun Lin organizes ballots from Oakland’s mail-in election inside the Registrar of Voters office on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 in Oakland, Calif. Oakland residents voted for a first-of-its kind measure that will impose a new tax on medical marijuana sold at the city’s four dispensaries.  (The Oakland Tribune, Sean Donnelly/AP Photo)

Marijuana is the top cash crop in America according to a 2006 study.

The study estimates that marijuana production, at a value of $35.8 billion, exceeds the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).

And that is after three decades of governmental eradication efforts… “our present marijuana laws are a complete failure,” says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington D.C., a group that focuses on removing criminal penalties for marijuana use.

Harvard visiting professor Jeffrey Miron estimates that if the United States legalized marijuana, the country would save $7.7 billion in law enforcement costs and could generated as much as $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like alcohol or tobacco.

Not only that but what if the Town of Pahrump and the Nye County Commissioners followed Oakland’s example?

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2. Californians pushing for taxing of marijuana
3. Legalize marijuana, regulate and tax it
4. Marijuana for medical purposes will no longer be prosecuted by the feds
5. 2012 Ballot Initiative to Tax and Regulate Marijuana in Nevada on Wednesday