Pubdate: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2009 Hearst Communications Inc. Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 Author: Steve Bankhead Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n151/a07.html LEGALIZED MARIJUANA IS NOT A BUDGET CURE A Letter to the Editor on Monday once more offered the possibility of legalizing marijuana in California and slapping a "high" tax on it to help balance the budget. That suggestion always raises at least two questions regarding the results: First, unlike tobacco and liquor, marijuana is almost literally a weed, meaning practically anyone with enough skills to grow a zucchini plant can grow marijuana. So unless its cultivation remains outlawed, how many people would pay a purchase price and large tax necessary to buy their doobies from state-sanctioned marijuana merchants? Secondly, if the illicit profit is removed from marijuana, will dealers simply get a job flipping burgers, or switch to acquiring and vending more harmful and lucrative substances which can't be easily produced by the average consumer, such as meth, cocaine and heroin? Sometimes simple solutions aren't really solutions - they're just simple. Steve Bankhead Watsonville - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin