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THE REAL QUESTIONS ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN VALLEJO

What was the point of the curious headline, "Vallejo marijuana tax brings in less than value of dispensary raid seizure"? Of course it does.  When does a sales tax on a product ever generate greater revenue than the value of the product itself?

The more appropriate fiscal question the Times-Herald ought to be asking is: What is the cost to taxpayers of the VPD's recent dispensary raids? At a minimum, the forced closures alone have cost Vallejo tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenue that would have otherwise been available to the city.  In fact, if the merchandise seized by VPD in its most recent actions against the Life Enhancement Services facility had been brought to market, the sales of it alone would have produced an additional $13,500 for the city's coffers.  That figure, of course, does not even take into account the tens of thousands of additional taxpayer dollars VPD has spent in recent months investigating and executing these raids of taxpaying businesses.

Yet, despite the raids and voluntary closures of many of Vallejo's MMD's, the first month's implementation of the city's voter-approved sales tax generated some $44,000 in needed tax revenue.  The real question is: Does that total even begin to offset the financial expenditures spent by VPD targeting many of these very same providers?

Paul Armentano

Vallejo