California Budget Solution: Tax Pot Sales

Few groups ask the government to tax them. But in light of California's budget woes, a pro-marijuana group is advocating that the state government—that's right, THE MAN—should take a piece of the action in pot sales.

Ads paid for by The Marijuana Policy Project calling for a tax on marijuana are airing this week on cable in California. Money raised could help plug up the state's deficit, which was grown like a weed and is now at, oh, about $26 billion. A pot tax could lower the burden of the average taxpayer at the same time it raises money for health care and schools. The situation might be something of a vicious (or mellow?) circle, though, in which more marijuana sold means more tax money—but also more need for health care and education because of all the brain cells vaporized.

Read more, and view the ad, at this San Francisco Chronicle politics blog.