A little known fact about marijuana is that it is the biggest cash crop in the United States today, in spite of it being illegal. In fact, the only comparable crop that could even remotely be considered – when one factors how much money in taxes would be realized if marijuana was a legal taxable crop – is corn. With medical marijuana legal in 15 states and in DC, the option of these financially burdened cities taxing it to meet their fiscal obligations has been on the table for quite some time. Now, the city of San Jose is the first to demonstrate that taxing medical marijuana can be rather lucrative for meeting budget goals.
Take a city like San Jose, which currently has a staggering deficit of more than $115 million. They recently started taxing medical marijuana very recently, and according to a report by the Sacramento Bee, it’s turning out to be quite a successful endeavor. In fact, Forbes recently wrote an article about this (Read Forbes Article Here), which cited the specifics about San Jose’s taxation of medical marijuana.
According the article in Forbes, “Recent figures from the finance department indicate that the new 7% tax brought in $290,000 in the first month the tax was imposed. Annualized, that’s nearly $3.5 million. Not a bad way to put a dent in the city’s $115 million budget deficit.”
While such a small sum of money (for a major city) may not seem like much in the long run, that kind of cash can go a long way in funding community programs, paying for law enforcement, firefighters and other civil servants, and even funding outreach programs or soup kitchens.
The 7% sales tax is not outlandish, by any means, and when compared to other taxes, like those that are in place on tobacco or alcohol, it’s not really all that over the top, either. Proponents claim that medical marijuana is the next step towards legalizing it fully. However, that same argument should also then be applied to any other similar prescription drugs, such as the morphine or Oxycontin that is currently being prescribed to these same patients who are seeking safer, nontoxic and natural relief through medical marijuana.
In reality, even if millions of people are prescribed dangerous and addictive, side effect ridden painkillers, they will never become a legalized recreational drug that you can purchase at any convenience store and pay tax on. Nor will medical marijuana. The real truth is that just because something is medicine does not mean it will become a legal and recreational substance.
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