Legalize Pot and Then Tax It

One of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first acts on taking office in 1933 was to push hard for the end of the prohibition of liquor. FDR had three motives for wanting to kick the nation off of its forced wagon. The first was that prohibition made no sense. People were going to drink, and drink, and drink, law or no law. The second was that it made a mockery of the law since everybody with a backyard, and a fence around it, tossed up a makeshift still, bootleggers turned the illicit trade in alcohol into a lucrative and bloody business, and cops and politicians (including one occupant of the White House) guzzled away on the rot gut while they turned a blind eye to the payoffs, graft and non-existent enforcement of prohibition.

The third reason was that state and federal governments were losing a kings ransom in taxes, licensing fees, and business permit fees from prohibition. Now substitute marijuana for alcohol and insert legal prohibition after it and we have the same disastrous scenario. That is a big consumer use and demand, a thumb nose at the law, and the further bankrupting of states trying to lock up legions of non-violent drug offenders. Finally as some on the L.A. City Council realize a king's ransom in taxes is being lost by trying to enforce a silly, outdated drug law. In 1933 the right call was to legalize alcohol. In the 2009 the right call is to legalize pot.