Measure F: The First Real Step In Marijuana Legalization

Yesterday, the first real step to marijuana legalization happened in the City of Oakland. The people, via mail-in ballots, have overwhelmingly voted for what is known as Measure F. Measure F, a proposition to institute a 1.8 percent taxation per gram of marijuana sold at all dispensaries in the City, is a huge precedent-setting event in the battle for the legalization of marijuana in the state of California and ultimately, the nation. The tax itself boils down to a 10 cent tax on every gram a person buys, with an upper limit of 3.5 grams at a time, according to the current dispensary standards.

In the City of Oakland and the outlying counties of Almeda and Contra Costa there are over 30 dispensaries, all with their own long lists of clientele. The City of Oakland alone is projecting a first year revenue of anywhere between $275,000 to $325,000. This revenue could act as a real eye-opener for the neighboring cities like San Fransisco and Los Angeles, which have more than 600 dispensaries. That's more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks. Let's break that math down folks: Oakland will generate lets say $300,000 by the end of the first year. Expand that to the entire state and by the end of the year, after one of the largest entrepanurial explosions of the modern era, the state of California will have generated a revenue stream of upwards of 20 billion dollars.

Extrapelate this concept to other states like Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, who are all sitting on their own supply of cash crop, well then folks, our economy just got saved by a plant this country has spent billions of dollars prohibiting. State after state generating billions of dollars year after year. We could very well see this country becoming a dominant force in the international economy once again not based on our cars, but our pot. We'd be like France and Italy for their wines and cheeses, except we smoke ours. This is a future that I can get down with and with any luck, Measure F was the first step in achieving this goal.