It is no secret that California currently has $20 billion deficit and that it is desperately trying to find new ways to cut back or introduce new revenue. On the cut-backs side we’ve seen education, poison control, police departments, and even prisons. But on the “new” revenue side of talks we’re finally seeing some promise of action: the legalization of marijuana. Sure, the debate over this isn’t as incendiary as the debate over abortion, but there are still strong emotions from both sides of this argument. But for the first time since this debate had been brought up, the reason to legalize marijuana isn’t about the social fabric but rather the state’s pocket book.

On Wednesday, advocates of legalizing marijuana finally submitted enough signatures to put the issue on the California ballot for November. Voters will finally get to decide if the state is desperate enough to legalize this currently illegal drug for the sake of a huge influx of tax dollars. There is no doubt that marijuana’s legalization will bring in huge amounts of cash, but is it worth it? I say it is. There are many benefits to legalizing marijuana (even though I never have or will touch the stuff).

The most obvious reason to legalize is because it will to generate immense amounts of revenue from the taxation of marijuana. This terrible recession has hit California the hardest of all with a 12% unemployment rate and a huge deficit. This $14 billion dollar industry is not taxed and could potentially generate at least $1.4 billion (a modest estimate) to help the state’s deficit. No wonder the state is so desperate. In better times (pre-2008), we Californians put our “morals” and “thought about the children” too much to even consider this heinous discretion, but money talks and now it’s too quiet around California. I say it is more important to feed the children rather than just think about them.

Crime is another big point to think about. Each year hundreds of thousands of people are incarcerated for non-violent drug charges that cost billions in law enforcement and prison resources. These are the resources that could have been policing murder, rapes child abuse, burglary, arson, and really cool car chases. If marijuana were legal, then those people can sit at home legally smoking while cops go out and fight real crime where other people get hurt. Not only does legalization save us money in resources, it can also combat crime in a slightly different way. The most common illegal drug on the street right now is marijuana, and it is a huge source of revenue (and violence) for drug dealers. The sale of this drug has spawned an industry based on violence and gangs. Now if the government legalized it this huge source of revenue for drug dealers will be gone. I am not naïve enough to believe that drug sales will cease (don’t forget that people do cocaine and lots of other things I shouldn’t mention on here because I’m thinking about the children), but this will be a huge blow to dealers everywhere.

What I’m seeing in the light at the end of the tunnel is that the state gets a whole lot of money, police get more resources to fight real crime, and a huge blow to the criminal drug industry. Now you may think “all that isn’t worth letting people get a hold of that drug”, but that’s just plain silly. People have been obtaining marijuana for decades now whether it was legal or not. Did the prohibition of alcohol stop the distribution of it? Definitely not. In fact, it created powerful criminal organizations (some are still here today) that flooded the streets with violence and recruited our children to do their bidding. Prohibition of anything just introduces people to seedy underground dealings with question figures. When people want something, they’ll find a way to get it. So why not tax it so we can at least safely regulate it?