Oakland Approves Nation's First Cannabis Business Tax Last night's landslide victory for Oakland's cannabis business tax, Measure F, by 79.9% mirrors

Oakland Approves Nation's First Cannabis Business Tax
Last night's landslide victory for Oakland's cannabis business tax,
Measure F, by 79.9% mirrors the historic 79.6% victory of San
Francisco's path-breaking medical marijuana initiative, Prop. P, in
1991. Like Prop P, Measure F seems destined to serve as a model for
cannabis reform elsewhere in the state and country.
Measure F would impose a 1.8% tax on the city's medical cannabis
businesses, raising an estimated $300,000 for the city.
Kudos to James Anthony for having proposed and authored this
measure; to Rebecca Kaplan for having shepherded it through City
Council; and to medical cannabis collective directors Steve
DeAngelo, Richard Lee, and Keith Stephenson for their enlightened
support of this landmark measure.
Thanks too to the voters of Oakland, who approved Measure Z to "tax
and regulate" marijuana in 2004 and have kept their city on the
forefront of cannabis law reform.
- Dale Gieringer, Cal NORML

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0722/p02s07-ussc.html
Christian Science Monitor, Jul 22, 2009
Oakland voters approve marijuana tax
It is the first US city to assess such a tax, which could raise
almost $300,000 in revenue next year. Opponents of the measure say it
opens the door to more crime and heavier drug use.
LOS ANGELES - Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday became the first city in
the US to assess a tax on marijuana.
State and national advocates of the tax say the victory is a
significant turning point in the history of cannabis use, paving the
way for taxation in other communities and states and establishing
more social acceptance of marijuana use.
Opponents say an irreversible threshold has been crossed, opening
the door to more crime and heavier drug use.
By a wide margin of 80 percent to 20 percent, Oakland voters
said "yes" to Measure F, which asked: "Shall City of Oakland's
business tax, which currently imposes a tax rate of $1.20 per $1,000
on 'cannabis business' gross receipts, be amended to establish a new
tax rate of $18 per $1,000 of gross receipts?"
"The voters of Oakland have sent a message to the nation that
cannabis is better treated as a legitimate, tax-paying business than
as a cause of crime and futile law-enforcement expenditures," says
Dale Gieringer, California state coordinator for the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
The city estimates that the measure will raise $294,000 in
additional tax revenue in 2010 and more in future years. Some say the
measure will provide funds to help offset the city's current $83
million deficit as well as allow police to direct their limited
resources to more serious crimes and drug offenses.
"The public is more interested in having money to preserve social
services and fight more important crimes," says Sam Singer, a
Berkeley resident and well-known PR consultant.
Mr. Singer and others say that since the passage of Proposition 218
in 1996 - which made marijuana available by prescription to relieve
pain and nausea - marijuana use in California has existed behind a
"false front": Users can go to a doctor, complain of symptoms, and
for about $100, get the doctor to write them a prescription for the
drug. A state-issued card lasts for one year.
"It's so easy to get a card that it's almost as if physicians will
help lead you to your story of chronic pain, insomnia, fatigue,
etc.," says John Diaz, editorial page editor of the San Francisco
Chronicle.
Oakland has not so much cleared up the marijuana issue so much as
found a way to contain it, Mr. Diaz says. The city is giving permits
to only four clubs, compared with a few dozen in San Francisco and
about 800 in Los Angeles.
Federal law still prohibits the use and sale of marijuana,
although US Attorney General Eric Holder has said that federal law
enforcement will no longer conduct raids in the states that have
legalized medical-marijuana use. Nationwide, about 775,000 people
were arrested for marijuana possession in 2007.
"It takes a lot of time, attention, and money to bust, prosecute,
and then incarcerate marijuana users," Singer says. "Given the
economy, this is a move that will be welcomed not just in Oakland,
but most likely in major urban cities across the nation."
Some residents in nearby communities are not happy with the Oakland vote.
"I am happy to forfeit the tax money and keep it illegal," says
Trygve Mikkelsen, a Norwegian immigrant living on the
Berkeley-Oakland border. The owner of a wine-rack business, Mr.
Mikkelsen worked on the San Francisco waterfront in the 1970s and
'80s around some people who used cannabis every day. "I preferred not
to work next to them, preferred to have conversations with other
individuals since they were affected by the drug," he says.
The father of three is convinced that younger people will have more
access to marijuana. "I prefer that it is difficult to get a hold of
and an illegal substance," he says.