Taxing Pot Would Generate $1.4 Billion in California: State Board

President Obama, Governor Schwarzenegger and other esteemed politicos may routinely distance themselves from the potential windfall that would accompany legalizing and taxing cannabis, but amid California's latest and deepest financial crisis the state Board of Equalization has tagged a whopping revenue figure to such a notion.

As Eric Bailey blogs on the LA Times' L.A. Now site, "a tax on pot sales in California could fetch as much as $1.4 billion, according to the board's analysis in response to a proposal by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) that would regulate cannabis much like alcohol."

As you'd expect, "Pro-pot groups ballyhooed the report as another sign that the long debate over marijuana legalization has entered a new, more serious phase," writes Bailey, while Ammiano's measure has drawn staunch opposition from law enforcement.

Maybe we can, as ex-Prez Dubnuts put it, smoke 'em out. The longer the financial meltdown lasts, the more cuts that will have to be made to law enforcement budgets, so there will be fewer opponents around to readily dismiss a novel idea.