Oakland to tax, regulate marijuana

Oakland - Oakland, California may license three large marijuana growing operations whose revenues will be taxed in order to help soothe the city's debt.

Though the growing and selling of cannabis remains illegal by U.S. federal legislation, the production of it for medical purposes had been practiced in several U.S. states. Now, in Oakland, California, marijuana will be licensed and taxed, a step that proponents of marijuana's legalization have proposed for years. According to Yahoo News, Oakland's city council will introduce paperwork next month whose language will provide for the licensing and regulation of three large-scale marijuana growing units in the Oakland area. Financial strains throughout the nation have hit California particularly hard, and Oakland, along with many other cities in the state, faces dire levels of sheer debt. Ostensibly, the taxation of a new, widely used cash crop would help supplement this debt and open up a source of new revenue.