Will legalized pot bail out California?

There are several efforts underway to legalize marijuana and use the tax proceeds to balance California's upside-down budget. They tax everything else in California. Why not pot?

State officials say legalizing marijuana could add $1.4 billion a year to the state treasury. The idea is supported by 56% of California voters, according to a poll taken in April. But there's a huge gap between what people tell pollsters and what they'll actually do on the issue when they go into the polling both on election day.

There are at least two marijuana initiatives trying to get on the California ballot, and a San Francisco lawmaker has a bill that would tax marijuana.

You gotta be on dope to support this. This state doesn't need anymore impaired people trying to cope. It's bad enough with all the alcohol problems. Can you imagine all the people driving cars on pot while texting their friends and putting makeup on at the same time?

Obama won't legalize marijuana

The nation's drug czar says President Barack Obama opposes making pot legal. “Legalization is not in the president’s vocabulary, and it’s not in mine,” said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy. His statement was reported by The Fresno Bee.

Kerlikowske was in the Fresno area after checking out a raid on a foothill marijuana farm that was on U.S. Forest Service land. This is the nation's top farm-producing county and it's no wonder pot grows so well. But it won't be a legal crop if the feds have anything to say about it.

In a joint operation with federal, state and local agents, marijuana plants valued at about $1.3 billion have been confiscated and 82 people arrested in recent days in Fresno County. It's called Operation SOS — Save Our Sierra — and is aimed at eradicating marijuana in eastern Fresno County.

Kerlikowske told The Bee that he can understand why California legislators are talking about taxing marijuana cultivation to help cash-strapped government agencies in the state. "But the federal government views marijuana as a harmful and addictive drug," the newspaper reported. "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit."