"How much tax revenue is expected, and will this be put to good use like funding education?"
It is estimated that the revenue could be 1 Billion dollars or more. As per Prop 64 it is planned on being spent like this:
Revenue would be deposited in a new California Marijuana Tax Fund. First, the revenue would be used to cover costs of administrating and enforcing the measure. Next, it would be distributed to drug research, treatment, and enforcement, including:[1]
$2 million per year to the UC San Diego Center for Medical Cannabis Research to study medical marijuana.
$10 million per year for 11 years for public California universities to research and evaluate the implementation and impact of Proposition 64. Researchers would make policy-change recommendations to the California Legislature and California Governor.
$3 million annually for five years to the Department of the California Highway Patrol for developing protocols to determine whether a vehicle driver is impaired due to marijuana consumption.
$10 million, increasing each year by $10 million until settling at $50 million in 2022, for grants to local health departments and community-based nonprofits supporting "job placement, mental health treatment, substance use disorder treatment, system navigation services, legal services to address barriers to reentry, and linkages to medical care for communities disproportionately affected by past federal and state drug policies."
The remaining revenue would be distributed as follows:[1]
60 percent to youth programs, including drug education, prevention, and treatment.
20 percent to prevent and alleviate environmental damage from illegal marijuana producers.
20 percent to programs designed to reduce driving under the influence of marijuana and a grant program designed to reduce negative impacts on health or safety resulting from the proposition.
Perry Solomon, MD
This is actually a fascinating look at what "values" we place on various categories in the special fund. By taking the estimated $1 billion in revenue, we can see what percentage each of the buckets in the Tax Fund receives of the overall take.
Here’s how it breaks down:
- 4% of the tax $ will go to the costs of the program
- 1% of the tax $ will go to the universities for research
- 0.3% of the tax $ will go to CHP for DUI research
- 1% of the tax $ will go to communities most impacted by the war on drugs
- 0.2% of the tax $ will go to UC San Diego
- 56% of the tax $ will go to youth programs
- 18.7% of the tax $ will go to environmental restoration
- 18.7% of the tax $ will go to law enforcement
Check out Section 7 of the initiative or The Motley Fool’s article on this very subject for more information.
sunshinel