Pubdate: Tue, 01 Sep 2009 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Times Colonist Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: John Mears TAXING MARIJUANA WOULD BOOST BUDGET A simple and logical solution would render unnecessary the odious HST. Why do we not just follow the excellent example presented by the city of Oakland, Calif., and tax marijuana? It's B.C.'s largest cash crop. Instead of killing our tourist, hotel and restaurant industries to help the mining and forest sectors, it would help them. The tax revenue from pot could even turn us into a province like Alberta, with no sales tax. John Mears Victoria - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom