Last Call

One advocacy group has an idea for helping California close the state's $25 billion budget gap: legalize marijuana...and tax the bejesus out of it.

A pro-marijuana group is launching another television bid to legalize pot in California — this time with the pitch that legalizing and taxing the drug could help solve the state’s massive budget deficit.

The 30-second spot, airing Wednesday and paid for by the Marijuana Policy Project, features a retired 58-year-old state worker who says state leaders “are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes.”

“We’re marijuana consumers,” says Nadene Herndon of Fair Oaks, who says she began using marijuana after suffering multiple strokes three years ago. “Instead of being treated like criminals for using a substance safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share.”

It's got to be tempting at this point. Still, one would think the Feds would immediately step in and re-criminalize it, even the Obama administration.