SAN FRANCISCO — A pro-marijuana group is launching a 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, which was to air Wednesday and was 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.”
State lawmakers are bitterly debating how to close a $26.3 billion budget deficit that likely means cuts to state services.
In February, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Bill supporters estimate the state’s pot industry could bring in more than $1 billion in taxes.
In a phone interview, Herndon said that before filming the ad, she had not told many people about her marijuana use. But she said her concern over the state’s fiscal crisis and her support of medical marijuana led her to go public.
“I came out of the closet with this ad,” she said.
