Oakland Passes Pot Tax

They went and did it!

The city of Oakland will now become the first municipality in the nation to formally tax marijuana. A resounding 80 percent of the votes in a special write in amendment were cast in favor of the pot tax provision.

Scheduled to come into effect on New Year's day the new tax will add more than a quarter million bucks to the cash-strapped city's coffers.

Known as Measure F, the tax will affect all pot clubs in Oakland. There are more than 800 pot clubs in California that are ripe for taxation by the state.

Oakland: First in Pot Tax?

There's green to be made in green. Like a junkie looking for a fix city fathers can smell a dollar bill and Oakland is looking at a new revenue stream - marijuana.

The new tax measure is expected to add $400 000 to the cash-strapped coffers. As it is now the city charges just over a buck in tax for every thousand bucks sold at any of the four marijuana dispensaries in town. The proposed cash grab...tax...would up the ante to $18 per $1000 worth of retail weed.

This is where it starts to get surreal - the dispensaries are calling for the increased tax levy.

This is where it gets bizarre - one city councilor says that the revenue could save four or five jobs...police jobs!

Oakland residents will vote on the measure later this month.