On his solo album Smoke N Mirrors, B-Real calls California "the home of marijuana." With that in mind, CelebStoner's Steve Bloom asks the Cypress Hill frontman what he thinks of the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act proposed by California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.

Bloom: What do you think of the legalization bill in California?

B-Real: I think that because California is in the forefront of it, one of the places that went hard to get that medical marijuana legislation passed, it’s only right that the movement starts there. It’s something a lot of people never thought they’d see. We al hoped for it. It’s great that’s it going down in California like that. California’s one of the centers for marijuana. It grows a lot of marijuana throughout the state, from Northern Cali to Southern Cali. Fortunately, out state government is more tolerant than anywhere else.

Would Arnold Schwarzenegger sign the bill?

He should. The state is hurting for money right now. The state is virtually broke and is looking for a bailout. If they want to stimulate the economy, this is one way to do it. There’s probably over a thousand medical shops out there that make a lot of money, that are paying taxes. Even if the federal government isn’t recognizing the business to be legal, they’re still accepting the taxes.  I think it would be in the best interest in our economy alone - not just as part of the state economy, but on a national scale. They need it to become legal, I think, because it’s going to bring in a whole other revenue stream. They haven’t figured out a way present it to the right wing, and conservative and religious right for it to be accepted. But at this point, beggars can’t be choosers, man. There ain’t gonna be some new revenue stream just out of nowhere without having to invest in something to get a revenue stream back. With marijuana, it’s not that expensive to grow as opposed to other things that are in production. It’s the No. 1 cash crop, proven. If the lawmakers and all the powers that be get together and realize, “Hey, we need this revenue stream,” they would do more to get it out there. If they legalize it, it’s gonna clear out the jails for people with minor offenses for marijuana possession or growing or selling it. It’ll make room for real criminals. That’s less money the state has to put into the prisons to house these guys that shouldn’t even be there. It’s looking like it’s going in the right direction. Hopefully, they follow through with that.

Will smokers be willing to pay a $50 per ounce tax?

There’s gonna be people who are against it. There’s gonna be those who remain underground, just because they don’t trust the system. Then there’s gonna be people that are like, “Hey, you know what? If we’re gonna make this official, we gotta pay those taxes." If we want our freedom to smoke wherever we wanna smoke and possess what we possess, grow and all the other things that come with it, we’re gonna have to pay the tax just like we pay taxes just to live here in America. For the freedoms we have, we pay a high tax. One of those freedoms is to be able to smoke weed. Whether it’s medical or leisure. You’re gonna mass produce marijuana for all of its different aspects - as far as the fibers, the oils and stuff like that. You know, every aspect of it. You’re gonna have to fall in and recognize that this may be worth it to us to pay the tax on it. For us to be able to operate freely without hassle from the federal government or from the law enforcement, why not pay the tax?

As much as people wanna be under the radar, they’re never truly fully under the radar. If they wanna find you, they will find you. Unless you’re fuckin Jason Bourne or something [laughs].

I think they should change the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Marijuana. Deal with all in the same way.

They could apply the same laws they have for liquor. You gotta be 18 or 21 to buy it. You can’t be caught with it smoking in your car. You can possess it in your car, but you can’t smoke it. I would be caught a lot if that was the case [laughs]. The same regulations you have on alcohol you’d have on marijuana. Tobacco doesn’t even have half the regulations that alcohol has. And that shit has been proven more detrimental to your health than anything. Tobacco and alcohol are pretty head up even. If you want to regulate and compromise it, then you would stipulate those same laws.

We’ll have to compromise on our end as to how they’re gonna tax it and what the regulations are gonna be. And they’re gonna have to compromise too, because they need the fuckin' money. They need our money, they need that tax dollar. Our economy’s gotten so fucked up from all this bullshit spending and from the so-called War on Terror - a lot of money just being dumped away - that we somehow gotta make up for it. Not even them. We gotta make up for it somehow, you know? One of the ways is to let us become entrepreneurs in cultivating marijuana for mass consumption just like tobacco and alcohol is. That would create more jobs because you would need people on those farms to work on those crops. It would create more stores. That’s where you’d get your tax dollar from. It enables the farmer to make dough, enables the medical shop to make dough.

What do you think would happen to the retail price under this system?

It depends on what strains they have. It depends on the actual owner. They could start low to get a good clientele going on and as the clientele gets stronger, you start getting better strains and charging a little more. A lot of these medical shops are ridiculous. You can buy and eighth on the street for $45 to $70. Some medical shops are charging $85 for an eighth! Quarters for $140! There will be some shops that are gonna have higher prices than others. But the consumers are gonna go find the lower prices. Everybody’s gonna go to that shop. That’s gonna force all these guys to lower their price.

Also see:

B-Real Interview - Part 2

B-Real TV

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