Illinois’ executive branch is currently not pleasing anyone. After a raise in income tax, we still see cuts in public interest spending.

Our state must be in a really sticky situation if the executive branch has decided to turn to such an unpleasant method of decreasing our state’s deficit. Is there a better way to get rid of our state’s debt?

California failed to pass Proposition 19 in 2010. This would have allowed regulated sale of cannabis, which would have been taxed. I’ve heard that there is a very high potential revenue in this. Marijuana is our nation’s largest cash crop. Why don’t we benefit from this?

Even here at NIU, we have many students that partake in cannabis.

According to the daily offense log on the Department of Public Safety’s webpage, there have been 31 marijuana and drug equipment offenses from the beginning of this semester to Feb. 16. We are averaging one per day! And those are only the uncommon cases where a user is caught.

Imagine how many more users there are on our campus and other schools across the state. I think our state legislators should seriously consider legalization and taxation of cannabis as a possible way to lower income taxes and spend more on public needs, while still helping Illinois get rid of its massive debt.

Robbie Barba

Freshman physics major