Tax it, don't ban it

The global war on drugs has failed and governments should explore legalising marijuana and other controlled substances, according to a commission that includes former heads of state, a former U.N. secretary-general, and a business mogul. We all know that some of those drugs, for instance crack, are even worse than tobacco. However, if governments legalise some drugs, for instance marijuana, then they could use this to add to a stream of tax revenue. But there are other ways of bringing in taxes. We already know of taxes on tobacco, alcohol, junk food, and the like, but I have some more novel ideas on how to milk some tax revenue. For example, if a movie contains scenes of people smoking, then the government can require cinemas to put ticket prices up 5 or 10% for those specific movies and put it towards anti-smoking programmes. Or they could put a tax on vuvuzelas and use the money on programmes for deaf people. Or maybe they could tax objects that have the potential to be used for child or spousal abuse, and have the money go towards initiatives designed to prevent such abuse. Or maybe they could just legalise pot and have a $50 tax on each ounce.