With California’s budget deficit still numbering in the billions, some are suggesting a different approach to solving the state’s budget woes: taxing marijuana.

 Several initiatives are currently in process, including a ballot measure and a legislative proposal that would both legalize and tax marijuana.

 Today, Los Angeles County elections officials turn in a count of verified signatures that will determine whether the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act appears on the November 2010 ballot for voter approval. The initiative would legalize various marijuana activities, including personal consumption for adults age 21 or older. The act would also allow cities and counties to regulate such activities and impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes.

 Similarly, Assembly Member Tom Ammiano’s AB 2254 would legalize, regulate and impose fees on pot usage.

 These legalization efforts are the latest in the marijuana debate, but not the first.  Proposition 215, the voter-approved initiative that decriminalized marijuana for specific medical purposes, opened the door for the regulation of the plant. Since its passage in 1996, local governments have faced myriad issues related to the legal and illegal usage of medical pot. Many counties have passed ordinances or have started the regulation process.

 Mendocino County has taken it a step further. In a marked paradigm shift over the issue, yesterday the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors approved new regulations that strive to treat medical marijuana dispensaries like other businesses.

The new regs amend Mendocino’s existing marijuana ordinance – which allows for 25 medical-use plants per parcel — and now allow up to 99 plants per parcel if a permit is obtained from the county Sheriff.  The new regulation also requires medical marijuana dispensaries that sell to qualified patients to pay sales tax to the State Board of Equalization.

CSAC recently initiated a Medical Marijuana Working Group as a forum to help counties deal with medical marijuana issues. The group plans to develop a series of white papers addressing some of the larger issues associated with medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation.

Regardless of whether legalization efforts gain momentum, local governments have no choice but to deal with medical marijuana issues — and that alone is already costing them a tremendous amount of time and money.