At this point in time in 2011, all levels of government in the United States are financially strapped. Our collective governments’ usually reliable sources of tax revenue have either plummeted, or dried up.

Solution: Legalize and tax America’s largest agricultural cash crop: marijuana. If we legalize and tax marijuana, nationally, through an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, thereby bypassing the U.S. Supreme Court, all of America’s local, county and state governments, as well as the federal government, will get out of debt and into the black.

Marijuana is the key to getting America out of this crippling recession. All 50 states are champing at the bit to legalize and tax the one as yet untaxed commodity that we have ready to go. Marijuana can be found in all 50 states. To continue to keep America’s largest agricultural cash crop illegal and untaxed is positively irresponsible.

David Lester Hornberger

St. Petersburg, Fla.