Let's face it. We're Alaskans. We don't care what it is, where it comes from, what it smells like, how it affects our environment, our kids, or our future. We just care if it makes money.

Currently I'm living in Olympia, Washington, working, going to school, and shopping for "legs of the stool," that popular metaphor for our state's economy. Having lived Outside from 2006 to 2009 and again for the past 8 months, I have some perspective. Blessed to live in one of the most progressive, innovative, forward-thinking states in the nation here, I am able to reflect on how far, and in how many ways, Alaska lags behind. In women's rights, social issues, economic strategies, alternative energy, technology, creative leadership and guts.

Enter an emerging industry: marijuana retail.

No one is saying marijuana is safe, or a good idea, or that people should use it at all.

But, just like oil, it makes money.

Washington state is taxing marijuana sales 25 percent at each point of sale.

• Excise tax equal to 25 percent of the selling price on each sale between licensed producer and licensed processor. Paid by the producer.

• Excise tax equal to 25 percent of the selling price on each sale of usable marijuana/marijuana-infused product from a licensed processor to a licensed retailer. Paid by the processor.

• Excise tax equal to 25 percent of the selling price on each licensed retail sale of usable marijuana/marijuana-infused product. Paid by the retailer. This tax is in addition to any state and local sales and use taxes and is part of the total retail price.

The governor of Colorado recently announced expected combined sales from both legal medical and recreational marijuana of nearly $1 billion in the next fiscal year. Aabout $600 million of that is projected to come from just recreational sales, which are estimated to bring in $117 million in taxes and fees.

According to an economic forecast released earlier this year, Washington state's new legal recreational marijuana market is expected to bring nearly $190 million over a four-year period starting in mid-2015. Wow.

Alaska, we aren't high enough on our horse (no pun intended) to be beggars and choosers about the emerging industries we contemplate capitalizing on. I hate to say that, as a young woman whose future is Alaska, but it's true. We need diversified industry and we need it now. Even if it is just an up-front revenue source. That's OK. Washington forecasts that the profits will peak in about 5-10 years and then decline. That's fine. Alaska could use some cash up front.

In Washington, all funds from marijuana excise taxes are deposited into the "Dedicated Marijuana Fund," and they can spend them on anything they want.

Alaska could build a bridge to the Mat-Su or something. Those revenues are not earmarked. They can go to roads or an icebreaker. Not one owned by the Coast Guard, one owned by Alaska taxpayers and leased back to the Coast Guard on our own terms.

In Colorado, the first $40 million in tax revenue from the industry is earmarked for school construction, and the state has proposed using additional revenue to fund a public media campaign highlighting the risks of drug use and substance abuse. Brilliant.

Our economy's "stool" these days looks more like a pogo stick, hopping up and down all over the place for Big Oil. You want us to jump? How high? Then they can bounce Outside wherever trade winds blow them. This stool is broken and tipping over; everything it's supporting will topple down.

That's not our stool. Our stool is a bench, steadfast and low, with hundreds of legs. When one rots and falls off, another grows. There are not three; that analogy is weak and not working for my generation. There are infinite "legs of the stool," some big and strong, some leaning up and supporting others and some small, just holding up their little corner of the world.

I was born here. I'm from Kodiak. I don't want to see my state bent over an oil drum anymore. That was the previous generation's thing, not ours. I don't want it to look like the Exxon Valdez spill or the Pebble mine.

Do we really get to pick and choose the industries in which we dabble at this point? Are we really so flush? We're not. I'd rather have commercialized marijuana than the Pebble mine or a progressive income tax. Not to say that the revenue generated would be remotely comparable. I'm just making the point that we don't get to be so picky, we need diversity and every industry has its downfalls.

We're not mavericks. We don't have to be first or even second at this. Third would be cool. Preferably not dead last, like we are in everything else.

Opponents to commercialization say that we should decriminalize for personal use, but not get into an industry until we "watch what happens" in other states.

Really? Should we? Are our coffers so deep and our economic base so diverse that we can just sit back and "watch what happens"? Has that been working so well for us?

Wake up, Alaska. Let's roll our sleeves up and try something different.

If it doesn't work, guess what? Policy is fluid.

You lost Ballot Measure 1? Make up for it a bit financially with Ballot Measure 2.

Mara Machulsky graduated from Kodiak High School and UAA and currently attends Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, pursuing MPA in tribal governance. Over the past 5 years she has mostly worked for lobbyists and plans to continue. Mara is active in her community through her leadership in city politics, Kiwanis Club and her church.