Planting the Seed for Legal Pot
The first step to legalize marijuana in California is on a roll.
Lawmakers on Tuesday approved Assembly Bill 390 — legislation to tax and regulate marijuana. The Assembly’s Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 on bill at a hearing in Sacramento. The bill will now be passed to the full Assembly on Friday for consideration.
The bill, authored by San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, would essentially treat pot the same way alcohol is treated under the law and would allow adults over 21 to possess, smoke and grow marijuana.
The law would also call for a fee of $50 per ounce sold and would help fund drug eradication and awareness programs. It could help pull California out of debt, supporters say, raising up to $990 million from the fees.
Among the supporters of legalizing marijuana is a group of police, judges and prosecutors who formed a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The organization firmly believes that legalizing marijuana for adults will help improve American society by restricting youth access to it and taking the attraction away from cartels that traffic pot as an illegal substance.
“The mere fact that there will be votes in the Assembly to regulate and control the sale and distribution of marijuana would have been unthinkable even one year ago.” Retired Orange County California Supreme Court Judge Jim Gray said via a statement from the group. “And if the bill doesn’t pass this year, it will soon. Or, the bill will be irrelevant because the voters will have passed the measure to regulate and tax marijuana that will be on the ballot this November.”
Gray testified before the assembly’s informational hearing in October 2009 and defined the group’s position about why they are for overturning the prohibition on marijuana.
This is the first time in U.S. history any state legislative body has ever considered repealing marijuana prohibition, which has been in place since 1913.
Source http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/Planting-the-Seed-for-Legal-Pot-81222877.html
So now it moves onto a Health Committee: “The measure next goes to the Health Committee, but proponents worried it would not be acted on by that panel by Friday’s deadline, which would require the proposal to be reintroduced to be heard this year by the full Assembly.” – damn I hope they get this in time. These quotes astonished me though and made me so angry:
“We’re going to legalize marijuana, we’re going to tax it and then we’re going to educate our kids about the harm of drugs. You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gilmore said. “What’s next? Are we going to legalize methamphetamines, cocaine?”
The measure was opposed in testimony today by several police chiefs and law enforcement officials including Bob Cooke, former president of the California Narcotics Officers Assn., who predicted it would lead to an increase in crime. “The mere consideration of an attempt to trade human misery for tax dollars smacks of the cynical throwing away of countless human beings,” Cooke told the committee.
Jesus christ, talk about conflict of interest, of course the only people that are profiting from this ‘war on drugs’ are going to raise hell about it. Spouting completely baseless remarks, shoddy opinions that shouldn’t even be taken into consideration. Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/assembly-committee-oks-bill-to-legalize-marijuana.html
I’m glad it has gone this far though, it’s 1 step further for the world and I hope that it does pass and once it does, more and more states follow suit and eventually New Zealand can play ball too.
Agreed, New Zealand need to implement the same legislation as above,
Tax on this will be huge and great for New Zealand, plus the Drug Education will help prevent abuse. good work to Mr Terminator
Good to see – I’m sure Cali will go ahead with it. After all, a number of very rich and influential people that live in Cali are pro-weed. I hope they set a good example, eg, violent crime down, lots of tax raised, and the herb regulated and improved to the point where (like alcohol) it is no longer associated with “drugs”.
PS – Any word on DG’s case?
Sheese, we have better rules than California. We just havent decided to put Cannabis in them yet.
Besides, GST (as an imputation tax) is a far fairer way to garner the ‘pot’ential profits from cultivation, distribution and sale. California could ‘wish’ for such a goods and services tax take! Whereas we already have it.
Start thinking about what rules we might use and consider what we already have in place ‘ready made’. see http://www.lexisnexis.co.nz/products/bulletins/legislation/nz_regulation_SR-2008-373.pdf
It’s great to see some up-to-date thinking going on, and I really support it.
Still, it’s a shame that some people are using propaganda to push the “drugs are bad, mm’kay” message.
Come on New Zealand we where the first to let women vote, we are a nucler free democratic society where you can practically have gay marriage with a civil union, you can legally have sex with a prostatue, you can smoke a paket of smokes a day, drink dozen beers a day, put your whole weeks pay on red and yet you still can’t have a joint. Come on New Zealand lets Legelise.
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