A small but determined coalition of San Francisco Bay Area activists and politicos are on a mission to have California be the first state to legalize, regulate, and tax the use of marijuana – and they're approaching that goal from several different angles, the Sacramento Bee reports. The groups are building on the foundation that the state's 1996 approval of its medical marijuana initiative.
A whole section of Oakland's downtown has willingly taken on the nickname "Oaksterdam" (a play on the name of Amsterdam, where pot use has been legal since the early 1970s) because of its array of dispensaries and marijuana-related products and services. City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said a political sea change began last year, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal drug officers no longer would target the operators or customers of legitimate medical pot dispensaries. Then an April 2009 Field Poll showed that 56 percent of Californians support full legalization, regulation and taxation of the drug. "That decision plus the Field Poll has had a dramatic impact on how we look at pot in California these days," said Kaplan.
Posted by Tyrone Caggiano
Tuesday, September 07, 2010 08:17
As a matter of fact, rehabilitation at South Coast Recovery is meant to be a time of recuperation and healing.
Posted by AZeeBee From Ohio
Monday, February 15, 2010 05:48
If you are a user or not; a simple model follows. Prohibition of 100 years didn’t stop this drug. It pushed it underground and the established a $50 billion dollar annual market out of taxations way. Remove the prision penalties, lawyers, judges, court time, processing, parole, etc. associated with the drug and you save $50 billion annually. So the US, broke as a one handed alarm clock, can now heavily tax and regulate a $100 billion industry, and this does not take into account all of the jobs it could create that could now be made legit. Now factor in that the gangs that are the larger grow houses just lost $50 billion in funding.
Does anyone else see a pattern similiar to 1920’s Al Capone? Now factor in lower murder rates, fewer guns in the hands of gangs, reduced cash, reduced investigation into marijuana cases where people are shot, reduced emergency room vists for those people, hmmmmmmm…..
We tried to legislate morality once, it was the only time we got two constitutional ammendments on the same issue. Think about it.
Posted by CollegeProfessor
Sunday, February 14, 2010 12:53
I do not smoke cannabis, nor do I ingest any other illegal substance; however, if I did do such a thing it would be a matter of public health and NOT a matter for our criminal justice system.
The American people clearly are becoming more enlightened with the substance of cannabis. Demonizing such things is the result of the failed prohibition of alcohol and the employees (prohibitionists) of Angslinger who was our Assistant Bureau of Prohibition Commissioner. When that organization failed, and jobs needed to be saved, he set out to demonize cannabis and the resulting refer madness was born; moreover, William Randolph Hearst was a MAJOR backer behind this movement. Beyond newspapers, Hearst’s primary investments were in timber. Timber used for paper. Paper that had a major competitor from renewable and sustainable hemp crops.
The prohibition of cannabis is senseless and is causing far more harm than good. When an otherwise responsible cannabis consumer is arrested and convicted of simple possession, he can suffer loss of employment, eligibility for federal scholarships, savings in costly court battles, and countless other things. Moreover, 70% of drug cartels income is made from cannabis sales. Our unregulated black market is the cause of endless violence, crime, and bloodshed.
The Drug Cartels don’t grow grapes or hops because there is no profit to be made with a regulated market.
Come to your senses. We are hurting our citizens, our neighbors, and our future. Its time to rise above those with self serving interests in law enforcement and government. Our will is heard at the ballot box. Go California. Makes us the land of the free once more.
Posted by ConservativeViews
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 08:42
Consider the amount of money spent to enforce marijuana prohibition. This is possibly one of the most liberal and futile wastes of taxpayer dollars today! Our taxes are higher than they need to be because of this issue. Talk about expensive government programs that don’t produce results!
There is money to be made by taxing legal pot. There is money to be saved by focusing law enforcement dollars on harder drugs. There are real dollars to be made and industry to be found in commercial hemp farming as well. Are we really getting our money’s worth?
What California is doing is not so much about marijuana as it is about states rights. California is serving the will of the people and I applaud them for it.
Posted by Bill Harris
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 08:22
One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to the ongoing open season on hippies, commies, and non-whites in the war on drugs. Cops get good performance reviews for shooting fish in a barrel. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as lives are flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. When Eve ate the apple, she knew a good apple, and an evil prohibition. Canadian Marc Emery is being extradited to prison for selling seeds that American farmers use to reduce U. S. demand for Mexican pot.
The CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnates Al Capone, endangers homeland security, and throws good money after bad. Fiscal policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. Society rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment.
Nixon passed the CSA on the false assurance that the Schafer Commission would later justify criminalizing his enemies, but he underestimated Schafer’s integrity. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research, and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use. Former U.K. chief drugs advisor Prof. Nutt was sacked for revealing that non-smoked cannabis intake is scientifically healthy.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. God’s children’s free exercise of religious liberty may include entheogen sacraments to mediate communion with their maker.
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law holds that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration. Liberty is prerequisite for tracking drug-use intentions and outcomes.
Posted by Engineerguy
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 08:06
I can’t wait for California to legalize it. The truth is that anyone that wants any drug can get it at any time in any city. Why not take this profitable product out of the hands of the black market? People who don’t like weed don’t have to smoke it. Hopefully insincere people won’t get involved. When I say insincere people I mean liquor lobby (they don’t really think weed is bad, they just don’t want competition), politicians (more interested in re-election than the majority of constituents), and the incarceration/prison lobby (market size of prisoners would be reduced). Once California goes, the other progressive states will follow suit quickly.
Posted by Kirk Eve
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 10:15
In my circle of college professors, grad students, internet gurus, it’s not 56%, it’s 100%. These people have IQs in the stratosphere. It is SO wrong NOT to legalize.
Posted by Brian
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 09:21
The bottom line is prohibition hurts families more than marijuana – much more. Marijuana is not like other drugs. It has been shown less harmful than tobacco and alcohol. It has never been attributed to an overdose. Never. Yet, the U.S. has arrested 20 million people for marijuana since 1965. That’s more than the population of America’s five largest cities, NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix – combined. The loss in productivity and destruction caused to American families by prohibition is staggering.
The last three U.S. presidents acknowledge smoking it, a 14 time gold medal Olympian smokes it, an endless list of professional athletes, academics, economists, nobel laureates, doctors, teachers, lawyers, moms, dads, priests, engineers, the founders of Microsoft and Apple along with the majority of the forturn 500 CEO’s have smoked it. Prohibition in the U.S. and the war on dugs has been as successful and as laughable as Russia’s war in Afghanistan.
Posted by Clark_Culver
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 05:59
Right on, Anne!
End the madness – end cannabis prohibition!
Cannabis users are everywhere, and we’re coming out of the closet.
I’m one of the most straight-laced people you would meet. No one
suspects that I use cannabis. And there are millions of people like
me across America. We have great jobs, we violate no other laws,
we pay our taxes, and we serve the community. And I OCCASIONALLY,
and responsibly use cannabis in the privacy of my own home.
To all those who have a problem with this, get a life! What I do is my
own business. If you had a life, you wouldn’t have to worry about
what we do.
Posted by Anne
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 12:21
Why is it that the only people who want to keep cannabis illegal are the ones who earn a living ruining the lives of these typically law-abiding folks who enjoy cannabis? What do police officers care that citizens enjoy using marijuana? Does it harm either party? No. Does it harm anyone? No. The only “harm” in marijuana comes to the poor person who’s life is ruined by law enforcement and the judicial system which penalize them for choosing to use a natural plant instead of booze or worse. How can you people justify ruining people’s lives this way?
As a citizen who sees the war on drugs as a complete failure of policy, justice and a breach of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the only answer I can surmise is that those who support prohibition do so because they fear losing their jobs or the gargantuan tax dollars that pay their departments, or anti-drug groups, or “drug rehab” groups. Or, they’re working with the drug cartels or gangs or dealers, who obviously want it kept illegal.
Fact is, those who believe in prohibition do not support freedom, justice, honesty or truth. You support hypocrisy, lying to the American public, unjustly incarcerating and ruining lives with laws that don’t make sense, and thoroughly and utterly eviscerating the principles this country was founded on.
I hope you sleep better at night knowing that it is YOU who ruin people’s lives, not marijuana.
Posted by Kate
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 09:14
Given tthe fact that potheads are the most mellow & laid back “criminals” ever, I just don’t get the hysteria when the “threat” of legalizing pot comes up.
Especially considering it’s medical benefits.
It <a href="http://douchebauchery.blogspot.com/2010/02/university-of-british-columbia-treating.html" rel="nofollow">can’t cure everything</a>, but it certainly isn’t the evil weed some think it is.
Posted by bluecollarbytes
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 06:03
I believe that marijuana is not technically legal in Amsterdam. Authorities have long elected to not prosecute.
I “wonder” why most of PopMedia has refused to trumoet the obvious connection between Eric Holder’s {Barack Obama’s) announcement re: the intention to not interfere with states that have passed MM laws and the current boon in the MM phenomenon?
Regardless, attitudes Are changing across the board, up to a point.