by Marijuana Policy Project ( asmith [at] mpp.org )
Tuesday Feb 24th, 2009 3:51 PM
On Monday, February 23, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced groundbreaking legislation that would remove state-level penalties for responsible marijuana use in California. The bill, A.B. 390, would not only allow personal use and cultivation of marijuana but would also set up a legal system to tax and regulate it similarly to alcohol.
Urge your state legislators to support this bold legislation!
Using MPP’s online action center, writing your state representatives is easy. Just visit the site, enter your contact information, and send your e-mails to your state assembly member and state senator. You can use one of our pre-written messages, or you can write your own.
Just last week, the legislature approved a budget that significantly increases taxes for almost every Californian and makes deep cuts across many vital services. With the state’s imperiled economy, the need to end the costly and ineffective policy of arresting marijuana users and to instead begin taxing California’s largest cash crop is extraordinarily obvious.
This is the first time that legislation calling for marijuana regulation and taxation has been introduced in California’s state capitol. Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of California history by supporting A.B. 390!
You can read more about this bill on our blog.
Thank you for supporting MPP and sensible marijuana policy in California.
http://www.mpp.org/states/california Added Comment;
info8
Wednesday Feb 25th, 2009 3:11 PM
those who dont approve of cannabis,must know that it is non addicting.even frequent users go through phases when they simply have no need to use it. itsa waste of tax money to cite someone who may happen to have cannabis,but really arent an abuser
Added Comment;
Marijuana legalization ends drug gang violence
& stops waste of tax dollars on incarceration
Wednesday Feb 25th, 2009 5:02 PM
This marijuana legalization bill by Tom Ammiano is a great idea that will gain support on a bipartisan level. Both libertarians and socialists can agree that wasting taxpayer dollars on incarceration of non-violent marijuana offenders needs to end, and this bill will accomplish that goal. Anyone in the middle of the left/right spectrum could also see the logic of marijuana legalization, an idea whose time has finally come. Many thanks to Tom Ammiano for proposing this timely idea..
Our current status of marijuana prohibition is no more logical than was alcohol prohibition during the 1920's, that encouraged organized crime and bootleggers to profit from the illegal status of alcohol. By maintaining marijuana as an illegal substance, we are wasting great amounts of taxpayer dollars on incarceration of non-violent marijuana users, while simultaneously encouraging drug gangs to engage in violent turf wars by selling marijuana illegally.
Legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana similar to alcohol will solve these problems by eliminating the incentive for drug dealing gangs and ensuring the product is safe and not laced with harder drugs like PCP as some gangs do to enhance the effects of weaker strains of marijuana.
The worst side effects of a marijuana overdose are sleepiness and stimulated appetite, far less severe than the fatal outcomes like liver failure of legally available alcohol overdoses.
The marijuana growing climate of northern CA is a source of income for the local farmers, and the taxes from this billion dollar crop would help the state budget on a regular basis. Currently we are losing money from incarceration and wasting police time on harrassing people for marijuana consumption..
It seems the only opposition to Ammiano's bill would come from the leadership of the drug gangs themselves, who would see their lucrative profits and power being taken away by legitimate businesses that would now be able to sell marijuana legally like alcohol. Maybe some prison officials and corrupt police officers would also be oppossed to the legalization, as their prison-industrial complex would lose public funding after there are fewer arrests and incarcerations of non-violent marijuana offenders.