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.
Profit in the extremely profitable black market, the 'War on Drugs' create employing police forces with its attendant prison industry; to say nothing of the planned destabilization of Mexico through the CIA using their drug gangs. Come on, do we want to end this prohibition and pull the rug out from under the black capital laundering of the major Wall Street banking houses?
You're up against very powerful entrenched intrests and you'll need to really mobilize seriously.
I say use a paralell aproach also.
Plant seed EVERYWHERE durring the spring rains and overwhelm the dicks in the sky and ground. A silent uprising.
MARIJUANA GROWS UP TO 20 FEET A YEAR...REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING...REDUCE GLOBAL DISEASE THROUGH INCREASED OXYGEN...WHILE CONSUMING CO2...GROW WEED EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!
if the predicted famine occurs because of draught, GM contamination, bee die off, ecological devastation and economic collapse; one may whish to note that cannabis produces the most total nutrition in its seeds that any plant on earth can produce.
Its fibers are better than cotton as Levis were made with this material and gave them their iron wear endurrance. Canvas-cannabis-Canada.
Hemp for Victory.
V
a pea shooter works well for dispersal over puddles, into grassy areas, near freeway irrigation, into dirt alleys, vacant lots or anywhere the damn deer can't get to them.
This is our country. Let's take it back.
MARIJUANA IS NOT A DRUG THAT CAN BE COMPARED TO METH OR EVEN ALCOHOL .THERE IS NO ADDICTION PROBLEMS OR WITHDRAWLS.MARIJUANA CAN BE TAXED JUST LIKE ALCOHOL OR TABACCO WICH WOULD BENIFIT THE GOVERNMENT.EVERYONE KNOWS THAT PEOPLE MAKE ALOT OF MONEY SELLING MARIJUANA.THIS WILL GO ON REGARDLESS OF WETHER IT IS LEGALIZED OR NOT.I THINK THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD REDIRECT THE MONEY THEY ARE USEING FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT PROGRAMS TO BUILD FACTORIES RAN BY LISCENED GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES TO PRODUCE PACKAGED MARIJUANA THAT ONLY THE GOVERNMENT BY LAW CAN SELL.THAT WAY THE GOVERNMENT CAN GET MOST OF THE PROFIT TO USE FOR WHATEVER.THE OTHER PART OF THE MONEY WOULD GO TO THE GOVERMENT EMPLOYEES IN THE STORES AND FACTORIES.CREATING ALOT OF JOBS AND HURTING THE ILLEGAL SALE OF MARIJUANA BY UNDERGROUND CRIMINALS.THERE WOULD BE AN ISSUE OF WHAT TO DO WITH PEOPLE IN PRISON FOR MARIJUANA CHARGES.ISNT THERE AN ISSUE WITH OVER POPULATED PRISONS.WHY LET THIEFS OR VIOLENTS PEOPLE OUT TO FREE SPACE.THE ILLEGAL SALE OF MARIJUANA WOULD STILL BE A CRIME .YOU WOULD NOT HAVE TO LET CRIMINALS OUT WHO FELL UNDER THESE CHARGES.LEGALIZING MARIJUANA WOULD POSSIBLY INCREASE THE SALE OF OTHER DRUGS.THIS IS PROBABLY THE WORST THING THAT COULD COME OUT OF ENDING THE PROHIBITION.THERE WOULD BE MORE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FUNDING TO DEAL WITH THESE MORE HARMFULL DRUGS .I HAVE NEVER SEEN A PERSON SMOKE MARIJUANA AND DO MUCH MORE THAN GET STUPID,EAT ALOT,OR SLEEP.
Legalization of marijuana only makes sense, why waste billions of dollars on fighint marijuana when everyone knows there's no way people are going to stop smoking, growing, or selling it. No matter how hard the feds and government try to stop the obvious no-win war against drugs people will always smoke pot. Alcohol is legal and it CAN BE DEADLY, if you drink too much you can easily get alcohol poisoning and die but if you smoke too much weed.. wait did i say too much weed? no such thing.. but the most that can happen to you is you might get sleepy and pass out or get the "munchies" and go eat all the food in the fridge. For all you people saying it's bad for you then go look up the satistics here's a webside you might find interesting (www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/) WEED ISN'T ADDICTIVE OR ANY MORE HARMFULL THAN CIGARETTES!