Community | April 28, 2010 | 10 comments

Open Forum: Legalize marijuana in California

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serenden68
By:John Russo

When it comes to marijuana policy, California has been stuck in a fairy tale for decades.

This particular fairy tale is like "The Emperor's New Clothes."

Everybody can see that marijuana prohibition has done nothing to prevent its use, and that arresting tens of thousands Californians every year for misdemeanor possession diverts police resources from violent felonies.

And nobody is blind to the fact that marijuana has funded and empowered the sociopathic drug cartels responsible for untold suffering and violence on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

It's time for Californians to acknowledge the truth about the war on marijuana. Not only is it ineffective -- it directly compromises public safety in our state.

In November, California can become the first state to recognize this reality by passing the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010.

This smart initiative would legalize personal cultivation and possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults over the age of 21. Individual cities and counties could strictly regulate distribution and sales as they see fit. It would increase the penalty for providing marijuana to minors. Sales by unlicensed dealers -- those now funding the cartels and wreaking havoc in our cities -- would still be illegal.

California banned cannabis almost a century ago based on sensational and unscientific notions about the plant.

Modern prohibition, based on some of the same anachronistic ideas, has failed to control widespread availability and use. Like the 18th Amendment's prohibition against alcohol, it is routinely overlooked by millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Others have made commonsense arguments about the economic benefits of taxing this major industry. Cannabis is by far the largest cash crop in the state, with an estimated value of about $14 billion. Estimated tax revenue from sales alone would be $1.4 billion -- money that could go to police, public schools and other critical services now being gutted by California's budget crisis.

As the City Attorney of Oakland -- a city where dozens of people are killed in drug-related murders every year -- my primary concern is the war on marijuana's collateral damage to public safety.

Black market marijuana is a main source of fuel powering the vast criminal enterprises that threaten peace on our streets and weaken national security on our borders. According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Mexican drug cartels get more than 60 percent of their revenue from selling marijuana in the United States.

Money is the oxygen of these organizations. For decades, our approach to fighting violent drug gangs has been like trying to put out a house fire with a watering can. Why not try shutting off the fire's oxygen supply?

The cost of enforcing prohibition is hard to estimate. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars and countless law enforcement hours arresting people for low-level marijuana crimes, further overburdening courts and prisons. Jail beds needed for marijuana offenders could be "used for other criminals who are now being released early because of a lack of jail space," the state Legislative Analyst's Office wrote.

More than 61,000 Californians were arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession in 2008. That same year, about 60,000 violent crimes went unsolved statewide. The reality is that resources tied up fighting marijuana would be better spent solving and preventing violent felonies and other major crimes.

Regulating and controlling marijuana is really a law-and-order measure. It takes marijuana off street corners and out of the hands of children. It cuts off a huge source of revenue to the violent gangsters who now control the market. And it gives law enforcement more capacity to focus on what really matters to Californians -- making our communities safer.

It's time we call marijuana prohibition what it is -- an outdated and costly approach that has failed to benefit our society. In November, we will finally have the chance to take a rational course with the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act.

John Russo is the City Attorney of Oakland.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/opinionshop/detail?entry_id=62294
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10 comments // Open Forum: Legalize marijuana in California

  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • The Oakland, California's city attorney makes a persuasive
      legal argument. I'm not yet a citizen of California, but I lived
      there briefly while in high school, and its not a place I could
      ever stay away from. Like myself, California is highly advanced.
      It's up to the voters in California this November to assert their
      State's rights and vote aye for the Regulate, Control, and Tax
      Cannabis Act of 2010. It will be up to the SCOTUS to uphold it
      as Constitutional under the Federal Constitution, which is likely.
      No doubt the California citizens will vote it up by a significant
      majority with a good turnout at the polls. And that's sure to happen.
      Like most of the States, and all of the Federal Government,
      California is bankrupt. After 96 years of boom & bust economy
      hemorrhaging at the grim effects of the Federal Reserve Act,
      there is no time left to waver. As the Rothschilds & lawyers are
      fond of saying: " When you've got them by the balls, their
      hearts & minds generally follow " (Ask Indian people what a chakra is.)

      Our dollars have been devalued to 2 cents of what they were
      worth. So for all other citizens of California than occupy the boneyards
      there, who don't need to have money to spend to live, this law is sorely
      needed.We need to produce something of real value to back the dollar
      again. Sunny, warm California is just the place to do it. Cannabis
      has 10,000 uses which all translate into MONEY. And that's just
      the industrial hemp side of the Cannabis family of agriculture.

      This talk of Billions is merely the tip of the iceberg. It doesn't even
      begin to address all vast numbers of spin off industries that would
      spring up like irrigation ditches filling with water after a draught.
      It would result in TRILLIONS of dollars because: 1. every one of those
      10,000 uses has a new industry connected with it. 2. Because the
      use of medical Cannabis would immunize people against 90% of
      all known infectious, and degenerative diseases, it would stabilize
      the health care industry, providing many of those 20 Million which the
      recent health care bill would not cover with protection. 3. It would thus
      dramatically increase the productivity of all working Californians by eliminating
      absences. 4. Because 80% of the Felonies involve gangs/Organized
      Crimes, it would also dramatically relieve the strain on law enforcement.
      5. It would ultimately result in a Gold Rush eclipsing the Gold Rush
      of the 1840s and the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s. When you
      consider that the latter resulted in the largest mass migration of humans
      in world history, that's not merely pretty impressive. It's AWESOME !!!!
      For citizens of the Great Bear State with the 8th largest Government on
      earth,- including the national Governments of world superpowers,- they sure
      underestimate the growth potential by thinking too small. California, like
      Texas, is BIG. They should not underestimate their huge growth potential
      by failing to notice the bigger picture. This law would be as big as they are.
      Opponents dread it because it would stall the war machine breaking this
      country on the wheel, bankrupting the USA, and subverting its sovereignty..

    • 2 years ago
  • mormontoker
    • +1
      mormontoker  
    • Its time they gave us the respect we deand and let us make up our own minds about the weed. Personally I believe it is a beautiful gift from a loving God.

    • 2 years ago
  • plethora
    • 0
      plethora  
    • The actual figure is more like $22 BILLION per year for California! because half of "law enforcement" monies go toward fighting weed....how stupid! and it is 70% of the cartel profits....just like half of our "taxes" are spent on the military...the real reason they won't or rather haven't legalized a plant is that that forces people to gravitate toward the narcotic that are cigarettes and alcohol, the #1 and #2 killers worldwide! plus then they can get you hooked on pharma, which will shorten ones life as well as produce billions for the pharmaceutical companies and the corrupt and double standard based governments....with legalization - regulation and taxing of marijuana alone, we can come out of this designed and calculated "down economy" as well as quell cartels violence in the USA and especially Mexico....before it gets much worse, which is exactly what the Illuminati want! it is not rocket science....it is simple logic...at one time, before the US Government opted for big bucks with pharma, hemp was the primary source of fuel, clothing, food, and many things....but now, since their goals are #1 - reduce the world's population and #2 control the economy and world monies, things as they are fit right in with their hidden agenda, like the 911 fiasco that only idiots can believe it wasn't an inside job...what happened to by the people, for the people? the power should be in our hands, but it is clearly NOT, why do you think the damn swine flu was concocted? and soon, an Avian variation or H1N5 - which will kill off at least 1/3rd of the world's population!look what is going on now with racial profiling in Arizona, just an excuse to fuck with people! That "law" is totally unconstitutional and although I myself am Mexican and born in the USA, and I am also against drug trafficking, I am more against human rights violations and Hitler's and all sorts of Nazism....as we speak there are FEMA camps being built all over the nation and these will be for all of those who oppose oppression, basically, there will also be citizen spies and the like, meanwhile Obama just sits back because the plan is to soon have one world government, one false world church, the catholic one, led by the obvious false prophet and one world currency, the Amero.....if we stand idly by....

    • 2 years ago
  • freecrack
  • OrbViper
    • 0
      OrbViper  
    • Sounds like a pretty reasoned approach, too bad when anyone says that in the UK they get kicked of the Drugs Advisory Board....

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • Man that is a great story i wish i lived in cali. but I don't an I don't think it would be the same as being in South Texas.

    • 2 years ago
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • bailey78:

      I've been through Fort Stockton in Pecos County. Love
      Palm trees as much as I do cactus flowers. I recall back
      in July 1978 the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes
      was the vista of West Texas from the scenic overlook.
      The word awesome might be a cliche to some, but it
      doesn't even begin to cover the majesty of the vista I saw.

    • 2 years ago
  • CarolineS
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