California would become the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use under a bill introduced today by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.
The proposal would regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis – all of which is barred by federal law.
Ammiano said taxes and other fees that accompany regulation could put more than a billion dollars a year into state coffers at a time when revenues continue to decline. He said he anticipates the federal government could soften its stance on marijuana under the Obama administration.
“We could in fact have the political will to do something, and certainly in the meantime this is a public policy call and I think it’s worth the discussion,” Ammiano said. “I think the outcome would be very healthy for California and California’s economy.”
Doesn’t matter, won’t happen. Pot won’t be legal for the same reason gay marriage isn’t more popular. Magic. Most of the country is fucking retarded idiots who believe in magically invisible beings who float in the sky and tell us what kind of meat we can eat and who we can have sex with and what is moral. It’s psychotic. Magic isn’t real. There is no invisible god who cares who I fuck or what I smoke. If you believe in an invisible unprovable magical being, I can’t argue you out of it…but you’re insane.
Drug crimes make up about 20% of the prison population. So even if you legalized ALL drugs, your crime problem is about 80% of what it is now, maybe a little less if you say it gets rid of other crimes as well.
They could grow it in state prisons and sell it in special shops, then most of the money generated by the sale could go strait to the state.
Legalizing drugs: desperate attempt to rake more tax monies for govt. Thats all there is to it.
But since marijuana will fall under ATF (obviously), it will be taxed to death (like cigarettes are) so nothing will change!
Many people will still buy smuggled illegal- but tax-free – marijuana from the same dealers…
“Ok, so pot becomes legal and is taxed, just like beer, booze and tobacco. They start jacking up the tax, like they did with tobacco, claiming “health reasons”. People getting pulled over for traffic violations and they start doing drug tests, just like they do for booze. So on and so forth…”
OK… and? We stop jailing adults for their personal vices and enforce laws against those who endanger others. Smoking pot is stupid and lethal when it is done long enough, but it’s not my business if an adult wants to do that to themselves. However, when they endanger others while engaged in this activity they should be arrested. Seems pretty Constitutional to me.
So many pros, so few cons.
1. Increase revenue
2. Decrease expenses – less enforcement costs and we reduce the overcrowded prisons
3. These combine to help with the current budget crisis in many stats, especially California
4. Safer or at least not any worse than alcohol or tobacco, it makes no sense for it to be illegal
5. We really have to start learning from history. Prohibition failed so miserably with alcohol and we are going through the same thing with marijuana.
I just wrote a post on this as well – for more info check out http://geekpolitics.com/legalize-marijuana/
4. Don’t need more fuzzy-brained people killing kids on highways.
5. Prohibition just caused traffickers to move to more dangerous drugs, as would be the case if mj was legalized. Negating #3.
RBG
Never will happen. The gov needs the weed demon to take away your rights.
Remember all those crack babies.
Oh Ya, where are all those crack babies anyway ?
Yes and it also causes a maniacal rage called….”Reefer madness” {echo} madness, madness{/echo}
Guys, the 1950s called. They want their propaganda back.
# 35 888 said, “But since marijuana will fall under ATF (obviously), it will be taxed to death ”
Umm, no. ATF is Fed. It is still illegal under federal law. You’d be jailed, not taxed.
#39, Lou,
Oh Ya, where are all those crack babies anyway ?
Foster homes, many with physical and mental issues.
#10
The people of which you speak are MORONS. Some people handle it, hold down a good job, live wonderful lives while others as you mentioned don’t have the psyche to regulate it and thus end up having a shit life…..
As to your point about theft, who ever stole to pay for a $10 bag of puff?
#18
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Deowll – to be equivilent to smoking a pack a day you would need to put a pack a day into your j…..If you want to suck the propaganda teet be my guest, just keep it to yourself and your children. If you don’t know, don’t post
Just watch the first 2 or 3 minutes, and you’ll understand why your parents and grandparents are so afraid of “Reefer Madness.”
I suppose if you’re stoned, you could watch the whole movie. There is a “full screen” button.
By the way, National Review has been endorsing legalizing drugs for decades.
I’m not trying to change the subject but if we made old man with young boy sex and old man with young girl sex legal maybe they’d let us smoke our pot..?
Funny how people who want to legalize drugs tend to be the people that want to ban smoking…
#48 And they tend to be people who think they have a right to the money in your wallet…
If they legalize marijuana, what happens to all the people that are in prison on marijuana charges?
# 50 hhopper said, “If they legalize marijuana, what happens to all the people that are in prison on marijuana charges?”
There’s almost no one in CA state prisons on Pot charges.
Non-issue.
Failed liberal editors can’t get far past 50 posts with this crap anymore. How sad.
Your living in a dream world if you people in California think that the Federal Government is going to allow you to legalize anything. You have not had much luck with Medical Marijuana, why would you even think this is going to be any different. There are too many DEA agents with a vested interest to allow this to happen.
Also funny how the people who supposedly advocate small government and personal responsibility forget those principles when butting into others lives on supposed “moral” grounds.
Hey its the JHill bot spamming up the blog. The wonders of modern technology…
Oh it’s so damn simple. Decriminalize the sale production and sale of Pot. But make it illegal to smoke too much of it. Just like booze. You can buy all you want. But just don’t drink yourself into a coma. Or get behind a wheel of a car, after two drinks. Or even just walk around, unattended, total blitzed. Or they’ll haul you off to jail, to sober up. The only ones really scared about pot being sold legally, is the Tobacco industry. They don’t want any cheap competition, from a plant anyone could grow in their backyard. The legal status is what keeps it a high priced commodity, and a dangerous one to distribute. Imagine if Heintz and Del Monte kept it illegal to raise your own tomatoes. Their price would be sky-high. And illegal veggie farmers would operate like drug pushers. There’d be turf wars, etc. You do know that at one time they though tomatoes were poisonous? No doubt pot has been overly demonized too. It can’t be any worse than alcohol. And the US dropped its ban on liquor sales after 1933. In the US people probably drank far more when it was illegal, than after it was legalized. Legal pot will probably become “old hippy smokes” in a very short time.
It’s those more serious chemical addictions they should be really worried about. And the feds aren’t doing enough to regulate sales of the base chemicals involved in making that sh*t. So the chemical industry is getting off scout-free as being suppliers of the problem. And Tv and the movies won’t touch drug abuse, the way they do racism, the occult, and gay rights. Like people in Hollywood don’t do heroin or meth. What’s that? What hypocrites!!
I can say that I have never smoked marijuana, but this documentary changed my viewpoint (to support its legalization) and shed light on the amount of misdirection, propaganda and falsehoods that surround marijuana.
Its called The Union
Honesty this is a very good documentary. Pretty long, but it discusses all of the topics that relate to Cannabis; and more importantly discusses the SCIENTIFIC FACTS about cannabis, which are provided by people like Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School if you are wondering about accuracy or credibility. It also goes over the reasons why the American government has switched its position on cannabis over the years… which is rooted in racism btw…watch it
There is not an existing proof of anyone dying to a marijuana overdose, but this won’t preclude the alternative of going through adverse or simply unpleasant effects only when it’s consumed in considerable amounts. For comparison’s cause, alcohol overdoses lay claim approximately 5, 000 casualties per annum. This might be cited being a reason this marijuana is without a doubt safer when compared to other drugs, like beer.