from laist - if the people behind it get the 694,354 signatures required, there will be an initiative in this november's california state ballot to legalize marijuana via constitutional amendment.
readers, i know most of you, if not native californians, have spent a lot of time in my beautiful state. i'm sure most of you (prob. not joeverkill) will agree that it's time to legalize the shit, and tax it accordingly. among other things, this amendment:
Allows marijuana to be sold in any store that sells alcohol. Establishes local boards with expansive powers, including powers to regulate and tax marijuana. Requires marijuana tax revenues support specified programs. Exempts marijuana sales profits from income tax. Forbids most testing for marijuana used outside the workplace. Prohibits most marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco advertisements. Immunizes marijuana growers and sellers from liability.
im not sure about exempting profits from income tax...if you want to legitimize it, then why not tax it like everything else?
either way, the evidence is mounting in favor of massively scaling back the war on drugs, and this is the best way to start.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
where do i sign?
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6 responses:
Haha, the part about exempting profits from income tax is hilarious - probably put in there by dealers who don't want that cozy situation to change. :)
Speaking as someone who works in a pharmacy and knows a bit about pharmacy law, what we really need is an amendment on the federal level. When drug laws on the State and Federal level conflict with one another, the more stringent law always wins out. So when California passed a law requiring child-resistant caps on prescription bottles, that law became the federal standard because it was more stringent than the federal law. On the other hand, California can pass as many decriminalization laws as it wants to, federal law, which is more stringent, still says it's illegal. I think Barney Frank tried to introduce a bill a few months back that would have decriminalized on the federal level the possession of small ammounts of marijuana for personal use, but I haven't heard anything about that recently, so I'm assuming the congressional leadership didn't even let anyone vote on it.
I'm not necessarily against decriminalization. I just feel pretty uncomfortable with allowing it to be sold in the same way tobacco or alcohol is.
If it was up to me, I'd make it illegal to sell in large quantities, but legal to grow and legal to consume. Of course, there need to be certain restrictions on consumption, such as how much you can consume and still legally operate a motor vehicle.
Putting people in jail for growing marijuana, consuming marijuana, and selling small to moderate amounts of marijuana is wasteful and counterproductive. By criminalize drugs, you're creating a lot of crimes much worse than the consumption of those drugs. Our prisons are overcrowded with drug offenders.
Just my two cents.
Joe, I'm going to have to disagree. I don't think we should legalize marijuana (or look the other way) just because it's a small or non-malicious offense and we have bigger fish to fry. That attitude is what got us into the illegal immigration mess we face today.
I do, however, believe that marijuana should be legalized and regulated just like alcohol and tobacco. It does very little harm to the body in the long term, and is considered less physically addictive. (Not that I think it should be legal JUST because there are more harmful things out there that are legal...)
I don't want it legalized just because we could stop USING money on the war against weed and start making money on it instead. I want to legalize it because it has legitimate uses, both medical and recreational, and it is has been singled out and villified for far too long. I want to legalize it because a lot of people out there can just enjoy it from time to time. And that's saying a lot, coming from someone like me who had to quit drinking and drugs altogether 4 years ago, just to stay alive.
I just think we have no good reason to keep it illegal. And that there is a demand for it, so it's worth the effort of changing the law rather than letting it fall slowly into obsoletion. I think we could see benefits for the country as a whole with the reduced law enforcement cost, added income (those dealers better pay taxes), and better controls in place to limit consumption by minors, drug deals with shady people, and DUI's. But I mostly think we need to change things because this I think the government is being unnecessarily controlling and douchebagean about the whole thing. Living in a state with less stringent laws than the federal standard is like having your parents argue about whether or not you can get that piercing, and hedging your bets on whether the permissive parent will be able to back you up and shield you from the fall out.
Not to mention, people would be a lot more laid back. I think the unlucky few who suffer paranoia and panic attacks when stoned are probably just recovering Catholics.
I think you misunderstand me, Stacey. I generally think the government should do as little as possible. I don't think the government should prevent people from doing things that cause no clear harm to others, and I think marijuana falls into that category.
The Analyst can tell you that I'm an outspoken critic of marijuana. A lot of people seem to think that there are no ill effects cause by THC, no matter how much you use, and that just isn't the case.
I do disagree with your statement that marijuana should be treated the same as alcohol or tobacco. Maybe it's silly, but I just find something haunting and troublesome about the idea of walking into a 7-eleven and seeing 20-packs of marijuana cigarettes on the rack behind the counter, bearing the logos of big tobacco or pharmaceutical companies. While there are legitimate regulatory reasons for alcohol and tobacco to be sold like that, I think that marijuana can function just fine via a cottage industry rather than as an en-masse commodified product.
Joe, perhaps I read too much into it, but your comment about criminalizing drugs being a waste of time suggested to me that you thought it was just too much effort.
I totally agree that too much THC has ill effects. The same could be said of almost anything -- internet usage (guilty), food, alcohol, etc. It's each person's responsibility to practice moderation.
Anyway. I don't find the idea of weed in a 7-11 to be so eerie. It certainly would be odd, and it would take me years to get used to it (and to feel comfortable with it). But seeing as how it is just another mood- or mind-altering substance that would be legal, I don't see why we would leave it out. Maybe you'd feel more comfortable if it was behind the pharmacy counter and required ID (and had daily purchase limitations) like my Claritin D pills? I wouldn't be opposed to that.
I don't like a system based on private producers because frankly, it's dangerous. There are enough greedy and/or crazy people out there who will gladly break into houses to steal the plants, and I don't think that would change just because there was somewhere the person could buy it legitimately. It would be like operating a bank out of your house -- just asking for attack. Both the growers and the thieves can become absolutely ruthless with so much money involved, and it's scary. I have a friend who was shot, guarding his plants in his own home. Why not take all the subterfuge and shenanigans out of it and just build big, well guarded factories?
marijuana SHOULD be kept a cottage industry. imagine what would happen if philip morris started selling joints...they'd be terrible, reconstituted shit, and would probably have nicotine in them. last thing we need is people who are chemically addicted to weed, rather than just psychologically. let's say they do legalize it...i'm starting a garden rather than running to the circle k all the time to buy a pack of joints.
one thing we have to remember too when it comes to legalizing the shit is just how many people are in prison from this stuff. let me repeat that we have the world's highest incarceration rate...and these stringent victimless-crime laws are basically to the point where they're turning a bunch of docile potheads into hardened members of criminal culture.
that's about the worst thing you could do for our crime rate.
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