Since we just learned that Rand Paul allegedly kidnapped a girl in college and tried to force her to take bong hits, today seems like as good a day as any to ask the question of how legalizing marijuana could affect California’s budget crisis. The answer is complicated, and numbers from different state analyses contradict each other, writes TheAtlantic.com Staff Editor Chris Good. Supporters of legalization have claimed that California could raise between $1.3 and $1.4 billion if it legalizes pot. That’s the figure the Yes on 19 campaign uses, quite prominently, on its website, [...]
True confession: I composed this in response to a snarky comment posted on Marc Emery’s endorsement of Tax Cannabis 2010. Writing from prison, Emery makes some great points that are well worth reading; here, I make a few follow-up points of my own. ==================== One of the major criticisms against Tax Cannabis 2010 is that it relies on local governments to tax and regulate marijuana sales, should they choose to do so, and the folks who make that argument tend to use medical marijuana ordinances as an example of why that approach won’t work. Yet [...]
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is putting the brakes on his bill to legalize and tax marijuana in California – at least until the campaign heats up for the November pot legalization initiative. In an interview, the San Francisco Democrat said his Assembly Public Safety Committee will delay hearings on the bill until the fall. Ultimately, Ammiano’s proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 2254, may well play a key part in debate over the ballot measure, Peter Hecht writes in his “Weed Wars” blog. “We want to see how the legislation can get out in front of the initiative [...]
The California Police Chiefs Association is claiming credit for derailing Assembly Bill 2254 (D-Ammiano), declaring it “dead” for this session.
The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act was reintroduced into the California Assembly on Thursday after its first iteration expired last month, the Eureka Times-Standard reports. The bill, also known as AB 2254, covers many aspects of regulation, but some of its main goals are to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and older in a manner similar to alcohol and to “deprive the criminal market of revenue,” according to the bill’s language. It is also hoped that the bill will decrease the violence associated with the criminal market. Fees added to the sale [...]
As supporters of a proposed ballot initiative to fully legalize pot turned in their signatures last week, a spokesman for San Francisco’s Tom Ammiano said the assemblyman would also reintroduce his own decriminalization bill in the state Legislature. “We are planning on reintroducing the bill in early or mid-February,” Ammiano’s spokesman, Quintin Mecke, told L.A. Weekly’s Dennis Romero. The bill would fly in the face of federal law by removing pot from a list of controlled substances and regulating it like alcohol, with with the over-21 crowd being able to buy it, grow it and [...]
It didn’t take long for the reviews to start coming after AB 390 passed its first committee vote in the California Assembly. Nicole Sandler, a former radio producer who now runs her own radio show and blog, offers this take on the happenings. ======== The state of California made history today! Until today, no U.S. state legislature had ever even considered voting on a measure that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. Today, not only did the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee consider it, they voted on and passed A.B. 390! The Marijuana Control, Regulation [...]
An Assembly public safety committee today passed a bill to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for use by all California residents. But then Assembly Bill 390 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, passed away in a bureaucratic haze, the Sacramento Bee’s Peter Hecht reports here. Ammiano announced that a critical public health committee will not hear the bill this week — meaning that it won’t meet a legislative deadline for advancing to the Assembly floor. However, despite a procession of law enforcement officers who testified against the bill, the public safety committee’s 4-3 vote passing [...]
A proposal to legalize and tax marijuana in California was approved by a key committee of the Assembly this morning, over the dire warnings of police chiefs and prosecutors, the Los Angeles Times reports here. The Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 to approve AB 390 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who said the bill would provide tax revenue to the state and regulation of the drug. The new law includes a requirement that users be at least 21 years old; Ammiano chairs the committee. The measure next goes to the Health Committee, but proponents [...]
The Sacramento Bee offers this guest opinion column touting the merits of AB 390, which is being heard today by an Assembly committee. Paul Armentano is the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML); his column appeared Sunday in the Opinion section. A thoughtful companion piece dubbed “The Conversation” appears here, exploring the legalization debate in the medical marijuana community. (Note: SacBee.com may require registration to view some articles.) ============= On Tuesday, members of the state Assembly will vote on California marijuana policy. The Public Safety Committee will vote [...]
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