January 20, 2010

SEATTLE—A push to legalize marijuana on the West Coast is picking up steam as Washington lawmakers and pot proponents in California and Oregon propose separate measures.

The Washington state legislature will hold a preliminary vote Wednesday on whether to sell pot in state liquor stores, though even its authors say the bill is unlikely to pass. The same day in California, backers of a well-funded ballot measure to legalize marijuana are expected to file more than enough signatures to put the initiative before state voters in November.

Ventura County Star: Marijuana supporters ready for likely vote in November

January 12, 2010

Richard Lee, California’s best known marijuana entrepreneur, says he knew he was onto something back in 2007 when he took out an ad in an East Bay alternative newspaper asking people to contact him if they had an interest in learning about California’s medical marijuana industry.

“The phone rang off the hook immediately,” he said. “Within three or four days we had 100 people on a list.”

Ventura County Star: Advocates for legal pot say time's right in state

January 12, 2010

Joseph Surgenor of Oxnard is 32, a part-time concert promoter and a full-time medical marijuana entrepreneur.

His nonprofit Ventura County Patients Cooperative grows enough cannabis to serve the medical needs of its 40-plus members and in many cases delivers the pot to their doors and bills them monthly. “We’re doing it as best we can and as legal as we can,” he said.

Ventura County Star: Tax initiative backers cite alcohol's example

January 12, 2010

The wine industry is one of California’s shining economic successes. An economic impact study conducted for the state’s Wine Institute in 2006 reported the industry sustains 309,000 full-time jobs that generate $10.1 billion in wages.

Factoring in excise and sales taxes, as well as taxes on corporate profits and income taxes paid by workers, the study concludes the industry provides $3.2 billion in revenue each year to state and local governments. And that’s with the second-lowest excise tax on wine of any state in the nation, just 20 cents a gallon.

Former Orange County Judge James Gray: It’s Time to Legalize, Tax, and Regulate Cannabis

January 10, 2010

As a retired Orange County judge, I've been on the front lines of the drug war for three decades, and I know from experience that the current approach is simply not working. Our marijuana policy must change in order to achieve the following goals:

• Reduce marijuana consumption by children.

• Stop or reduce the violence that accompanies the growing and distribution of marijuana.

• Stop or reduce the corruption that accompanies the growing and distribution of marijuana.

• Stop or reduce crime both by people trying to get money to purchase marijuana and by those under its influence.

• Reduce the harm to people who consume marijuana.

• Reduce the number of people we must put into our jails and prisons.

Sac Bee: As medical marijuana dispensaries proliferate, some argue that the state should get a cut

January 10, 2010

The large wood-frame Victorian house, home to the Medical Kush Doctor and the Kush Clubhouse, rests on the wild and free oceanfront of Venice Beach and in the purple haze of California's medical marijuana laws.

Even on this eclectic Los Angeles-area beach, a cannabis physician's office sharing the same roof with a pot bar and dispensary may seem remarkable.

Scripps News: California suburban moms back legalizing marijuana, pollsters say

January 8, 2010

With Californians likely to vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana, some key swing voters -- Democratic and independent women -- are expressing a surprising reason why they would support the initiative.

The suburban "soccer moms" who are likely voters have told pollsters that the measure, which would give local governments the authority to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis to adults 21 or older, would provide a safer way for their adult children to buy pot.

Christian Science Monitor: California voters will decide whether to legalize marijuana

January 4, 2009

California continues to stay at the nation-leading edge of legal activity concerning marijuana use.

In 1996 it passed the first national initiative to make marijuana available by prescription to relieve pain, nausea, and other physical maladies. In July of this year, Oakland became – by a wide margin (80 percent to 20) – the first US city to assess a tax on the sale of marijuana.

BREAKING NEWS: Tax Cannabis 2010 Secures Signatures for 2010 Ballot!

December 14, 2009

From the Associated Press:

Group says Californians could vote on pot in 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — A group campaigning to put a marijuana legalization measure before California voters says it has enough signatures to qualify for the 2010 ballot.

Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee said Monday the measure has far more than the nearly 434,000 signatures needed to make the November 2010 ballot.

Campaign organizers say they will submit the signatures to the California Secretary of State next month for validation.

The proposal would legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for California adults 21 and older. Residents could cultivate marijuana gardens up to 25 square feet. Local governments would determine whether to permit marijuana sales within their boundaries.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: Poll majority: Legalize marijuana

December 9, 2009

A new national poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion shows that two-thirds of Americans believe the "War on Drugs" is a failure. A majority of those polled agreed that marijuana should be legalized.

The survey, a nationally representative sample of 1,004 adults, found that just 8 percent believe the "War" - the U.S. government's effort to reduce the illegal drug trade - is a success: 68 percent agreed that it is a failure.

AMA Calls for Feds to Review Marijuana Restrictions

December 2, 2009

From CBS News:

The American Medical Association on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling for the government to review its classification of marijuana, in order to ease the way for more research into the use of medical marijuana.

While the AMA, the largest physician's organization in the U.S., explicitly states it does not endorse any current state-based medical marijuana programs or the legalization of marijuana, the move is a significant shift that continues a trend toward support for easing restrictions against the drug.

"Our American Medical Association (AMA) urges that marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines," the AMA's statement (PDF) reads. "This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."

Marijuana is currently classified by the federal government as a "Schedule I" controlled substance, the most restrictive of five categories. Schedule I substances are considered to have a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug. Other drugs in that category include heroin, LSD and PCP. Less restrictive "Schedule II" substances include cocaine and methamphetamine.

New York Times: Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice

November 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — In the next several months, the Supreme Court will decide at least a half-dozen cases about the rights of people accused of crimes involving drugs, sex and corruption. Civil liberties groups and associations of defense lawyers have lined up on the side of the accused.

But so have conservative, libertarian and business groups. Their briefs and public statements are signs of an emerging consensus on the right that the criminal justice system is an aspect of big government that must be contained.

The development represents a sharp break with tough-on-crime policies associated with the Republican Party since the Nixon administration.

CBS News Blogs: Colorado Moves to Tax Medical Marijuana

November 17, 2009 12:29 pm

The Attorney General of Colorado said yesterday that his state can collect taxes on sales of medical marijuana.

"Medical marijuana is tangible property that is generally subject to state sales tax," Attorney General John Suthers said in an opinion, according to The Denver Post.

Suthers, a Republican, was responding to a query from the state's governor, Democrat Bill Ritter.

"This is another in a series of significant steps toward some sort of legalization of marijuana," said CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "Once local and state officials in Colorado and elsewhere realize how much income they can generate from this tax it will be harder for them or anyone else to argue that pot shouldn’t be legalized and regulated in some fashion."

The Atlantic: Less Dangerous Than Aspirin

Nov 09, 2009 10:57 am

There has never been a single documented case of fatal cannabis overdose. Also, the government’s own figures don’t tally. While drug figures from the Office Of National Statistics register 19 cannabis related deaths, the mortality stats from the same office log only 1 death.

Report: Marijuana enforcement failing, biased

Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 9:40 AM

As Californians keep gathering petition signatures for marijuana legalization ballot measures and a state lawmaker rewrites his legalization bill, marijuana reform advocates today are touting a new report that finds no relationship between marijuana arrest and use rates – a sign that the “war on drugs” has failed as far as cannabis is concerned, they say.

ABC News: Legalized Marijuana? We May Already Be on the Way

October 25, 2009

With the Obama administration’s decision not to prosecute medicinal marijuana dealers and users, even though they violate federal law, the country is “probably in the process now of legalizing marijuana,” conservative columnist George F. Will said today.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Will compared what has been happening with marijuana with the gradual changes in laws regarding alcohol, gambling and even prostitution.

San Francisco Chronicle: Armstrong can drink, but Phelps can’t toke

October 23, 2009

For better or worse, our American Idiocracy has come to rely on athletes as national pedagogues. Michael Jordan educated the country about commitment and just doing it. A.C. Green lectured us about sexual caution. Serena Williams and John McEnroe taught us what sportsmanship is – and is not. So when a single week like this one sees both the Justice Department back states’ medical marijuana laws, and a Gallup poll show record-level support for pot legalization, we can look to two superjocks – Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps – for the key lesson about our absurd drug policy.

Newsweek: How Oakland is Leading Marijuana Legalization

October 15, 2009

On the corner of Broadway and 17th Street in downtown Oakland, nudged between a Chinese restaurant and a hat shop, Oaksterdam University greets passersby with a life-size cutout of Barack Obama and the sweet smell of fresh marijuana drifting from a back room. Inside, dutiful students flip through thick plastic binders of the day’s lessons, which, on a recent Saturday began with “Pot Politics 101,” taught by a ponytailed legal consultant who has authored a number of books on hemp. The class breaks for lunch around noon and resumes an hour later, with classes on “budtending,” horticulture, and cooking, which includes a recipe for “a beautiful pot pesto.” There are 50 students in this class, the majority of them Californians, but some have come all the way from Kansas. In between lectures, the university’s founder, Richard Lee, 47, rolls in and out on his wheelchair greeting students, looking the part of a pot-school dean in Converse sneakers, aviator glasses, and a green “Oaksterdam” T shirt.

PBS: Cash Strapped California Towns Eye Tax Hikes for Medical Marijuana

October 14, 2009

With budget woes causing cuts to essential services across California, several communities in the state are weighing whether to raise additional revenue through tax hikes on medical marijuana. Spencer Michels reports.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown: “Chances are High Pot Measure Will Pass”

September 27, 2009

That proposed ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in California for people 21 and older – and let local government tax the sales – has a good chance of passing.

People are no longer outraged by the idea of legalization, and truth be told, there is just too much money to be made both by the people who grow marijuana and the cities and counties that would be able to tax it.

Washington Post: Some Potent Arguments for Legalizing Marijuana

September 13, 2009

As Maryland weighs legalizing medical marijuana, it should consider my experience when I visited the student lounge at Montgomery College’s Rockville campus at lunchtime last week and began interviewing randomly selected students about their views…

Tax Cannabis 2010 Receives Initiative Title and Summary

September 22, 2009

The Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign has received its initiative’s Title and Summary from the California Secretary of State. The Title and Summary are as follows:

Title and Summary:

Changes California Law to Legalize Marijuana and Allow It to Be Regulated and Taxed. Initiative Statute.

Allows people 21 years old or older to possess, cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use. Permits local governments to regulate and tax commercial production and sale of marijuana to people 21 years old or older. Prohibits people from possessing marijuana on school grounds, using it in public, smoking it while minors are present, or providing it to anyone under 21 years old. Maintains current prohibitions against driving while impaired. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: Savings of up to several tens of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments on the costs of incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Unknown but potentially major tax, fee, and benefit assessment revenues to state and local government related to the production and sale of marijuana products.

Press Release: Tax Cannabis 2010 Campaign Kicks Off Statewide Signature Gathering Efforts at NORML Convention

September 25, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign kicked off its statewide signature gathering efforts today at a press conference at the NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) Convention in San Francisco.

Proponents of the campaign to legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis (marijuana) in California, announced that they will begin gathering the 433,000 signatures of registered California voters necessary to qualify the initiative for the November 2010 statewide ballot.

Former California State Senate President Don Perata Endorses Tax Cannabis 2010

September 25, 2009

Today, the Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign is proud to announce that former California State Senate President Pro Dem Don Perata has endorsed the initiative.

Perata released the following statement:

“The economy and the state budget are top concerns for Californians. We can’t fund what matters most: jobs, healthcare, education, state parks, roads, transportation, environmental protection. It’s all on the chopping block, but doesn’t need to be.

“In this time of economic uncertainty, it’s time we thought outside the box, and brought in revenue we need to restore the California Dream.

“This is California. We are the future. We are the cutting edge. In California, we have an opportunity, with this initiative, to stand up for a common sense policy, and to set an example for the rest of the country and the world. It’s time to reform our cannabis laws, and California is the perfect place to do it.” 

Fortune Magazine: How Marijuana Became Legal

September 11, 2009

When Irvin Rosenfeld, 56, picks me up at the Fort Lauderdale airport, his SUV reeks of marijuana. The vice president for sales at a local brokerage firm, Rosenfeld has been smoking 10 to 12 marijuana cigarettes a day for 38 years, he says. That’s probably unusual in itself, but what makes Rosenfeld exceptional is that for the past 27 years, he has been copping his weed directly from the United States government….