Posted by CN Staff on March 08, 2009 at 05:43:33 PT
By Tom Hennessy


cannabis USA -- It's an idea whose time has come, gone, and may now be returning. Legalize marijuana.

Looking for a new revenue source, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, last week introduced a bill to regulate the cultivation of pot and tax its sale. Despite its illegality, marijuana is said to be the state's largest cash crop ($14billion), ahead of vegetables ($5.9billion) and grapes ($2.6billion).

Tax collectors estimate that Ammiano's proposal would produce $1.3billion in new tax revenue for Sacramento. Some experts, however, doubt the accuracy of that figure. Because legalizing marijuana will reduce its value, they say the $1.3billion figure may be inflated.

Still, Ammiano's proposal could promise savings to taxpayers in other areas. Decriminalizing marijuana, for example, will lower the cost of law enforcement, now estimated to be about $170million a year in the state.

Critical Overcrowding

With incarceration of marijuana offenders costing taxpayers an estimated $40,000 a year per inmate, legalization would also reduce prison costs. California has about 1,500 prisoners serving time for marijuana offenses. That's 10 times as many as in 1980, says Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, an organization aimed at reforming marijuana laws.

But with the state's prison population having reached levels that may be unconstitutional, three federal judges said last month that as much as 40percent of prisoners may eventually have to be released.

Gieringer also offers this consideration, "Marijuana is reported to account for 61percent of the illicit drug traffic from Mexico, where prohibition-related violence has killed over 6,800."

Legalization will not come easily. Of all the obstacles it faces, the federal government may be the most formidable. It has opposed pot use for decades, even in the 13 states whose laws allow sales of marijuana for medical purposes.

But there are signs that enforcement attitudes are changing, at least in the area of medical marijuana sales.

Attorney General Eric Holder is said to oppose further raids on those dispensing medical marijuana. And looming in the background is a campaign promise made by Barack Obama during his run for president: "I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users."

Asked about this after the inauguration, Holder noted, "What he said during the campaign is now American policy."

Approving medical marijuana is no guarantee that all pot will be made legal by the feds. But many see it as a possible step in that direction. Officials of the Drug Enforcement Administration, usually quick to condemn traffic in pot, have been declining to comment of late.

On the federal level, a bill similar to Ammiano's has been introduced by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Interests that are to oppose legalization of marijuana include drug companies, the California prison guards union and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Flip-Flop Confession

I was once personally opposed to legalizing pot, but my opinion changed after meeting James P. Gray, now a retired Superior Court judge in Orange County. Gray was present last week at Ammiano's press conference and had this to say:

"I served 25 years on the bench and I've seen the results of this attempted prohibition. It doesn't make marijuana less available, but it does clog the court system. The stronger we get on marijuana, the softer we get with regard to all other prosecutions because we have only so many resources."

He also told those in the audience, "You and I as adults can go home tonight and drink 10 martinis. It's not a healthy thing to do but it's not illegal."

Which brings to mind Ammiano's answer when Slate, the online magazine, asked if he smokes marijuana. "I certainly experimented," he said. "But I'm more of a martini guy."

Let the debate on legalizing begin!!!

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This is a good idea but it will newer happen, since Netherlands legalized marijuana the crime rate dropped and economy improved so we already know that this would help us out.

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Marijuana even now it's illegal but it feels like it's not, everybody smokes it and it's so easy to get. Might as well legalize it but i guess the problem is all the drug lords that make millions selling it and not paying taxes, that's what pisses the gov off. Speaking of Holland it was kind of kool last year when i was on vacation in Amsterdam and walked out of airport more ppl outside were smoking joints then cigarettes including bunch of pilots and stewardesses.

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I hear ya Pro, USA would be better off ,legalizing it,, look at the money our government would get...

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I agree with ya here Putski. Some people will argue that pot leads to worse drugs...thats only because the LAW groups these people together. Most people who like to smoke pot don't have the same mentallity as crack addicts and the like. But bringing them together influences decisions. Legalize marijuana and eventually the gap between tokers and addicts will broaden and addicts can then be delt with. If everybody smoked pot this world would be a much more peaceful place! ( I can't do it anymore cause of random piss tests at work. ) I need my job.