Cannabis Drug
California Regulate, Control And Tax Cannabis Act – Part One
The Secretary of State in California has announced that the initiative to legalize recreational marijuana passed the required 433,971 signatures needed to get on the ballot. Initiative supporters claim that legalizing marijuana will bring instant cash to the state through tax revenue and cost savings. Opponents say that crime and health impacts are enough to block legalization. Other opponents say that legalizing marijuana will decrease both its economic impact and quality. The first part of this article covers the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act in California and why proponents say it should be passed. Part 2: Arguments against Marijuana Legalization in California covers both sides of the argument against marijuana legalization in California.
A short history of marijuana in California
The first state law outlawing marijuana in the U.S. was passed in 1913 in California. Other states quickly followed suit. In 1937, all possession and use of “Marihuana” for uses other than medical and industrial was declared illegal by the federal government.
The federal government included marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, after the 1937 act was declared unconstitutional. In 1996, California legalized medical marijuana with Proposition 215, reigniting a national debate. Federally, marijuana is still an illegal drug, considered to have “no valid medical use”.
The California initiative to legalize marijuana
The California Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act, which will be on the November ballot, includes several limits on legal marijuana use. Legal marijuana use would be limited to individuals 21 years of age or older. Local governments could pass laws to regulate or control the sale or production of pot. Individuals would also be prohibited from smoking marijuana in public, smoking marijuana while minors are present, providing to any underage person, possessing the drug on school grounds, or driving while under the influence of marijuana.
The cost-savings arguments for legalization of marijuana
Supporters claim that if the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis act passes, it will save the state money. The state of California is currently in a huge budget deficit, and has been using payday cash advances on the state budget to cover costs.
The estimates of how much money this act could save range from $ 156 million to $ 1 billion. Supporters believe that the stretched-thin legal system will be able to focus their limited resources on dangerous or violent criminals once the act passes. Proponents also point out that while very few deaths in California can be attributed to marijuana, alcohol contributes to hundreds of deaths each year.
The argument for taxing legal marijuana
As well as saving law enforcement dollars, the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act allows local governments to tax pot. Proponents of the act estimate that $15 billion worth of gray-market and black market marijuana is sold each year in California.
A single tax on marijuana retailing could bring in as much as $1.3 billion per year. Some medical marijuana dispensaries are currently taxed in California. These city and county taxes bring in as much as $350,000 per dispensary.
The jobs argument for legalizing pot
Some areas of California, such as Humboldt County, already have a thriving marijuana tourism industry. Medical marijuana dispensaries and pot-growing schools contribute to the million-dollar marijuana tourism industry in Humboldt County, California. Supporters of legalizing cannabis point out that if the marijuana tourism industry in California grows to just one-third the size of the wine industry, it would create over 50,000 jobs. If marijuana were legalized, it would also become legal to produce hemp in the state, which could add to the agricultural base of California.
California’s Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act is due to go on the November ballot. To see the arguments against the legalization of marijuana in California, see Part 2: Arguments against Marijuana Legalization in California.
Sources:
The Associated Press
Business Week
Seattle Times
Time Magazine
CNN
California NORML
|
|
1 Liter Leather Bota Water Beverage Holder $14.99 This leather bota is ideal for bringing your favorite beverage with you. Holds up to one full liter of water (or any other drink of choice.) Perfect for taking on the road, to the beach, or on tour…. |
|
|
Grateful Dead Steal Your Face 1 Liter Sports Bottle Awesome beverage tote – the red white and blue on a black nylon bottle holder. This Stealie tote holds a 1 liter bottle…. |
|
|
Aqua Sack 1 Liter Sports Bottle – Black This great beverage tote holds a full 1 liter bottle – and will keep it cool! An attached strap makes carrying it around a breeze. Also has an added pocket to stash your small stuff…. |
|
|
Grass $29.95 Consider this a documentary for those who inhaled. Ron Mann’s playful portrait of marijuana in America is less a social history than an examination of the government’s systematic seven-decade campaign to demonize the devil’s weed: the conspiracy against cannabis! Through government documents, period newsreels, and clips from hysterical educational scare films and campy overheated features (like Hi… |
|
|
Magic Weed – The Truth About Cannabis Sativa $8.87 MAGIC WEED – DVD Movie… |
|
|
Long Live the Kings (Special Edition with 11 Bonus Tracks) Special edition includes bonus CD featuring 11 all-new KMK tracks! Track listing: 1. Long Live The Kings 2. Party Monsters (feat. Tech N9ne) 3. Rampage 4. Great When You’re High 5. Stomp 6. Lucky Day 7. At It Again 8. Make It Rain 9. Party Girls 10. Mushrooms 11. Black Smoke 12. F*ck The Police (feat. Insane Clown Posse) 13. Reefer Madness 14. Checkmate 15. Kill The Pain 16. Mad Respect 17. Let’s … |
|
|
Trainspotting (Korean subtitles) A group of disaffected Scottish youths turn to heroin to escape the banalities of modern-day existence. TRAINSPOTTING is a wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life. It focuses on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up the heroin habit he has acquired. He and his friends begin to suffer the consequences and how their choices affect their relationships with… |
|
|
Saving Grace $15.16 Imagine a Cheech and Chong pothead comedy, only instead of two scruffy lowlifes, the movie is about an aimless Scottish gardener and a middle-aged British widow with a green thumb. Grace (Brenda Blethyn of Secrets and Lies and Little Voice) has just discovered that her recently deceased husband has left her with an enormous debt when her gardener Matthew (Craig Ferguson, The Big Tease) asks h… |
|
|
The Union: The Business Behind Getting High $4.49 UNION – DVD Movie… |
|
|
Marijuana Nation $19.93 National Geographic goes inside the cannabis industry with Lisa Ling, reporting from secret farms and not-so-secret grow houses of marijuana cultivators – into a world where marijuana is not just a drug but a way of life. Learn what’s behind the increased potency of a new designer crop and how growers circumvent law enforcement while creating a more perfect plant – sometimes literally in their liv… |
Comments are closed for this entry.