Drive to legalize marijuana rolls on in California
Richard Lee greets students, shopkeepers and tourists as he rolls his wheelchair down Broadway at the speed of a brisk jog, hailing them with, “Hi. How ya doin’?”
In this nine-block district of Oakland, California, called Oaksterdam, Lee is a celebrity.
Oaksterdam is Lee’s brainchild, a small pocket of urban renewal built on a thriving trade in medical marijuana. The district’s name comes from a marriage of Oakland and Amsterdam, a city in the Netherlands renowned for its easy attitude toward sex and drugs.
Lee is the founder of Oaksterdam University, which he describes as a trade school that specializes in all things marijuana: how to grow it, how to market it, how to consume it. The school, which has a curriculum, classes and teachers, claims 3,500 graduates.
Lee also owns a medical marijuana dispensary, a coffee house, a large indoor marijuana plantation, and a museum/store devoted to the cause of legalizing marijuana.
“I really see this as following the history of alcohol. The way prohibition was repealed there,” Lee says, adding that he believes he is close to achieving his mission.
Lee is organizing a petition drive to place a marijuana legalization measure on the ballot in 2010, and he thinks the measure stands a good chance of being approved by voters.
A recent California Field Poll showed that more than half the people in the state, where marijuana for medical use was approved more than a decade ago, would approve of decriminalizing pot.
The state’s faltering economy is one reason why. If legalized, marijuana could become California’s No. 1 cash crop. It could bring in an estimated $1 billion a year in state taxes.
Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is spearheading a cannabis legalization bill in the California Assembly. He believes the state’s need to increase tax revenues will work in his bill’s favor.
“I think it’s a seductive part of the equation,” he says.
Ammiano says there are a number of ways legalized pot could be marketed, “It could be a Walgreens, it could be a hospital, a medical marijuana facility, whatever could be convenient. Adequate enforcement of the rules. Nobody under 21. No driving under the influence.”
Even California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says legalizing marijuana deserves serious consideration.
“I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana,” Schwarzenegger says.
But Ammiano says selling a legalized marijuana bill to his fellow legislators remains a delicate matter.
“If we held the vote in the hallway, we’d have it done,” Ammiano says. “But people are necessarily cautious. They are up for re-election.”
And that is why Lee believes voters will approve a marijuana initiative long before the state Assembly acts. Sitting under grow lights in a warehouse filled with hundreds of marijuana plants, Lee sums it up this way: “For some people cannabis is like a religion. As passionate as some people are about their religions and freedom to think what they want and to worship as they want.”
But all of that is baloney to Paul Chabot. He is president of the Coalition for a Drug Free California. He says voters should not be fooled by promises of big bucks flowing to the state from marijuana taxes.
“It’s their way of sort of desensitizing our communities, our state and our nation to a drug problem that we clearly need to put our foot down on, and say, ‘No more. Enough is enough.’ ”
Chabot points out that California’s medical marijuana law has been poorly regulated, and he expects more of the same if marijuana becomes legalized for everyone.
But a substantial number of Californians seem to believe that no amount of enforcement is going to make pot go away — and that it’s time for the state to begin taking a cut of the action.
By Chuck Conder | cnn
|
1 comment
Write a Comment
Related posts:
- High Stakes: A Call to Legalize Marijuana
- Legal pot could generate $1.4 billion in revenue, tax board says
- California sprouts marijuana ‘green rush’
- He’s Not High: Inside Barney Frank’s Plan to Legalize Marijuana
- Senate commission to study marijuana decriminalization
Jeff
2 Aug 09 at 2:53 am
If marijuana were to become totally legal in California it would be regulated rather than available to anyone through a dealer. Of course there will be people buying it for underage teens just like alcohol and cigarettes are today. But there would be a substantially less amount of marijuana finding its way into the wrong hands if it were legal, taxed and regulated. Legalizing marijuana would 1) Cause the collapse of the Marijuana Black Market, the financial base for all other illegal drug production and smuggling 2) It will add Billions to the California taxes 3) We would save Billions of dollars in unneeded police enforcement, prosecution, courts and prison population. To keep marijuana in Schedule I by the federal & state governments isn’t helping. Why do the states that have legal Medical Marijuana continue to classify it in Schedule I? Are they afraid of the Feds? Your guess is as good as mine. However right now in Iowa the Iowa Board of Pharmacy is looking at the issue of Medical Marijuana for Iowa. They can only give a recommendation to the legislature, then they will vote on SF 293 Medical Marijuana For Iowa in 2010. But that still does not address the scheduling issue. In Iowa marijuana is in both Schedule I and II. How can a drug be in both classifications? It can’t because Schedule I says, “Does not have accepted medical use for treatment within the United States, nor is it safe for medical use even under the supervision of a doctor.” Whereas Schedule II says, “Has accepted medical use for treatment within the United States, is highly psychological and/or physically dependent.” Example: Coca Leaves and Poppy Straw are both in Schedule II but they are not legal to prescribe. They are in Schedule II for the narcotic analgesics that are made from them. Then there’s the ever curious question. “Why does the Federal Gov say marijuana has no medical use while supplying the four surviving members of the IND program, shut down by G.W. Bush, when AIDS patients realized the therapeutic value of marijuana and flooded the IND program for DEA approved Medical Marijuana. Why does the Federal Gov keep no medical records of these patients? Why do these Federally Approved Medical Marijuana Patients have to smoke the marijuana supplied to them by the DEA? That’s right! If you vaporize it or eat it you are breaking the law, it can only be smoked, plus the joints are stored in a metal can, sealed with wax and stored in a freezer for 10 years before being shipped to patients. Prescription directions read, “Smoke one cigarette, as needed, for pain/nausea, not to exceed more than one marijuana cigarette per hour.” And they can sit in there car, even behind the wheel while driving, and legally smoke their marijuana (complete with stems, seeds and safety.) Yet in most states if you are arrested for under an ounce of marijuana possession, as in Iowa, it is a serious misdemeanor and they automatically pull your drivers license for one year. California DOT studies showed that people who consume alcohol 2 hours prior to driving will have a 40% better chance of getting into an accident. Those who smoke marijuana 2 hours prior to driving are 9% more likely to have an accident. BUT!!! Those who are cold sober have a 22% chance of getting into an auto accident. That’s right, people under the influence of marijuana are safer drivers than are sober ones. There are to many contradictions from the Federal Gov regarding marijuana/medical marijuana. Politicians have no right to tell doctors what they can or cannot prescribe for their patients. Therefore Marijuana Prohibition is politicians practicing medicine without a license. Last time I checked that was illegal. Hmmm…imagine that?