California Considers Marijuana Legalization: When Will Philly and PA Wake Up?
Tom Ammiano wants to effectively legalize– and tax — California’s trade in cannabis.
AB 390 “would remove all penalties in California law on cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, or use of marijuana, natural THC, or paraphernalia for persons over the age of 21,” Ammiano’s press secretary Quintin Mecke told the San Francisco Weekly…
“California has the opportunity to be the first state in the nation to enact a smart, responsible public policy for the control and regulation of marijuana,” he said.
Mecke suggested taxes on the trade could amount to $1 billion according to advocates.
And I’d bet that’s a conservative estimate.
“With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense,” Ammiano said at a morning news conference at the state building on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.
Estimates value the state’s crop of marijuana at $13.8 billion, double that of the vegetable and grape markets combined. Nationwide, it may be the fourth largest cash crop, behind corn, soy and hay but ahead of wheat.
If passed, the law wouldn’t just generate new revenue, it would SAVE money too, by taking pressure off California’s overextended and inhumane prison system, freeing up the police to pursue actual dangerous criminals, and allowing otherwise productive citizens to enjoy a relatively harmless vice without risking prison, the loss of student loans, and a truncated career brought on by incarceration.
Will Philadelphia and Pennsylvania EVER wake up?
Not a chance: our legislators are stupid, old, narrow-minded, and short sighted.
