Assembly Committee OKs Recreational Marijuana

[Weedpipe]

California - A bill to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana - and allow the drug to be sold and taxed in California - cleared a key hurdle this morning, as the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 to move it to the next step in the debate. But a Friday legislative deadline could mean the legislation will die before making it to the Assembly floor.

Members of the committee who approved the bill are all from the Bay Area and said they did not necessarily support the plan but wanted debate on the state's marijuana policy to continue.

After the vote, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who sponsored the bill and chairs the committee, said "the conversation is definitely gaining traction in Sacramento."

"This is a significant vote today because it legitimizes the quest for debate, the quest for discussion. There was a time when the 'm' word never would have been brought up in Sacramento," Ammiano said.

The bill, AB390, would allow possession, sale and cultivation of marijuana for people over 21, and impose a $50-an-ounce sales tax on marijuana, much like taxes on tobacco and alcohol. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control would be tasked with regulation.

San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer, who is acting president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said she was "disappointed" by the committee's action.

"I think we need to have the full dialogue in debunking the myths," she said, predicting the social costs would outweigh any tax gains.

While the bill moved out of committee, Ammiano would need special permission to have it heard in the health committee before a Friday deadline for this piece of legislation. It would have to pass out of that committee before it would be heard by the full Assembly.

The vote in Sacramento comes as state lawmakers in New Jersey on Monday made that state one of the few on the East Coast to approve medicinal marijuana use. Up north in Olympia, the Washington State Legislature will consider two bills tomorrow to remove state criminal penalties associated with marijuana.

Voting yes were Ammiano, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. Voting no were Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Gardena (Los Angeles County), Assemblyman Danny Gilmore, R-Hanford (Kings County) and Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills (San Bernardino County).



News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: SFGate
Author: Wyatt Buchanan
Contact: SFGate
Copyright: 2010 Hearst Communications Inc.
Website:Assembly committee OKs recreational marijuana

 

[ol hippy]

What social costs ?

 

[RPsmoke]

My big concern, what will the feds do ?

Yes, this should be a state matter, but the feds stick their nose in anything drug related. Wonder what they will do? Wonder what Big Pharma is doing? Private prisons? Alcohol companies? Too many powerful lobbies standing in the way, but we will see.

 

[farmboy420]

At a time when California could use the $$ from taxing and regulating this should be a no brainer. Maybe the ones that voted no should be looking for jobs in another field when they are up for election. One of them is in my area and I will for sure vote against him next election.

 

[Bonehead]

I believe this to be the claim before the storm. Today was the first time any legislative body has voted in favor of ending marijuana prohibition. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of prohibition. Unfortunately, AB 390 is going to died in committee because the time limit to hold hearings has ended. It's OK, Armmiano will introduce another bill this year. We also have at least one ballot measure dealing with prohibition and possibly more. At least 2010 is starting out on the right foot. (NJ passes MMJ legislation & California has a historic vote)

 

[ilynnboy]

I know I really don't want croporate america to get a hold on our babies either, but would you rather it be an unregulated item( dope dealers don't check i.d ) or just remain illegal? I for one would rather see all those farms down south growing cannabis than tobacco,wouldn't you? What a sight it would be!!! I think a well regulated cannabis indusrty would be a great thing for this country. You can still brew beer or ferment grapes into wine can't you? I don't see why we wouldn't be able to grow our own.Their are a lot of lazy(or just time constrained) people who would readily pay $100 for a pack of hawaiians. Twenty cig sized doobs for $100 what a bargain. My family used to grow tobacco in Tennessee, I think we got like $1.97 a pound for a dry and cured product.. So we let the poverty stricken farmers grow it for like $ 10 a pound, a 5 fold increase in their bottom line.I just think it can be a good thing for us all.
peace out.

 

[MR.keifbox]

better grow alot because ones its no longer ileagal you will have to jump through hoops and pay out the ass to grow your own. the state wants the money and its going to be illegle to grow just like its illegal to make shine....

 

[Bonehead]

better grow alot because ones its no longer ileagal you will have to jump through hoops and pay out the ass to grow your own. the state wants the money and its going to be illegle to grow just like its illegal to make shine....

Here in California, whether it is through the state or a proposition, both have language that allows an individual to grow. AB 390 (which is dead in the assembly) takes away the criminal aspect but unless the Federal Gov't's laws change, it only allows individuals the right to grow. There will be no retail shops selling MJ unless the law changes at the federal level. There is show much money tied to the grow arena. From the seeds, to the lights, to the nutrients, this industry is not going away. Marijuana users whether it's medical or recreational, deserve to be treated better. It's time to end this war.

 

[Irish]

I honestly don't know enough about it, but what I am afraid is going to happen is that with legalization will come commercialization. There will be weed brands and weed will become just like tobacco. I don't want big american companies to add tons of carcinogenic chemicals. I want pure, potent, natural bud. Does everyone else shudder when you think of walking into a gas station and seeing a metalic pack of weed on the wall with "NOW 10% MORE FREE!!" printed on the front? Its unnatural and wrong and the thought almost makes me sick.

I for one would like to see cannabis totally unregulated, even if big business thinks it can get it's finger in the pie. I don't want nor need for some regulatory committee to decide what I do with my garden and charge me bank for what I do grow. This is a budding new industry--they don't know how to regulate it or when or why. Start unregulated, let the boom happen, and it will all sort itself out in time. Creativity should not and cannot be regulated if it is to discover the best way though....

 

[ol hippy]

I honestly don't know enough about it, but what I am afraid is going to happen is that with legalization will come commercialization. There will be weed brands and weed will become just like tobacco. I don't want big american companies to add tons of carcinogenic chemicals. I want pure, potent, natural bud. Does everyone else shudder when you think of walking into a gas station and seeing a metalic pack of weed on the wall with "NOW 10% MORE FREE!!" printed on the front? Its unnatural and wrong and the thought almost makes me sick.

I too would hate to see that happen , but if it does I'll still be growin and smokin my own !!

 

[Medifreddie]

I honestly don't know enough about it, but what I am afraid is going to happen is that with legalization will come commercialization. There will be weed brands and weed will become just like tobacco. I don't want big american companies to add tons of carcinogenic chemicals. I want pure, potent, natural bud. Does everyone else shudder when you think of walking into a gas station and seeing a metalic pack of weed on the wall with "NOW 10% MORE FREE!!" printed on the front? Its unnatural and wrong and the thought almost makes me sick.

Wake up folks...The MJ movement IS ALREADY commercialized. Dispensaries, delivery services, clone vendors, medicine growers/suppliers, grow shops, medical marijuana approved physicians, lawyers, nute manufacturers, hardware manufacturers & vendors and even the little ol lady down the street bakin edibles for the local dispensary. We are all, in some form or another, carving up a piece of the mj cash cow. Full legalization? What ever happened to simply taking care of the sick and dying? MF

 

[Irish]

Wake up folks...The MJ movement IS ALREADY commercialized. Dispensaries, delivery services, clone vendors, medicine growers/suppliers, grow shops, medical marijuana approved physicians, lawyers, nute manufacturers, hardware manufacturers & vendors and even the little ol lady down the street bakin edibles for the local dispensary. We are all, in some form or another, carving up a piece of the mj cash cow. Full legalization? What ever happened to simply taking care of the sick and dying? MF

The sick and dying are still basically criminals for their cannabis use until it's fully legal. Those that care for these people, those that take care of themselves by growing their own, are still quasi-criminals and the grey area of the "law" so huge any one of us can find ourselves on the inside of a prison cell if law enforcement and the justice system isn't called off. Legalize is the only way to definitively help the sick and dying.....

 

[RPsmoke]

Looks like SF doesn't want to wait. They may have something on the ballot for their June elections for legalization and taxation.

City, Too, Could Legalize it, Regulate It, Tax the shit out of it

(it being the reefer)



Most California voters will have to wait until November to voice their pleasure or displeasure on legalizing and taxing marijuana for adult use.

But not San Francisco -- we're the city that knows how to use the June election. While it's neither binding nor does it actually, uh, DO anything, city voters could have the opportunity to say yea or nay this summer on a policy statement that would make it official city policy "to license, regulate and tax the cultivation and sale of cannabis" and to make adult-use OK for adult smokers 21 and over, whether or not they have an ailment for which marijuana can be recommended.

Keep in mind marijuana cultivation is already perfectly legal for some people; under Proposition 215 an approved medical marijuana patient can grow pot. But there's no rules or regulations controlling grow operations big or small, and the result is sometimes messy: growhouses can catch fire and burn down, pointed out Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who introduced the measure on Tuesday.

Any local push to legalize will of course have to wait until legalization doesn't violate state law. But taxation can happen now -- last year, Oakland passed a law allowing taxation on medical marijuana proceeds.

Mirkarimi said he's not yet sure how big an operation will have to be to be taxed, but that "We don't need the state to regulate (medical grows).... and regulation needs to happen. And then once we do that, we should capitalize on the obvious through taxation."

A likely scenario would be as follows, surmises Dale Gieringer, director of California's National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (CALNORML): a cannabis collective would apply for a permit and pay a fee, city officials would investigate to make sure all is proper, and then grow operations could enjoy protection from both drug enforcement busts AND thievery.

Imagine: being able to call the cops to report a break-in at your marijuana farm?

Not all medical patients will enjoy being taxed, of course. "The devil's in the details," Gieringer said. "Medical patients don't take kindly to paying tax on their medicine."

However, for larger, collective or cooperative-style grows, city regulation could mean saving money. "City approval means grows could no longer be burdened" with secrecy and operating under the radar, "and costs of pot could go down."

by Chris Roberts
Article from S.F Appeal Online Newspaper
January 12, 2010 5:44 PM

 

[CyScorpion]

I honestly don't know enough about it, but what I am afraid is going to happen is that with legalization will come commercialization. There will be weed brands and weed will become just like tobacco. I don't want big american companies to add tons of carcinogenic chemicals. I want pure, potent, natural bud. Does everyone else shudder when you think of walking into a gas station and seeing a metalic pack of weed on the wall with "NOW 10% MORE FREE!!" printed on the front? Its unnatural and wrong and the thought almost makes me sick.

There is nothing you can do to stop this from happening, but as time goes on just like in this idea:

I for one would like to see cannabis totally unregulated, even if big business thinks it can get it's finger in the pie. I don't want nor need for some regulatory committee to decide what I do with my garden and charge me bank for what I do grow. This is a budding new industry--they don't know how to regulate it or when or why. Start unregulated, let the boom happen, and it will all sort itself out in time. Creativity should not and cannot be regulated if it is to discover the best way though....

They will be literally weeded out

 

[Medifreddie]

I for one would like to see cannabis totally unregulated, even if big business thinks it can get it's finger in the pie. I don't want nor need for some regulatory committee to decide what I do with my garden and charge me bank for what I do grow. This is a budding new industry--they don't know how to regulate it or when or why. Start unregulated, let the boom happen, and it will all sort itself out in time. Creativity should not and cannot be regulated if it is to discover the best way though....

Oh my good neighbor down the hill...Your garden is already regulated and if the weed is freed, your Oasis will still be regulated and most likely more so. Personally, unregulated gardening scares the hell out of me simply because in our "budding new industry", left to our own devices & discretions, it will surely be the wild wild west all over again, not that it isnt currently such. Just like the Prop 215 debacle, give us the "freed weed" Big Brother mandatory do's & don'ts, and we will all busy ourselves figuring out the loopholes: By those with sincere intentions, those with evil intentions and of course, by the ever-present number of those who are just plain dumb.... MF

 

[Medifreddie]

The sick and dying are still basically criminals for their cannabis use until it's fully legal. Those that care for these people, those that take care of themselves by growing their own, are still quasi-criminals and the grey area of the "law" so huge any one of us can find ourselves on the inside of a prison cell if law enforcement and the justice system isn't called off. Legalize is the only way to definitively help the sick and dying.....

Hey now! I'm not a quasi-criminal and you stop sayin that! A Quasi-Moto perhaps but a quasi-criminal? Ah, say it aint so Joe, say it aint so...LOL MF

 

[Irish]

Oh my good neighbor down the hill...Your garden is already regulated and if the weed is freed, your Oasis will still be regulated and most likely more so. Personally, unregulated gardening scares the hell out of me simply because in our "budding new industry", left to our own devices & discretions, it will surely be the wild wild west all over again, not that it isnt currently such. Just like the Prop 215 debacle, give us the "freed weed" Big Brother mandatory do's & don'ts, and we will all busy ourselves figuring out the loopholes: By those with sincere intentions, those with evil intentions and of course, by the ever-present number of those who are just plain dumb.... MF

My dear friend up the hill, I know my garden is already regulated, and I'm hating every minute of it! I want, no, I need to be free to discover which plants work the best for my medical conditions, and six plants per grow does not help me develop and dial in the properties that help me the most. If I want to seriously get into breeding cannabis plants to create my own strains, the constraints of 6 mature or 12 immature plants make the whole process very slow and cumbersome, and the 8oz "legal" limit (though my dr recommends 6lbs) totally unrealistic (since my 6 plants yield a bit more than a pound each). Being an organic outdoor grower with ONE harvest per year makes it almost impossible to try without compromising the crop. And lastly, to do what I want to do with my grows would be an automatic trip to jail without passing GO and collecting that $200 if I went ahead and did what I want to do here with the grey area so vast and the "regulators" so ignorant. More regulation than we have now?

NO!!! A thousand times NO. Free the weed. It's the only right thing to do.

 

[Irish]

Hey now! I'm not a quasi-criminal and you stop sayin that! A Quasi-Moto perhaps but a quasi-criminal? Ah, say it aint so Joe, say it aint so...LOL MF

 

[michaelkaer]

What social costs ?

The costs will go down if anything. Many people will stop smoking tobacco and slow down on the drinking , but make up for it in smoking more cannabis. The alcohol and tobacco industries will take a hit but over time that was the trend anyway. Is that the social costs the police officer was referring to? Cannabis is safer and has been proven to cure cancer and a whole host of other illnesses. The social cost NOT to legalize it is costing Trillions.

 

[Hogdady]

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Winston Churchill