Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
Chico - A past vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian party, speaking in Chico Tuesday, said the country's "drug policy of drug prohibition is the biggest failed policy in the history of the United States of America - second to slavery."
The former candidate, Jim Gray, a retired judge and author who ran alongside former Gov. Gary Johnson in 2012, called the term "controlled substance" an oxymoron, and he said he supports California's Proposition 64, which, if passed by voters Nov. 8, would legalize in the state recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and older and establish a sales tax for the drug.
While the specific proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in the state is not what he would have designed, Gray said, it's pretty good. "And in fact we as libertarians ... have a saying, that don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," he said. "Proposition 64 is pretty good."
Gray spoke to a crowd of about 30 Tuesday evening at the Chico City Council Chambers. The event was hosted by the Inland Cannabis Farmers Association, Butte County NAACP and the Chico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Earlier in the day he joined local proponents of a separate ballot initiative, Measure L, which would permit commercial cultivation of medical marijuana and dispensaries in unincorporated Butte County, as they addressed the county Board of Supervisors in Oroville. The board formally opposed Measure L at the meeting.
Back in Chico, Gray largely kept his remarks focused on Proposition 64 and his views regarding drug policies generally.
"I'm confident, if and when we pass Proposition 64 here in California this November, it will be the functional end of the national marijuana prohibition," he said. "I do not believe the federal government will be able to take this poke in the eye that we're going to give them."
Gray spoke to his experiences regarding drug prohibition problems. In his time as a judge, he said he remembers taking pleas from several defendants accused of crimes related to methamphetamine. He said at least one defendant told him that he became hooked on the drug after his supplier laced marijuana with meth.
"We all know that smoking cigarettes is harmful to your health, but at least when you go to your local minimart and buy a pack of Marlboros you're going to know it's not laced with methamphetamine," he said. "That is a drug prohibition problem. Getting accuracy in the marketplace, understanding the quantity, the quality, the strength of these various drugs - those are easily remedied."
Proposition 64 does have its opponents, including law enforcement groups, the California Hospital Association and the California District Attorneys Association.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, in a phone interview Wednesday, said he opposes the proposal for multiple reasons, including the danger it poses to public health and safety, as well as what he called poorly worded provisions in the initiative.
The premise of the proposed law is to regulate marijuana like tobacco, but it "doesn't have the same philosophy," Ramsey said, adding that Proposition 64 encourages the expansion of the marijuana industry.
"We talk about Big Tobacco. This would be Big Marijuana," he said.
The District Attorney also noted that a huge problem with the patchwork of marijuana laws across the country means a gray and black market will always exist. For example, he said marijuana grown in California may locally go for about $1,300 per pound. As one starts to drive east, where some states allow neither recreational nor medical marijuana use, that same pound could rise to a market value of $9,000.
"To say that marijuana would remain just in California is a mockery," he said.
Ramsey said proponents of recreational marijuana use are trying to get it right, but they haven't gotten it right yet.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Past Libertarian Veep Candidate Talks Marijuana Laws In Chico
Author: Andre Byik
Contact: 530.891.1234
Photo Credit: Jeff Chiu
Website: ChicoER
The former candidate, Jim Gray, a retired judge and author who ran alongside former Gov. Gary Johnson in 2012, called the term "controlled substance" an oxymoron, and he said he supports California's Proposition 64, which, if passed by voters Nov. 8, would legalize in the state recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and older and establish a sales tax for the drug.
While the specific proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in the state is not what he would have designed, Gray said, it's pretty good. "And in fact we as libertarians ... have a saying, that don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," he said. "Proposition 64 is pretty good."
Gray spoke to a crowd of about 30 Tuesday evening at the Chico City Council Chambers. The event was hosted by the Inland Cannabis Farmers Association, Butte County NAACP and the Chico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Earlier in the day he joined local proponents of a separate ballot initiative, Measure L, which would permit commercial cultivation of medical marijuana and dispensaries in unincorporated Butte County, as they addressed the county Board of Supervisors in Oroville. The board formally opposed Measure L at the meeting.
Back in Chico, Gray largely kept his remarks focused on Proposition 64 and his views regarding drug policies generally.
"I'm confident, if and when we pass Proposition 64 here in California this November, it will be the functional end of the national marijuana prohibition," he said. "I do not believe the federal government will be able to take this poke in the eye that we're going to give them."
Gray spoke to his experiences regarding drug prohibition problems. In his time as a judge, he said he remembers taking pleas from several defendants accused of crimes related to methamphetamine. He said at least one defendant told him that he became hooked on the drug after his supplier laced marijuana with meth.
"We all know that smoking cigarettes is harmful to your health, but at least when you go to your local minimart and buy a pack of Marlboros you're going to know it's not laced with methamphetamine," he said. "That is a drug prohibition problem. Getting accuracy in the marketplace, understanding the quantity, the quality, the strength of these various drugs - those are easily remedied."
Proposition 64 does have its opponents, including law enforcement groups, the California Hospital Association and the California District Attorneys Association.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, in a phone interview Wednesday, said he opposes the proposal for multiple reasons, including the danger it poses to public health and safety, as well as what he called poorly worded provisions in the initiative.
The premise of the proposed law is to regulate marijuana like tobacco, but it "doesn't have the same philosophy," Ramsey said, adding that Proposition 64 encourages the expansion of the marijuana industry.
"We talk about Big Tobacco. This would be Big Marijuana," he said.
The District Attorney also noted that a huge problem with the patchwork of marijuana laws across the country means a gray and black market will always exist. For example, he said marijuana grown in California may locally go for about $1,300 per pound. As one starts to drive east, where some states allow neither recreational nor medical marijuana use, that same pound could rise to a market value of $9,000.
"To say that marijuana would remain just in California is a mockery," he said.
Ramsey said proponents of recreational marijuana use are trying to get it right, but they haven't gotten it right yet.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Past Libertarian Veep Candidate Talks Marijuana Laws In Chico
Author: Andre Byik
Contact: 530.891.1234
Photo Credit: Jeff Chiu
Website: ChicoER
