Jacob Bell
New Member
The consumption and cultivation of cannabis, better known as marijuana, is a federal drug offense.
However, the growing national awareness of marijuana's beneficial value as a medicine, agricultural commodity and safer recreational intoxicant, has moved 23 states and the District of Columbia to adopt more humane decriminalization and/or medical marijuana laws that attempt to override federal jurisdiction.
In addition to its precedent setting California Compassionate Use Act (SB 215), the new state law SB1449 essentially reduces possession of an ounce or less of non-medical marijuana to the same status as a minor traffic violation. Yet even California state government has not moved as swiftly and directly as the city of Oakland in amending and removing penalties for peaceful recreational adult marijuana use and transaction. Even before deciding to temporarily suspend implementation of a new city ordinance licensing four large-scale marijuana cultivation operations, Oakland had already adopted and demonstrated Measure Z, perhaps the most progressive marijuana-related city ordinance in the entire country.
Passed in the November 2004 election by an overwhelming 62.5 percent majority, Measure Z required that the city of Oakland do the following:
1. Make law enforcement related to private adult cannabis use the lowest law enforcement priority;
2. Lobby to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis for adult private use, distribution, sale, cultivation and possession;
3. License, tax and regulate cannabis sales if California law is amended to allow and authorize such actions; and
4. Create a Community Committee to oversee the ordinance's implementation and effect.
In the six years since passage, Measure Z has slowly, but surely, influenced the policies it is intended to impact. In a June 2009 committee report, the latest available online, it states, "the Committee met with Assistant Chief of Police Howard Jordan and Lieutenant Darren Allison to discuss an OPD report on marijuana arrests in Oakland between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007 ... When asked if the City's lowest priority policy helped OPD focus on violent crimes, AC Jordan answered affirmatively."
The city of Oakland is at the forefront of envisioning and implementing successful alternatives to the abomination that is our current national drug policy. For that reason alone, it may be facing the brunt of renewed repression by the DEA as a national wave of drug law reform builds toward 2012.
One thing, however, is certain: If there is any David in this country that has the will to confront a Goliath, it is the city of Oakland.
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: oaklandlocal.com
Author: Cynthia Gaffney
Contact: Contact | Oakland Local
Copyright: Oakland Local
Website: Oakland 'ahead of its time' with views on legalized marijuana (Community Voices) | Oakland Local
However, the growing national awareness of marijuana's beneficial value as a medicine, agricultural commodity and safer recreational intoxicant, has moved 23 states and the District of Columbia to adopt more humane decriminalization and/or medical marijuana laws that attempt to override federal jurisdiction.
In addition to its precedent setting California Compassionate Use Act (SB 215), the new state law SB1449 essentially reduces possession of an ounce or less of non-medical marijuana to the same status as a minor traffic violation. Yet even California state government has not moved as swiftly and directly as the city of Oakland in amending and removing penalties for peaceful recreational adult marijuana use and transaction. Even before deciding to temporarily suspend implementation of a new city ordinance licensing four large-scale marijuana cultivation operations, Oakland had already adopted and demonstrated Measure Z, perhaps the most progressive marijuana-related city ordinance in the entire country.
Passed in the November 2004 election by an overwhelming 62.5 percent majority, Measure Z required that the city of Oakland do the following:
1. Make law enforcement related to private adult cannabis use the lowest law enforcement priority;
2. Lobby to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis for adult private use, distribution, sale, cultivation and possession;
3. License, tax and regulate cannabis sales if California law is amended to allow and authorize such actions; and
4. Create a Community Committee to oversee the ordinance's implementation and effect.
In the six years since passage, Measure Z has slowly, but surely, influenced the policies it is intended to impact. In a June 2009 committee report, the latest available online, it states, "the Committee met with Assistant Chief of Police Howard Jordan and Lieutenant Darren Allison to discuss an OPD report on marijuana arrests in Oakland between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007 ... When asked if the City's lowest priority policy helped OPD focus on violent crimes, AC Jordan answered affirmatively."
The city of Oakland is at the forefront of envisioning and implementing successful alternatives to the abomination that is our current national drug policy. For that reason alone, it may be facing the brunt of renewed repression by the DEA as a national wave of drug law reform builds toward 2012.
One thing, however, is certain: If there is any David in this country that has the will to confront a Goliath, it is the city of Oakland.
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: oaklandlocal.com
Author: Cynthia Gaffney
Contact: Contact | Oakland Local
Copyright: Oakland Local
Website: Oakland 'ahead of its time' with views on legalized marijuana (Community Voices) | Oakland Local
