Everybody must get stoned (Salon)

[kpete]

Everybody must get stoned

A new plan to legalize marijuana in California would create a $1 billion tokin' tax and thousands of green jobs. Now that's a stimulus plan!

By Katharine Mieszkowski

March 3, 2009 | Can Californians help dig themselves out of their historic fiscal crisis by getting high? Tom Ammiano thinks so, and he isn't smoking a thing.

On Feb. 23, the California State Assembly member introduced legislation that would regulate the cultivation and sale of marijuana, and then tax it. By legalizing pot, the San Francisco lawmaker argues, the state could reap huge new revenues. Currently pot is California's biggest cash crop, with annual sales reaching $14 billion. Vegetables, the state's second hottest agricultural product, take in a mere $5.7 billion. And California's famous grapes? A piddling $2.6 billion.

If passed, the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act would give California control of pot in a manner similar to alcohol, while prohibiting its purchase to citizens under age 21. The state's tax collectors estimate the measure would bring in about $1.3 billion in new revenues a year.

Ammiano, a former schoolteacher and stand-up comedian, has been one of the most famous activists and politicians in San Francisco for decades. In the late '70s, he jump-started the movement against the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned gay teachers in California (he appeared as himself in the film "Milk"), served on the San Francisco Board of Education, and later was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Salon recently spoke to him about why he thinks making pot legit would have California smiling.

interview here:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/03/03/legalize_marijuana/

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Proud to be the first to Rec!

K&R!

[seemslikeadream]

2. Everybody must get stoned

[scarletwoman]

3. Proud to be the 4th rec and 2nd kick -- okay, 3rd kick.

:smoke:

[TahitiNut]

4. Bob Dylan RULEZ!

They'll stone you when you're trying to be so good
They'll stone you just like they said they would
They'll stone you when you're trying to go home
They'll stone you when you're there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

They'll stone you when you're walking on the street
They'll stone you when you're trying to keep your seat
They'll stone you when your walking on the floor
They'll stone you when your walking to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

They'll stone you when you're at the breakfast table
They'll stone you when you are young and able
They'll stone you when you're trying to make a buck
They'll stone you and then they'll say good luck
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

Well They'll stone you and say that it's the end
They'll stone you and then they'll come back again
They'll stone you when you're riding in your car
They'll stone you when you're playing you guitar
Yes But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Alright

Well They'll stone you when you are all alone
They'll stone you when you are walking home
They'll stone you and then say they're all brave
They'll stone you when you're send down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

[serrano2008]

5. oh god. Please druggies do not use this as your theme song.

You'll make Bob roll over in his...um tour bus.

[stillcool]

7. Druggies don't have any theme song..

our spirits are too free for that kind of shit.

[regnaD kciN]

10. Did you say "free"...?

FREE BIRD!!!!!

[TahitiNut]

11. I love that song. It's one of my favorites.

:party: :smoke:

[Royal Sloan 09]

6. K & R, Solution = Legalize

:wow:

Yes, We Cannabis!

:kick: :hippie: :smoke:

[FirstLight]

8. I want a T-Shirt that says that! "Yes we Cannabis!"

can someone please create a logo? with the CA state logo and the green bud leaf? OMG! that would be so cool!!!!

[Sequoia]

29. You are right on !!

NORML had a tshirt some years back with the CA logo and cannabis leaf.

[femrap]

9. This is such a no brainer....

I guess The Greater Depression has some benefits!

[bertman]

12. I'm all for it AS LONG AS this isn't just some tokin' effort by a bunch of hippies.

Maybe we should appoint a Joint Commission to smoke this over and then roll out something we can get our heads around.


B-)

[Wednesdays]

13. Relax...I'm sure it's a grass roots campaign

And they'll wrap this one up soon, once it gets in the papers.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

14. North Carolina wants in on that action...

or at least this North Carolinian does. We need the revenue!

Marijuana Production in the United States (2006)
http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr2/cashcrops.html

North Carolina
Marijuana $672,253
Tobacco $539,872
Cotton $306,317

States Scramble as Marijuana Becomes Biggest Cash Crop
http://hiphappy.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/marijuana-cash-crop/

[bertman]

16. Hey, I'm from N.C. also and I'd love to see us go all reefer-neutral. But I just cannot

figure out how they get all these VERY SPECIFIC dollar amounts for how much reefer N.C. or California or Utah grows every year. I mean, isn't this stuff illegal and don't people still try not to get caught growing and selling it and all?

I didn't know there was some kind of open exchange of reefer sales volume and price trends, like the Dow Jones Stoke Exchange.

.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

21. I don't know, but what the hell is going on with Tennessee?

Tennessee
Marijuana $4,787,250
Soybeans $277,861
Hay $252,365

Perhaps all those fine Duke/UNC/Vanderbilt/etc. economists are crunching numbers along with Jon Gettman of drugscience.org:

Jon Gettman received his PhD in public policy in 2000 from George Mason University, where his doctoral studies focused on regional economic development. Gettman earned his MS in justice from American University and his BA in anthropology from Catholic University.

[truedelphi]

24. What your saying is one important point to consider

I remember a friend of mine in college saying that he had been busted for the "Largest ever sale of LSD in the state of Florida."

And he was like thirteen at the time. It was just a simple sheet or two of LSD hits. How did they figure out how massive a score they'd made when they nabbed him?

[tridim]

15. Wouldn't it be cool if CA could export its famous Cannabis just like its "famous grapes"?

Here's hoping that CA passes this and opens some eyes around the planet.

[Qutzupalotl]

23. The Tokin' Doobies

truckin' like the Doo Dah man...

Do Re Mi

[leftstreet]

17. LET'S ROLL !!

:smoke:

[WorseBeforeBetter]

18. I vote for that, too. (n/t)

[Baikonour]

19. What a crazy state California has become.

Marijuana is about to be legalized (which I support), but homosexuals can't get married.

[n2doc]

25. Maybe if more people smoked pot they'd be less uptight about rights...

And prop 8 would fall.....

[Wiley50]

20. Bet that Dylan song would be a big hit in the Middle East and South Asia. The Taliban would KILL ove

[SlowDownFast]

22. K&R! n/t

[omega minimo]

26. The caffeine addict industry will be sure to fight this.

:donut:

[stuntcat]

27. stimulating stimulus :D

k, r

(I deleted a lot of crap I just typed right here about my uptight family members.. the worse you can imagine is what I was gonna say :)
They just need to keep in mind that my best friend lives in San Francisco and I might be happier over there than with them here)

[lame54]

28. have your pot and smoke it too...

Grow your own - avoid the tax

[lob1]

30. I want to see grass legalized, too, but $50 tax an ounce is way too much.

[Confusious]

31. I'm for legalization

But I'm not going to smoke it. Never agreed with me.

[Uncle Joe]

32. Kicked and recommended for sane, logical, common sense, freedom loving,

fiscally responsible, Bill of Right respecting, drug law reform.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.:thumbsup:

[navarth]

33. K & R for Sane Marijuana Laws

Today California

Tomorrow Michigan

[Prophet 451]

34. Been saying this for years

Between the economic, medical, law-enforcement and ecological advantages, keeping cannabis illegal is sheer madness.

Treat it the same way as booze: Age limited, licensed and taxed for sale and if some people want to grow their own (just as some, me included, brew their own beer), that's fine too.

[galledgoblin]

35. December 5th, 1933: 21st Amendment ratified, overturning alcohol prohibition

Obama walks in FDR's shoes in many ways already, I heartily approve of this step as well!!

[L0oniX]

36. K & R =====~~~

[Joey Liberal]

37. Rightwingers need Marijuana

The irony is that of all people, its the rightwingers that need to be toking up more than anyone else! LOL.

[kath]

38. Why age 21 - if age 18 is the age of majority, then ALL adults should be able to partake.

And yeah, the drinking age of 18 is bullshit too.

[bagrman]

39. In Oregon they want us to drink our way out.

They propose to raise the tax on a barrel of beer from $2.50 ish to $50.
Cheers

[byronius]

40. Great to see rationality on this issue at long last.

Not to mention all the federal money spent on investigation and incarceration. Jesus. Stupid waste.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

41. This should be done everywhere and the $ should go to education and health ONLY nt