Signatures gathered to put legalizing and taxing pot on the ballot

[eridani]

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/politics/144561/huge_signature_gathering_success_sends_pot_legalization_to_ballot

The Tax & Regulate Cannabis 2010 campaign has just achieved a major victory in its efforts to legalize marijuana for all adults in California -- they have gathered the signatures necessary for inclusion on the state's November ballot.

"This is the next step to sane cannabis policies and the end to the hypocrisy and unjust prohibition of cannabis," pot entrepreneur Richard Lee told me Monday morning. He is the co-proponent and a major sponsor of the Tax Cannabis initiative and the force -- and money -- behind Oaksterdam, the successful marijuana-friendly section of Oakland.

This win means that Californians will be the first in the nation to decide whether they believe marijuana ought be taxed and regulated for all adults over 21, much the same way alcohol is.


The drug reform movement's eyes will be on California next year, because many advocates believe that if the initiative passes, many other states could follow.

Support for marijuana legalization is at an all-time high, with polls ranging from 44 to 52 percent national support. In California, where marijuana has been legalized for medical use since 1996, 56 percent support legalization.

This may be why the campaign's organizers were able to gather so many signatures -- nearly 700,000 -- so quickly. Lee tells me the signature-gathering effort was launched only two months before they had achieved that massive number, although legally they were allotted five months to come up with the signatures. Lee collected a couple hundred himself.

[dysfunctional press]

1. it would be yet another boon to their tourist industry.

but i expect that it will be a lot like the prop 8 battle, with out-of-state religoids pouring in a lot of money and effort to attempt to defeat it.

[dhpgetsit]

2. I don't support it.

I do think that Marijuana should be legalized. One of the big reasons is that legalizing Marijuana, and allowing people to grow it at home will take a major revenue stream out of the hands of drug gangs.

If a Marijuana tax is imposed, ther drug gangs still have a revenue stream.

[eridani]

4. I think that with legal pot, there will be muich more research into medicinal uses

I think people would pay extra for a high diol strain that was good at making it easier to fall asleep, for instance. I'd forgo homegrown for that.

[ixion]

5. not necessarily...people make their own beer and wine, grow their own tobacco

so there would be folks who would grow their own pot.

The other thing is that if it's legalized, despite the tax, it would be very difficult -- e.g. unprofitable -- for gangs to continue to distribute.

You don't see bootleg whiskey much anymore for this reason.

[rurallib]

9. But bootlegging smokes is a huge business

or it was a couple years ago. And the reason was taxes.
Smokes are probably easier to smuggle because they are small.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. You mean stolen cigs that were untaxed

show me any evidence of people actually manufacturing bootleg Marlboros and we can talk. People steal cigs, take them from state to state. Avoid tax. And of course there are millions of smokers who would never touch a cig from outside the mainstream you know.

The only people I know who try to foist off the idea that legal means I can not grow in my garden, nor buy from the most skilled makers just as the wine industry does are people who make profit from the illegal status. They are always sure that 'legal' means utter control, and they are very, very wrong and they know they are just protecting their prohibition dollars.

[rurallib]

13. Used to be huge discrepencies in taxes among states

I live in Iowa. At one time we had more than a dollar a pack difference in cig price between Iowa and Missouri. I think it was even higher in Illinois.
Legally, a person could only bring 10 cartons across the border. But there were those who would fill trucks and bring them back to sell.
I was in Canada when they passed a tax that put smokes at @$6/pack. Every day truck after truck would be stopped at the border full of smokes purchased in North Carolina which had little or no tax at the time.

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Just getting around the tax on pot will not be enough incentive for

drug gangs to keep their illegal trade going. There just won't be enough profit in it for them.

Think about it, if you're going to buy legal pot you're not going to even call your illegal drug dealer to find out if he has any stuff. You're going straight to the legal retail store that sells it. Just like if I'm going to buy beer. I don't start by looking around for some illegal tax free beer, I just go buy it and pay the tax.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. This sounds good and all that

but the problem is the feds. Certain counties and municipalities (San Diego, San Bernardino, Fresno, Mariposa) are prohibiting or severely limiting dispensaries from either opening up or continuing to operate based on the fact it is still illegal on the federal level. The argument goes like this: Dispensaries must comply with both state and federal law in order to operate. Of course, state and federal laws are in direct opposition of one another so that gives them the authority to close down the dispensaries.

California and other states can pass law after law in regards to MM or even legalizing and taxing it, but until the feds re-classify it, counties and municipalities will continue to find ways to prohibit dispensaries from opening up or operating. All I've heard from Holder has is that he isn't going to prosecute MM growers but has made no move (and nothing from the WH) to indicate any change in the classification.

[eridani]

6. Maybe the people will lead and the government would have to follow? n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

7. My guess is

that budgets are going to be further slashed on the state and federal level that there just isn't going to be law enforcement enough to go after the neighborhood guy growing 12 plants in his back yard -- multiplied by millions, of course, because there's just too much money to NOT do it. So, yeah, I think you're right.

[lunatica]

8. It's not just for smoking ya know

Which is why my signature is on that ballot petition

[pleah]

11. K&R