Docs want legal marijuana too
LOS ANGELES – FAR from being a war between hippies and police, the fight to legalize marijuana in California centers on whether decriminalizing and taxing cannabis can help fill the state’s fiscal hole.
Using the drug for medical purposes has been legal for 14 years in the western state. But a new initiative that will appear on the ballot in November elections is seeking to legalize recreational marijuana use.
The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 would let cities and counties adopt ordinances authorizing the cultivation, transportation and sale of marijuana, and tax its sale just like it taxes alcohol and cigarettes. Supporters are hoping the potential tax windfall will help garner support for the measure at a time when California is suffering from a crippling budget crisis.
The debate is heating up, with supporters and opponents investing millions of dollars in their cause amid rising concerns the campaign could have a nationwide impact on relaxing drug laws. ‘Due to the economic downturn voters realize we cannot afford to waste money locking up people for something that is safer than alcohol,’ said Salwa Ibrahim, executive assistant at Oakland’s Oaksterdam University, which holds classes to train students to grow pot and run marijuana businesses.
Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee, a well-known marijuana activist who founded the school in 2007, paid US$1.3 million (S$1.82 million) to sponsor the campaign to place marijuana legalization on the ballot in November, when Californians will also choose a new governor to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger. That made the school the initiative’s main sponsor. Ibrahim noted that most of the funds came from student tuition and from other activists who support controlling and taxing cannabis.
Activists estimate that California could earn US$1.5 billion in excise taxes, and save another billion dollars currently spent on law enforcement and prisons by legalizing cannabis. They also point to earnings for marijuana-linked businesses. Legalization proponents say marijuana possession arrests have risen dramatically in California over the past two decades. Critics insist the measure will raise virtually no tax money.