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Sacramento, CA – The California Secretary of State today announced that the Initiative to Control and Tax cannabis has qualified for the November ballot. Reflecting the Initiative’s broad and diverse support, the Secretary of State revealed that vastly more than enough signatures were submitted from voters from across the state in near-record time.

The news was hailed by a number of veteran law enforcement officials across California. “As a retired Orange County Judge, I've been on the front lines of the drug war for three decades, and I know from experience that the current approach is simply not working,” said Retired Superior Court Judge James P. Gray. “Controlling marijuana with regulations similar to those currently in place for alcohol will put street drug dealers and organized crime out of business.”

“The Control and Tax Initiative is a welcome change for law enforcement in California,” said Kyle Kazan, a retired Torrance Police Officer. “It will allow police to get back to work fighting violent crime.”

Jeffrey Studdard, a former Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff, emphasized the significant controls created by the Control and Tax Initiative to safely and responsibly regulate cannabis. “The initiative will toughen penalties for providing marijuana to minors, ban possession at schools and prohibit public consumption,” Studdard said.

(For more on the public safety benefits of the Initiative, please see http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/public-safety-benefits-fact-sheet)

Similar to the current regulation of alcohol and tobacco, the Initiative will give local governments the ability to control and tax the sale of small amounts of cannabis to adults age 21 and older. The Initiative includes significant safeguards and controls: it will increase the penalty for providing marijuana to a minor, expressly prohibit the consumption of marijuana in public, forbid smoking marijuana while minors are present, and ban possession on school grounds.

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i821_initiative_09-0024_amdt_1-s.pdf

Studies by the Board of Equalization and the Legislative Analyst Office show that the Initiative will generate billions of dollars in revenue to fund schools and public safety. Several recent polls have shown the Initiative has the support of a majority of California voters.

California’s tax regulator, the Board of Equalization, which currently collects alcohol and tobacco taxes, estimates that cannabis taxes could generate $1.4 billion in revenue each year, available to fund schools, law enforcement, and other critical needs.

www.boe.ca.gov/legdiv/pdf/ab0390-1dw.pdf

The California Legislative Analyst's Office, which provides nonpartisan fiscal and policy advice, states that in addition to generating new tax revenue, the Initiative would allow correctional and law enforcement resources to be redirected to more pressing needs. The LAO says that in addition to generating “a few hundred millions of dollars annually” it could also save “several tens of millions of dollars annually” and permit the “redirection of court and law enforcement resources.”

http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2009/090485.aspx

(For more on the fiscal benefits of the Initiative, please see:
http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/fiscal-benefits-fact-sheet)

Multiple polls show that a majority of California voters support controlling and taxing cannabis. California’s widely-respected Field Poll revealed that 56% of voters support the Initiative.

http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2306.pdf

Private research conducted by the campaign has confirmed the Field Poll’s data showing majority support for the Initiative. Additionally, the campaign’s research revealed that 80% of voters believe California’s current laws criminalizing cannabis have failed, 69% of voters were more likely to support the Initiative when they learned that it “will not allow cannabis to be sold to minors or near schools,” and 68% are more likely to support it when they hear that it will “take business away from street dealers, breaking their hold on our neighborhoods.”

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LA TImes: California may vote on legalizing pot
March 24, 2010

Fourteen years after California decided marijuana could be used as a medicine and ignited a national movement, the state is likely to vote on whether to take another step into the vanguard of drug liberalization: legalizing the controversial weed for fun and profit.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County elections officials must turn in their count of valid signatures collected in the county on a statewide legalization initiative. The number is virtually certain to be enough to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, according to a tally kept by state election officials.

Read more…
Orange County Register: Tax Marijuana
March 22, 2010

Tax marijuana

One of the most sensible ways to mitigate the government's budget crunch is unlikely to come through the legislative process, though a bill has been introduced and passed by one committee. But California voters will have a chance to get ahead of their leaders in November by approving an initiative to tax, regulate and legalize marijuana use for adults. Doing so would also help our neighbor Mexico, given that some 60 percent of the revenue of the Mexican cartels involved in the current tragically deadly drug war are said to come from marijuana. Legalizing marijuana in California would dry up a significant part of that illicit revenue.

Although marijuana is not without its potential dangers, scientific studies validate that it is less organically dangerous to human beings – as in no documented overdose deaths over thousands of years of use – than the legal drugs alcohol and nicotine. In the form of hemp, it is also valuable for food, fiber and fuel. Legalizing it would invigorate California's agricultural sector.

The benefit to California's budget would be twofold. Police focusing on the hopeless task of eradicating marijuana could focus on real crimes, and enforcement costs would decline. Fewer lives would be ruined by people being arrested for marijuana use, and the jail and prison population would decline. And if marijuana were taxed it would bring in considerable revenue. The state Board of Equalization estimates that a $50-per-ounce excise tax would bring in $1.4 billion to the state, and decreased costs of investigation, prosecution and incarceration would be at least several billion. That wouldn't close the budget deficit but it wouldn't hurt.

Read more…
LA Weekly: West Hollywood Councilman Gets Behind Full Legalization Of Pot
March 16, 2010

A West Hollywood city councilman says he's the first politician in Southern California to support a statewide initiative that would legalize marijuana for recreational use. The ballot measure, which appears to have enough signatures but which has not yet been certified for the ballot by the Secretary of State, would treat marijuana like alcohol, tax it and make available to the 21-and-older set. Polls indicate California voters support full legalization.

Read more…
USA Today: Slowly, states are lessening limits on marijuana
March 9, 2010

LOS ANGELES — James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot and other drug offenses. Gradually, though, he became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less.