Why California Should Vote Yes on Pot

James Anthony, a former prosecutor in Oakland, is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

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This week, the California State legislature is taking a hard look at legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use. The time has come to do so--for the sake of our children, our communities, our law enforcement agencies, the environment, and the well being of the entire state.

The myth that marijuana is individually harmful enough to be prohibited has been fully exposed. Marijuana is much safer than alcohol. It cannot even begin to compare to tobacco in toxicity. It is used by hundreds of thousands of Californians safely as medicine.

The supposed social harms of marijuana are caused by prohibition. Marijuana prohibition creates the underground market with exorbitant illicit profits that then spawns organized crime, violence, international instability, casual murder on our borders and in our cities. Creating legal markets for marijuana will end all that. Taxing and regulating will bring marijuana under control. It will end crime. It will reduce violence. It will ensure that marijuana is produced safely inside the state's borders. It will end a great deal of unnecessary tragedy and suffering.

Marijuana prohibition was never possible or feasible anyway--all it did was build an enormous underground economy of $14 billion a year. By surfacing that economy, California can reduce its law enforcement and prison costs. And it can create a tax revenue stream from what is now completely untaxed. The current legislation will produce over a billion dollars in state revenue.

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Check out reports on the debate over legalization in CBSNews.com's special section "Marijuana Nation."

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Even if the state legislature doesn't pass this legislation, California's voters may legalize marijuana anyway. This November, they will vote on an initiative to do just that: Tax And Regulate Cannabis 2010.

The harms of prohibition are abundantly clear: crime, violence, contempt for law enforcement, the corruption of our social fabric, and a continuation of our sad history of ever-accelerating racist over-incarceration. The solution is equally clear: control and regulate on a substance-by-substance basis, beginning with taxing and regulating marijuana in California.

By James Anthonyu
Special to CBSNews.com

[dumandwillbedummer]

Tax Revenue - not much - how are you going to tax people who grow it in their back yard - your not -

[msjb1]

does this all mean we will be able to smoke in public places again wow this will be great, oh are they planning on selling it in cartons or by the pack or are we going to have to roll them. A step in the right direction can you imagine how much money they will save letting pot users out of the prisons. what a great idea, vote them in for another term.

[offthefloor]

A high fructose corn syrup, salt and fat wielding McClown will do more damage in emergency rooms tonight than Cannabis has in the last one hundred years.

McProhibition anyone?

[dumandwillbedummer]

What about lung cancer - moron - the smoking gun - the smoke itself not necessarily the chemicals in it - is the primary cause of lung cancer

[armyoftwelve]

Let's declare war on California!

[dragon8me]

No let's declare war on stupidity. It is stupid to criminalize a plant.

[earthling76]

12 monkeys.

[NORML90210]

Today is the first time in U.S. history that a bill to tax and regulate marijuana ever made it to a state legislative committee, and it passed with a majority of the vote!

After hearing testimony from advocates ? including Beverly Hills NORML90210.org? the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 in support of A.B. 390, the landmark legislation authored by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco).

California has a reputation for leading the nation in bold policy changes, and we've only seen the beginning of marijuana policy reform there.

We'll continue to work toward ending the war on responsible marijuana users in California and elsewhere, but we need your help. We're making history! Are you a member of Beverly Hills NORML ?

Respectfully,
Cheryl Shuman
Executive Director
Beverly Hills NORML 90210

[earthling76]

by cidaia--Oh, you won't see those arguments. Just the eternal bleating of justification: "people break rules, so therefore the proper response is to get rid of rules and let the id rule".

Lets have it then. Lets have the argument right here. Clearly you are against ending cannabis prohibition. So lets hear about how you KNOW so much about the negatives of cannabis consumption. HAVE YOU EVER TRIED CANNABIS? Instead of posting loaded questions hinting at your opinion that cannabis is detrimental to society, prove it with some actual facts.

by cidaia--Is it good for you?

Would I be giving you too much credit by assuming that you have some evidence that responsible cannabis use is so bad for people that it warrants the costs of prohibition? How do you know this? Where did this information come from?

by cidaia--Does it make society better?

Do you have some ability to peer into the future that enables you to see what might be if cannabis is legalized, taxed, and regulated? Look into your crystal ball and articulate what exactly would harm our society more than the current policies of prohibition. State how it negatively effects society in a way that is not speculative.

by cidaia--What are the benefits? Do those benefits justify the costs?

What exactly are these costs you hint at? What is going to happen to America if cannabis prohibition is abolished? Again, try not to be speculative.

by cidaia--Just the eternal bleating of justification: "people break rules, so therefore the proper response is to get rid of rules and let the id rule".

How is it that whenever the topic of legalizing cannabis for any reason is discussed you come to the conclusion that it means there will not be any restrictions on it's use? Do you honestly think that is what will transpire? As far as the id is concerned, your uncoordinated instinctual trend is to support cannabis prohibition in an attempt to never confront your fears of what you do not know. Your ego attempts to organize your assumptions about cannabis in a way that is only realistic to you. And if anyone comes along contradicting these beliefs of yours you instantly criticize them as lesser people and your super-ego moralizes your actions which have no basis in anyone else's reality but your own.

by cidaia--In other words, with cigarettes on the way out, there must be SOME way to exploit a gullible public willing to pay any cost for a hit of short term pleasure.

Cannabis prohibition is actually what is exploiting people for the sake of corporate profit, the expansion of the drug war and its beneficiaries. The people of this country are rallying to end cannabis prohibition because they are now becoming aware that prohibition is a costly failure. If knowledge, observation, and rational emotionless thought is conspiring to exploit the public then sorry about your luck. Thats inevitable.

by cidaia--On the bright side, at least our gene pools are going to be cleared out, which is apparently long overdue.

So now we should just round up anyone who has ever consumed cannabis and "cleanse" our society of them? This is acceptable to you? And we are to rely on your moral compass? Hmm.

[sjc_1]

Since pot is illegal, people have to buy it from others that are breaking the law. Those people are criminals by definition and thus associating with them can bring on problems that you did not anticipate. People should be able to grow a few plants by paying an annual fee. We would get rid of that criminal elements, provide revenue for the state and in general have fairer laws that people can respect.

[cameraphone]

California! - Pot leads to Gay sex, and Gay sex is the same as Gay marriage, and Gay marriage is not allowed under your Constitution! (Of course, drinking can lead to Gay sex also :)

[dragon8me]

That is the stupidest line of reasoning I have ever heard. I know of not a single person that has had "gay sex" due to smoking pot, or drinking. You must hang around some really strange people or are you talking about yourself? If it leads you to "gay sex" you have a bigger problem than weed. Like your crazy if you are influenced to do something you consider immoral by smoking or drinking. Or are you just repeating something some nut job preacher said?

[shadys-mom]

Since we can't seem to ever get rid of it, why not make it legal and tax the heck out of it, just like tobacco and alcohol. I'm sure California could use the money! There should, however, be strict penalties if people use it and drive and cause accidents, or harm to others while under the influence. I might certainly get rid of a lot of drug dealers.

[offthefloor]

Ronald McDonald will kill more people tonight than Cannabis has in the last 100 years. Get educated!

[dragon8me]

And I thought I was a grumpy old man.
cidaia ask;
Is it good for you? for some it is, it's not "bad for you" in its self, for one thing hemp is still cannabis sativa so it's illegal too. It can not only be made into many things but as a food, hemp seed is one of the most nutritious. As far as "marajuana", you don't have to smoke it and you eliminate the carcenogenic chemicals, but even if smoked studies have shown there are chemicals in it that counteract the bad ones. As far as good for you, that is relative. How many foods are "bad for you".

Does it make society better? By ending prohibition it does. Most of the lives that have been affected for the worse because of cannabis is because of prohibition. Most of the people who use are otherwise law abiding citizens. Does it make society better? that is also relative. It's already a major part of our society and it hasn't crumbled yet, at least not because of weed. Most medicine before the 20th century had cannabis in them. I don't see society being affected for the worse by ending prohibition, if anything it will be better, in fact, people may even start to have faith in their government again.

What are the benefits? Far to many to list here but just having police free to protect us from the real criminals is enough all by itself.
Do those benefits justify the costs? Ooooh yeeeaaah. Just the benifits of being able to use industrial hemp again would create many jobs and new industries, like lumber made from composites with hemp fibers.

Im sorry but the old "reefer madness" arguments don't work and theres no reason to keep it illegal.