Pubdate: Tue, 22 Jun 2004
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2004 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writer
Cited: California NORML  http://www.canorml.org/
Cited: Drug Enforcement Administration http://www.dea.gov
Cited: Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance http://www.taxandregulate.com
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org
Cited: Office of National Drug Control Policy 
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/marijuana+initiative
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

OAKLAND POT MEASURE SEEKS A SHIFT IN PRIORITIES

An alliance of marijuana legalization activists in Oakland announced Monday 
that they are close to placing a measure on the November ballot that would 
require police to essentially look the other way when dealing with 
marijuana possession by adults.

The measure also would require the city to regulate and collect tax revenue 
for adult cannabis use if the state ever allows it. The extra tax dollars 
would be earmarked for police and other cash-strapped municipal services.

Efforts to make marijuana use the lowest law enforcement priority mirror a 
similar initiative approved by Seattle voters last fall. But the push for 
marijuana taxation is the first such effort in the nation, backers of the 
Oakland measure say.

"This law will keep cannabis off the streets, away from children and out of 
the hands of dangerous drug dealers, by making it available in licensed 
businesses, not on neighborhood street corners," said Dale Geringer, 
president of the California chapter of the National Organization for the 
Reform of Marijuana Laws.

But foes say it is a misguided effort meant to foist a dangerous drug on an 
unsuspecting public.

"I'm very concerned about the message this sends to the rest of the nation 
and world," said Richard Meyer, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman 
in San Francisco. "I think the marijuana lobby is trying to deceive the 
people again that marijuana use is harmless. That's far from the truth."

Under state law, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a 
misdemeanor, while anyone caught with more can face felony charges. The 
possession of any amount of cannabis is prohibited under federal law.

The initiative's authors hope the Oakland push will serve as a springboard 
for a broader effort to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in California. 
The effort was launched by Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, a newly formed 
coalition of local residents and national drug policy groups -- including 
NORML, the Marijuana Policy Project and Drug Policy Alliance, which is 
funded in part by New York billionaire George Soros, who is also financing 
efforts to defeat President Bush in November.

On Monday, the coalition announced it had collected more than 30,000 
signatures to qualify the initiative, nearly double what was needed to 
place it on the ballot. A pivotal selling point, organizers said, was the 
argument that police time was being wasted on arresting and investigating 
adults for cannabis use while other city programs were being cut, including 
parks and libraries.

Backers also say they are tapping resentment over the Oakland City 
Council's decision to crack down on about a dozen medical marijuana 
dispensaries in the city. One section of town earned the nickname 
"Oaksterdam," a reference to the freewheeling Dutch city of Amsterdam, 
where marijuana is legal.

"When the council reduced the number of cannabis clubs, it really ignited 
people and got them out there to get this initiative going," said 
Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who supports the November ballot measure.

Brooks said police last week attempted undercover purchases at several of 
the medical cannabis clubs that hadn't halted their dispensary operations, 
underscoring the need to keep officers focused on more important crimes.

"The whole federal drug war has been a joke at best," she said. "People 
realize that doesn't work and we need to look to some other solutions."

Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control 
Policy, called marijuana's reputation as a relatively benign recreational 
drug a persistent myth perpetuated among adults who came of age in the 
1960s and '70s, when cannabis use skyrocketed.

"It's out of touch with the science," said Riley. "Until those sorts of 
public perceptions change, we'll keep getting misguided policy based on 
outdated information."

Riley also said that the perception of local police exhausting their 
officers on low-level drug busts "is simply not true."

More than 700,000 pot arrests are made in the U.S. during a typical year. 
But most federal prisoners incarcerated for marijuana crimes were caught 
with in excess of 100 pounds of pot, Riley said, and just 1% of the inmate 
population in state prisons are behind bars for cannabis. "Most people who 
go to prison for marijuana offenses are serious drug offenders," Riley said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake