Pubdate: Mon, 19 Oct 2009
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2009 MetroWest Daily News
Contact:  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619

MARIJUANA AND TAX REVENUE

A threshold was quietly crossed last week on Beacon Hill: Marijuana 
legalization was discussed with barely a giggle.

Thirty years after a trend toward liberalizing marijuana laws was 
reversed by Nixon's "war on drugs," we're seeing a shift in attitudes 
and laws. In California, a medical marijuana initiative approved by 
voters has changed the facts on the ground. Pot shops are everywhere, 
operating on the tissue of legality provided by medical professionals 
with the broadest possible interpretation of the ills cannabis may be 
presumed to treat. But there are no signs of great damage done by 
making the drug more openly available, and no sign of a serious 
movement to recriminalize it.

Instead, California is moving toward the next obvious step: 
legalizing, regulating and taxing cannabis. Two referendum questions 
are being proposed for the 2010 ballot.

The opponents of medical marijuana were right when they predicted it 
was a slippery slope to legalization. If they had just taken it off 
the drug schedule, let it be legally produced and sold only with a 
prescription, things might have been different. But Californians are 
now being forced to admit the people purchasing pot from licensed 
distributors aren't all that sick.

The alternative to the medical model of marijuana regulation is the 
alcohol model. That's what the Joint Committee on Revenue of the 
Massachusetts Legislature heard testimony on last Wednesday. House 
2929, submitted at the request of a Northampton attorney, is modeled 
on the state's alcohol law. It wouldn't just legalize marijuana, it 
would provide for the regulation of its potency, set rules for its 
distribution and - of particular note to a Legislature struggling 
with enormous revenue shortfalls - heavily tax it.

No one is predicting this bill will make it to the floor for a vote 
any time soon. California will likely lead the way on this issue, and 
no state can effectively legalize a controlled substance until 
Congress changes federal law. But the Revenue Committee gave a 
respectful hearing to about 20 supporters and one opponent who 
testified on the bill. Neither the lawmakers nor the media tried to 
turn a serious topic into a joke. That itself is progress.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake