Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 2010
Source: Capitol Weekly (Sacramento, CA)
Copyright: 2010 Capitol Weekly Group
Contact: http://www.capitolweekly.net/contact/?_c=xtakf2zb939jem
Website: http://www.capitolweekly.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4194
Author: Clayton Trosclair
Referenced: The Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act 
http://www.taxcannabis.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?261 (Cannabis - United States)

BACKERS OF POT INITIATIVE TARGET BENEFITS OF TAX REVENUE

Facing an uphill battle, proponents of a ballot measure to legalize 
marijuana are mapping out a campaign stressing the millions of 
dollars in tax revenue that pot could provide.

The initiative, sponsored by Oakland marijuana magnate Richard Lee, 
would legitimize the sale of marijuana and allow pot shops to open 
their doors in cities that permit it. Local authorities could also 
decide how to tax and regulate marijuana sales, although it's unclear 
if federal officials would tolerate such a bold and unprecedented move.

Many of the state's most important politicians want nothing to do 
with the measure, which would allow anyone over the age of 21 to grow 
or possess a drug considered by the federal government to be highly 
addictive and of no medical value.

Despite lawmakers' reluctance, political consultants working on the 
initiative claim a marijuana tax could contribute more than $1 
billion toward reducing California's $20 billion budget deficit. 
Opponents call that a pipe dream.

"As my wife says, that's just bong economics," said John Lovell, a 
lobbyist who represents a coalition of law enforcement groups that 
are against the measure.

In fact, there is uncertainty about how much tax revenue could be 
generated, or if federal officials will even allow the legalization 
of marijuana.  According to the state Legislative Analyst's Office, 
"The amount of all the various revenues that could be generated by 
this measure depend considerably on the extent to which the federal 
government enforces its laws against marijuana in California."

Last February, US Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice 
Department would no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries that 
comply with state law.

However, his office has not indicated if it would tolerate marijuana 
for people without a medical need.

A Republican political consultant predicted the issue would find 
little support from politicians outside the Bay Area.

"My guess is most if not all Republicans will oppose it and some 
Democrats will support it," said Ray McNally, a partner in the 
Sacramento consulting firm McNally Temple & Associates. "Others 
running for statewide office will probably hide under the bed."

Phone calls and emails to three gubernatorial candidates - Jerry 
Brown, Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman - were not returned.

Four Democratic candidates for Attorney General, Kamala Harris, Chris 
Kelly, Ted Lieu and Alberto Torrico, said they oppose the measure. 
Republican Tom Harman said he opposes it. Five other GOP candidates 
did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The 2010 campaign is better funded and organized than previous 
attempts to decriminalize marijuana. Lee, founder of an Oakland 
medical marijuana dispensary and Oaksterdam University, a marijuana 
trade school, spent $1 million to gather 680,000 signatures calling 
for the initiative to be placed on the November ballot.

The Secretary of State's office is now checking to see whether at 
least 433,971 of those signatures - the minimum required for 
placement - are valid.

Lee's corporate holding company, S.K. Seymour LLC, has also hired SCN 
Strategies, a San Francisco political consulting firm that has worked 
for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Hillary Clinton's 2008 
presidential campaign. Lee has also contracted with Blue State 
Digital, an agency that has provided advocacy, fundraising and social 
networking technology for the website TaxCannabis.org.

"This is not a whim," Dan Newman, a consultant with SCN Strategies, 
said. "The initiative is carefully crafted, well-funded, and 
professionally run. There will be TV ads, mail, sky writing - 
whatever it takes to communicate with voters - and a very active and 
engaged new media component."

Lovell, the lobbyist for the state Police Chiefs Association, the 
Narcotics Officers Association and the Peace Officers Association, 
said opponents saw some of the same arguments in 2008 in the battle 
over handling non-violent drug offenses.

"We learned a couple of things from that," he said, "We did not have 
to match the legalizers dollar for dollar in the campaign. They 
outspent us five to one. But our message was before voters and it 
resonated. That's why we succeeded."

Polls show Californians' attitudes about pot have softened since 
medical marijuana dispensaries began opening in 2004. In the two 
decades before that, - 35 percent in 1983. By 2004, the number had 
crept up only slightly to 39 percent.

But the past five years have seen an enormous shift in popular 
sentiment. In a Field Poll conducted in April 2009, 56 percent of 
voters said they were in favor of legalizing marijuana for 
recreational use and taxing its sale.

"When something changes I ask myself what happened, what events had 
an impact on voter attitudes," said Mark DiCamillo, the director of 
the Field Poll. "The biggest thing I can think of is Initiative 215," 
he said, referring to the ballot measure that legalized marijuana for 
medical purposes and took effect in 2004.  "It seems to have 
moderated and taken away some of the public fears about marijuana."

Yet analysts and pollsters agreed the latest survey reflects only 
moderate support.

"Fifty-six percent is a hard sell," McNally, the Republican 
strategist, said. "You typically want to start out above 60 percent 
or above. Because as a campaign unfolds, support typically drops.

"I think this goes down. I'm not sure everyone is ready to have head 
shops all over the place," he said.  "That's the other thing working 
against this initiative - some people have the sense that things are 
changing too fast. Like health care, it's too much, too soon. In that 
kind of environment, do they really want to legalize marijuana?"

Steven Maviglio, the head of Forza Communications, a campaign firm in 
Sacramento that works with Democrats, agreed that marijuana 
supporters are facing an uphill battle. "They have to make it look 
like mainstream California to appeal to moms and swing voters, not 
just pot heads who want marijuana," he said.

On the other hand, he said, voters recognize that marijuana is a 
multi-billion dollar crop, and it makes fiscal sense to regulate an 
industry that isn't paying its fair share of taxes.

"There has been more enthusiasm for this than anything I've seen in a 
long time," he said. I was sitting in on a focus group the other day 
and people are voluntarily bringing this up," Maviglio said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake