Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 2010
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: A - 1, Front Page
Copyright: 2010 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Cited: Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act http://www.taxcannabis.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

STATE'S VOTERS TO DECIDE ON LEGALIZING POT

California voters will decide this November whether to legalize and 
regulate adult recreational use of marijuana. The secretary of state 
on Wednesday certified that a Bay Area-based effort to put the issue 
on the ballot has collected enough signatures to do so.

If passed, California would have the most comprehensive laws on legal 
marijuana in the entire world, advocates say. Opponents are confident 
they will easily defeat the measure.

The vote will be the second time in nearly 40 years that people in 
the Golden State will decide the issue of legalization, though the 
legal framework and cultural attitudes surrounding marijuana have 
changed significantly over the past four decades. If Californians 
pass the measure, they would be the first in the nation to vote for 
legalization. Similar efforts in other states all have failed.

Backers needed to collect at least 433,971 valid signatures of 
registered voters, and Secretary of State Debra Bowen said they met 
that threshold.

If voters approve the measure, it will become legal for Californians 
21 and older to grow and possess up to an ounce of marijuana under 
state law. Local jurisdictions could tax and regulate it or decide 
not to participate. Marijuana would continue to be banned outright by 
federal law.

Current state law allows a person, with a doctor's approval, to 
possess an amount of marijuana that is reasonably related to the 
patient's current medical needs. People also can obtain cards 
identifying themselves as a patient, which helps in interactions with 
law enforcement.

"There is no state that currently allows adults to grow marijuana for 
personal (recreational) use, but what is totally different and will 
be a game-changer internationally is this would allow authorized 
sales to adults as determined by a local authority," said Stephen 
Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance 
Network, an organization advocating for changes in drug laws. Key supporters

The major backers of the initiative - the founder of an marijuana 
trade school based in Oakland, a retired Orange County judge and 
various drug-law reform organizations - are planning to oversee a $10 
million campaign to push the measure.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for 
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said his organization will work hard to 
pass the proposition, adding that the California effort is notable 
because it probably will be funded by the marijuana industry.

"This is being launched at a time not only of mass nationwide 
zeitgeist around marijuana," but acutely so in California, he said. 
"Almost all other (marijuana) initiatives were poorly funded, and 
what funding there has been ... was purely philanthropic."

But opponents, who probably will include a large coalition of public 
safety associations, said that once voters understand the 
implications of the measure, it will be handily defeated.

"The overarching issue is, given all the social problems caused by 
alcohol abuse, all the social and public safety problems caused by 
pharmaceutical abuse and the fact that tobacco kills - given all 
those realities, what on Earth is the social good that's going to be 
served by adding another mind-altering substance to the array," said 
John Lovell, a lobbyist for a number of statewide police and public 
safety associations.

Additionally, he said, employers and government entities that receive 
federal money may not be able to meet federal standards for drug-free 
workplaces if the measure passes, putting billions of federal dollars 
in jeopardy. 'Sink like a rock'

"It's terrible drafting ... that will cause the state of California 
significant fiscal problems," he said. When these issues are 
presented to voters, he said, the measure will "sink like a rock in 
the North Atlantic."

Attitudes of voters in California have increasingly moved in favor of 
full legalization of marijuana. Californians passed Proposition 215 
in 1996 to legalize marijuana for medical use. A bill in the 
Legislature would also legalize adult recreational use, and Gov. 
Arnold Schwarzenegger has said it is an idea that should be debated, 
although he personally opposes it.

A Field Poll taken in April found that 56 percent of voters backed 
the idea of legalization and taxation of marijuana. The measure will 
add to an already crowded November ballot, with an expensive 
gubernatorial race looming along with other statewide offices.

Prominent candidates running for higher office, including Democratic 
Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is seeking the governorship, and 
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, a Democrat who is 
running for attorney general, have said they oppose the initiative. 
Don Perata, former Senate president pro tem and candidate for Oakland 
mayor, supports the initiative.

The major Republican candidates oppose the measure.

Richard Lee, the founder of Oaksterdam University, has spearheaded 
the effort and said he is not concerned about prominent political 
opposition to the plan, noting the similar lack of support for Prop. 215.

"I think the voters lead the politicians on this issue and they 
realize that," Lee said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake