Pubdate: Wed, 27 Apr 2011
Source: Portland Daily Sun (ME)
Page: 6
Copyright: 2011 The Portland Daily Sun
Contact:  http://portlanddailysun.me/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5257
Author: David Carkhuff
Referenced: LD 1453 
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_125th/billtexts/HP106701.asp
Bookmark: http://www.drugsense.org/cms/geoview/n-us-me (Maine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?261 (Cannabis - United States)

HEARING SET FOR BILL LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

At 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, supporters of legalized marijuana in Maine 
will crowd into a hearing room in Augusta to support a Portland 
legislator's bill to decriminalize pot.

Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, sponsor of LD 1453, "An Act To 
Legalize and Tax Marijuana," said she was thrilled to learn yesterday 
about the hearing that has been scheduled before the Criminal Justice 
and Public Safety Committee. The hearing will be in Room 436 at the 
State House.

"It looks like I have a May 10 public hearing," Russell exclaimed.

Russell's Facebook page has become an ongoing conversation almost 
exclusively about her bill to legalize marijuana. Russell said she's 
encouraged after talking to other lawmakers, although she admitted 
the legislation is meeting resistance.

"I really would like to see it pass, it's an uphill battle there's no 
question," Russell said Tuesday. "It depends on whether mainstream 
people show up and make the economic case."

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, writes, "Ending 
marijuana prohibition in this country would mean billions in sales 
tax revenue alone, to say nothing of the multi-billion dollar 
industry it would spur and the jobs and revenue that would accompany it."

According to the group, cultural sentiments are changing in regard to 
marijuana use. "When MPP was founded in 1995, medical marijuana was 
illegal in every state and favorable legislation had not been 
introduced in Congress in a decade," the group writes. "Since then, 
the federal penalties for marijuana cultivation have been changed to 
provide for the early release of hundreds of prisoners; medical 
marijuana bills have been introduced in seven consecutive Congresses 
[and] medical marijuana is now legal in 13 states."

Maine is one of the states where medical marijuana is legal, and 
Russell's bill would adjust that system to one where marijuana is 
allowed for those 21 and over.

Cosponsored by Rep. Richard Cebra of Naples, LD 1453 "reforms state 
marijuana laws by establishing a special tax rate for marijuana, 
legalizing the personal use and cultivation of marijuana, legalizing 
and licensing certain commercial marijuana-related activities, while 
providing provisions to protect minors, employers and schools, and 
removing the registry system from the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana 
Act," according to its legislative summary.

Part A of the bill establishes a tax rate of 7 percent, beginning 
Jan. 1, 2012, for marijuana that is sold for commercial or medical purposes.

An online petition is pushing the legislation, and a variety of 
supporters are arguing that legalizing pot would free up funding 
diverted to enforcing laws against use of marijuana by adults.

"We've got 1,000 people on the online petition, there's been I can't 
even tell you how many emails and phone calls and Facebook messages 
on this," Russell said.

Russell said her correspondence has come from people as diverse as a 
firefighter, a retired superintendent and a 38-year-old financial 
professional who admitted to smoking pot.

"I think this is an issue where mainstream people are there, I just 
think the politicians are afraid of it," Russell said.

The state representative for Munjoy Hill and the Old Port areas of 
Portland said she has heard this message from colleagues in the 
Legislature: "We're with you but we're just terrified to vote for it."

Popular sentiment supports legalization, she said.

"When you start talking to people on the streets and in coffeehouses, 
it's totally like, 'Yes, it should be legalized,'" Russell said.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake