Pubdate: Sat, 28 Dec 2013
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2013 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Reid Wilson

CALIF. POT PROPOSAL WOULD SAVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, STATE SAYS

A proposed ballot measure that would legalize the possession, use, 
growth and cultivation of marijuana would save the state of 
California hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to a 
summary issued Thursday by the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris (D).

The summary, which the state attorney general's office releases for 
each proposed ballot measure, says the state would save "in the low 
hundreds of millions of dollars annually" on law enforcement costs 
associated with enforcing marijuana laws.

As an added bonus, Harris's office said, sales tax revenue could add 
more cash - again, in the "low hundreds of millions of dollars 
annually" - to the state's bottom line.

Supporters of the proposed ballot measure need to collect 504,760 
signatures by May 23 to get the initiative - formally known by its 
ballot title, "Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute" - on the 
2014 ballot.

The group backing legalization won't be collecting signatures for 
this version of the bill; the lead sponsor told the San Francisco 
Chronicle that the group had tweaked the initiative's language to 
allow individuals to grow more marijuana for personal use, and 
resubmitted it. A revised version of the ballot initiative, dubbed 
the "Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act of 2014," is 
scheduled to be reviewed by the attorney general's office by the end 
of next month, the Chronicle reported.

Both versions of the measure would legalize the use, growth, 
cultivation, possession, transportation, storage and sale of 
marijuana, while creating a commission to regulate and issue business 
licenses for cultivation and sales.

The measure would apply retail sales taxes to marijuana sold for 
recreational purposes and allocate that money equally to education, 
health-care, law enforcement and drug abuse programs. It also would 
prevent state and local law enforcement officials from enforcing 
federal marijuana laws.

Some California officials who back marijuana legalization had urged 
fellow supporters to wait until 2016, when the electorate will be 
larger, younger and more ethnically diverse, to put a measure on the 
fall ballot. But the attorney general's ballot summary is so 
favorable that strategists think they will be able to pass the 
measure even in the lower-turnout midterm year.

California has been in the vanguard of the pro-marijuana movement. 
The state was the first in the country to legalize the possession and 
use of marijuana for medical purposes, back in 1996. In 2010, Gov. 
Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed legislation decriminalizing 
possession of an ounce or less.

If the ballot measure passes, California would be the third state to 
legalize marijuana, along with Washington and Colorado, where voters 
legalized the drug through ballot measures this year.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom