56% of Californians support Marijuana Legalization

(California Examiner) For the first time ever in a statewide Field Poll, a majority of state voters expressed support for legalizing and taxing marijuana. A poll released last week showed 56 percent of Californians support legalization.

Earlier this year, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation that would tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. The Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education act (AB 390) would create a regulatory structure similar to that used for beer, wine and liquor, permitting taxed sales to adults while barring sales to or possession by those under 21.

“With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move toward regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense. This legislation would generate up to $1.3 billion in much needed revenue for the state, restrict access to only those over 21, end the environmental damage to our public lands from illicit crops, and improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes, Ammiano said. “California has the opportunity to be the first state in the nation to enact a smart, responsible public policy for the control and regulation of marijuana.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger puffs a joint following a workout in "Pumping Iron"

Though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he would not sign legislation legalizing marijuana, the state’s ongoing billion-dollar fiscal crisis is making the idea of taxing legal marijuana to raise revenue, while reducing the strains of the grossly overcrowded prisons, more worthy of consideration for other legislators and voters.

Then I expect Gov. Schwarzenegger to turn himself in to authorities for his possession and use of marijuana throughout the 1970s.

What is it about elected office that makes former potheads turn into reefer mad anti-pot zealots?  They know we know that they know pot’s not what they’re saying it is!  Do they inject new politicians with some serum derived from Harry J. Anslinger’s blood?  Is it like Bill Hicks said, that they take the new president to a private screening of the Kennedy Assassination with footage shot from behind the grassy knoll and tell him to follow orders or take a bullet?  Maybe they really do think that legalized marijuana would be disastrous to our economy, with Big Pharma and the legal/judicial/prison/industrial complex relying so heavily illegal pot; with entire drug testing and drug rehab industries built on prohibition; with timber, oil, paper, cotton, and textiles industries unable to compete with hemp; with television and medical journals dependent on pharmaceutical ads; and with low-skill, good-paying jobs lacking for the millions of young people who currently survive on prohibition profit, maybe legal weed really would wreck our economy.  If so, it seems sad to me that the only way we can keep the fire of our economy burning is to stoke it with the sacrificed liberty and ruined lives of marjuana users who get caught.

Both Gov. Schwarzenegger and President Obama prove that using marijuana doesn’t ruin your potential; in Arnold’s case, his pot use may have been a performance enhancer for bodybuilding (anti-inflammatory, pain relief, ease anxiety and stress, all good things when you’re lifting hundreds of pounds of iron hours per day).  Arnold, let California legalize what you once said wasn’t a drug, but a leaf.  In a democracy, to quote George Carlin, shouldn’t The People get what they want at least some of the time?