NORML is asking for your support of Assembly Bill 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act — the first bill ever introduced to legalize the sale and use of marijuana in California.
As introduced, this groundbreaking proposal would raise over $1 billion in annual revenue by taxing the retail production and sale of marijuana for adults over 21 years of age.
The bill would not alter existing legislation on the use of medicinal cannabis, nor would it impose new taxes or sanctions on the noncommercial use and cultivation of cannabis.
Assembly Bill 390 proposes to make California the first state in the nation to enact a rational public policy for the control and regulation of marijuana. Please show your support for this measure by contacting your California Assembly members and urging them to support the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act. For your convenience, a pre-written letter will be e-mailed to your state elected officials when you enter your contact information at our Legislative Alerts page.
For more information about this measure, please visit: http://www.canorml.org.
Thank you for supporting NORML’s marijuana law reform efforts in California. A sample letter to your Assembly member is provided below.
Subject: Raise Revenue, Improve Public Safety: Support AB 390
I’m writing to urge your support for Assembly Bill 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act.
This measure seeks to tax and regulate the use of marijuana by adults age 21 and over. A fiscal analysis of this proposal by the State Board of Equalization estimates that AB 390 could raise more than $1.3 billion yearly in tax revenue for the state of California.
In addition to raising needed state revenue, AB 390 would: restrict access to marijuana to those under age 21; and the environmental damage to California’s public lands from the cultivation of illicit crops; and improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to focus on more serious crimes.
Public support is strongly in favor of AB 390. According to a February 2009 Zogby poll, nearly six out of ten voters on the west coast say that they support taxing and regulating the use and sale of marijuana like alcohol.
It¹s time for California taxpayers to stop wasting money trying to enforce marijuana prohibition, and to instead realize the tax benefits derived from a legal, regulated cannabis market. I urge you to vote “yes” on Assembly Bill 390.
you know your shyt .
Um, you know Assembly Bill 390 isn’t on the table anymore, right?
Anyway, you’re spouting the same big tobacco, Walmart, Monsanto, anti-business, anti-regulation crap I’ve addressed a thousand times before.
#1 – No big corporate entity – Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Phillip Morris, et al, will touch commercial marijuana production so long as marijuana is federally illegal. If they do, Dept of Justice will have them in court on a massive federal conspiracy to traffic in Schedule I substances – if it’s over 60,000 kg, it’s the death penalty! More likely the feds in court would just seize their billions in assets.
#2 – Terminator seeds, really? Monsanto is going to wipe out all natural hemp seeds stashed by a 300 million pot smokers worldwide and we’ll only be able to buy single-harvest seeds from them? Then why hasn’t the feds helped them do that already? Wouldn’t that solve the gov’t's pot problem?
#3 – Fees, inspections, insurance, rent… gee, welcome to Commerce 101. You’re listing the requirements of every other legitimate businessman.
#4 – “Big Marijuana” will wipe out the little guy… yeah, like Budweiser, Coors, and Miller have wiped out all microbrews and home brewing in America.
#5 – Kids introduction to marijuana? You realize there are 1,000,000 teenage dealers NOW, that 85% of high school seniors say it’s easier to get NOW than alcohol, that 25% can get a bag in less than an hour NOW, and the average age of first initiation has dropped to 17 years old NOW (while tobacco use has dropped in half among teens)? And you think they’ll have an easier time when consumers are ID carded for marijuana in an adults-only store?
I highly doubt that you’re as successful as you claim. By they way you make assumptions and hasty claims, I would guess you shovel sh*t for a living. Honesty…. I don’t think you’d ever learned to read a financial statement, much less running your own business.
What types of honors and awards you’d gotten? The ones you can print out? Maybe the company that gave it to you just want to motivate you so that you can work your ass out for wages below par. Awards and honors are for kids, real awards are called bonus.
Get it right.
I don’t like this law. It have the same business model as big tobacco and if this law passes, Californians are going to be fcuked. They will market this product to the point where kids with have a very early introduction to weed.
You are already seeing big business taking over and developing plans to get these products out to market. Soon… they will patent strains preventing others from entering the market. Don’t tell me this is not true, look up Monsanto corporation. They’ve created self-destructive seeds, preventing growers from saving or producing their own seeds.
This will cause the people to be dependent on big business for their marijuana needs. The process of eliminating small business is simple. It’s the Walmart business model. Make contracts with vendors such as chemicals producers to give large discount and then undercut their competitors by selling their product below market value to the point where all their competitors have to close up shop.
Pot regulations will be strictly enforced, and any small time growers will have to now buy a personal growers permit and having to pay a yearly fee along with paying the Fire Marshall yearly fee for inspection. The small time growers will also have to pay high insurance cost for operating, due to it being a high “security risk”.
So here is the cost if this bill “prop 19″ passes: for medium size growers.
Cost of growing: ———————————————————
Pay yearly fee for a growing permit.
Pay yearly fee for Fire Marshall inspection.
Pay high insurance cost for growing marijuana
Pay higher rent because the homeowner now wants you pay a premium for growing
Note: the cost of production such as lights, chemicals, pots, and other materials will most likely cost the same but for you to grow your own and smoke, it will be cheaper for you to just buy it from big business. If you’re a mid-size grower and wanting to make some money…. you will have to pay everything listed and have to pay yearly incorporated tax, sales tax, among many many other taxes.
Big business model is to first pass the bill and then slowly but surely eliminate mid-size growers by implementing strategic business models along with strict regulations that only big business can afford to pay.
After eliminating all of their competitors, big business will then start patenting strains and introduce smokers to new chemicals that will get people hooked. Just look to history and you can see it bright as day. Big tobacco did it, now it’s marijuana.
What is Going to happen is…….
BILL is passed!
Everybody starts growing!
Everyone is happy especially the goverment!
Growers who get minimum $3200 a pound are going to be getting maybe $500 from a dispensory!
Growers now sell to the one market that they can get $3200 a pound from…..
KIDS!!!!
Now more people go to jail for that as the goverment gets even get stricter on laws and raises taxes.
How many people are going to join NORML and stay with the movement if it gets passed?answer is nobody, this is a great oppurtunity for the goverment to make us not care anymore
Yes think of all the good that can come about!But what are politicians saying?what are fortune 500 companies saying?
THINK OF IT ALL!!!!!!!!!
THIS MOVEMENT WILL END WITH THE PASSING OF THIS BILL!
For the record i smoke pot,dont grow,dont do any drugs,and am a father and a responsible person in society.
wow, the smart one,what a stupid ass piece of fucking roadkill. you dumb shit, what the fuck are you even doing commenting on this page? ive smoked pot my whole life. i recieved many awards and honors throughout the years, ran successful businesses, etc. what the fuck have you done? qorked an extra shift at hot dog on a stick. people like you deserve nothing more than a beating about the head. i just cant forget your stupidity, i laugh at the simple recolection of your statements. go fuck yourself you mudblood piece of shit. even shit has substance. not you. you remind me of tweekers against pot. fuck you pal. not only are pot heads more creative than you, but tougher too. ill piss down your throat while you call me daddy you piss gurgling societal nigger! i hope your parents are proud. are you related to bush?
By your standards, you must be on far more drugs than we are.
(For those who shudder at me approving this comment: Excuse me. But sometimes I just have to expose the haters to the harsh disinfectant of sunlight. THIS is the true reason marijuana is prohibited – morality. I’ll bet you twenty bucks this guy has no issue with breaking open a case of beer on the weekend while he beats his wife and watches NASCAR…)