there are other bills in the works, this is NOT our only chance.
california is already collecting hella money from smokers. how much do they need?
obama ain't gonna allow any of it to happen anyways.
Leno Decriminalization Bill Passes Public Safety Committee
Posted June 23rd, 2010 by canorml_admin
SACRAMENTO, Jun 22 - The California Assembly Public Safety Committee approved Sen. Mark Leno's bill
SB 1449 to downgrade petty marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction. The bill passed with no discussion by a vote of 4-1, with Ammiano (D-SF), Beall (D-SJ), Hill (D-SanMateo) and Yamada (D-Davis) voting aye, and Portantino (D-Pasadena) nay. The two Republicans, Hagman and Gilmore, abstained.
SB 1449 now moves on to the Assembly floor for a final vote. Similar decriminalization bills have passed the Senate three times in past years, only to be defeated in the Assembly. Sponsors are hopeful that the Assembly will change its mind this time, given the cost savings in the bill, the state's ongoing budget crisis, and the bill's support by the district attorneys and court system.
Read more:
4/20 Bills Pass Committees
Sen. Leno Introduces Cal. Bill to Make MJ Possession an Infraction
California Collects $100 Million in Cannabis Sales Taxes
Posted May 6th, 2010 by canorml_admin
Cal NORML Release - May 5, 2010
The California Board of Equalization
reports that the state is collecting $50 - $100 million
in sales taxes from medical marijuana, confirming the estimate previously published in
an economic analysis by California NORML (also independently affirmed by Americans for Safe Access).
California NORML currently estimates the state's retail market for medical marijuana at
over $1 billion per year in a total adult use market of $6 billion. An initiative to legalize
and tax marijuana for adult use will be on this November's ballot (see
http://www.taxcannabis2010.org).
Opponents of legal marijuana, led by Los Angeles City Attorney Steve Cooley, have sought
to choke off the state's lucrative medical marijuana market by claiming that sales are
illegal. The state stands to lose $10s of millions in sales tax revenues and millions more
in enforcement costs if Southern California's dispensaries are closed.
"Marijuana prohibition is a losing proposition for California's taxpayers," argues Cal NORML
director Dale Gieringer, "On one hand it costs the state to arrest, prosecute, and imprison
marijuana offenders, on the other it deprives the state of valuable tax revenues."
Adult use legalization could net the state some $1.4 billion in revenues
according to the
state's Legislative Analyst's Office, or over $1.2 billion
by California NORML's estimate.
- Cal NORML Release 5/5/10
DEA Flouts Mendocino Medical Marijuana Ordinance by Raiding First Grow Permit Applicant
Posted July 10th, 2010 by canorml_admin
COVELO, Cal, Jul 7th 2010: The DEA flouted Mendocino County's newly enacted medical marijuana cultivation ordinance by raiding the first collective that had applied to the sheriff's cultivation permit program.
A multi-agency federal task force descended on the property of Joy Greenfield, 68, the first Mendo patient to pay the $1050 application fee under the ordinance, which allows collectives to grow up to 99 plants provided they comply with certain regulations. Ms Greenfield had applied in the name of her collective, "Light the Way," which opened in San Diego earlier this year. Her property had passed a preliminary inspection by Mendo sheriff's deputies shortly before the raid, and she had bought the sheriff's "zip-ties" intended to designate her plants as legal. In the days before the raid, Ms Greenfield had seen a helicopter hovering over her property; she inquired with the sheriff, who told her the copter belonged to DEA and wasn't under his control.
The agents invaded her property with guns drawn, tore out the collective's 99 plants and took Ms Greenfield's computer and cash. Ms Greenfield was not at home during the raid, but spoke on the phone to the DEA agent in charge. When she told him that she was a legal grower under the sheriff's program, the agent replied "I don't care what the sheriff says."
When she returned to her house she found it in disarray with soda cans strewn on the floor. "It was just a mess," she said, "No one should be able to tear your house apart like that."
Ms. Greenfield called the raid a "slap in the face of Mendocino's government."
The DEA has been tight-lipped about the raid, but claims it was part of a larger investigation involving other suspects.
"Here Mendo is trying to step out in front by passing this ordinance, and what do the feds do but raid the first applicant," commented Ms Greenfield's attorney, Bob Boyd of Ukiah. " The DEA is stepping all over local authorities trying to tax and regulate."
Neither Boyd nor other locals believe that the sheriff tipped off the DEA or gave them any information about permit applicants. Sheriff Allman has been highly supportive of efforts to bring local growers into the permit program. Nonetheless, observers fear that the raid will have a chilling effect.
"This raid is clear evidence that the DEA is out of control," said California NORML director Dale Gieringer. "A change in federal law is long overdue. In the meantime, the DEA needs a new director who will enforce Attorney General Holder's pledge not to interfere in state medical marijuana laws." The agency is currently directed by Michele Leonhart, a Bush holdover who has presided over numerous medical marijuana raids and has obstructed research efforts to develop marijuana for medicine. Obama has renominated her to head the agency - a move strongly opposed by drug reformers, who are calling on the administration to honor its pledge of change.