Speaking at a landmark press conference today, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced comprehensive legislation to tax and regulate the commercial production and sale of cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol.
“With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense. This legislation would generate 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”, Assemblyman 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.”
The proposal is the first marijuana legalization bill ever introduced in California.
“It’s time for California taxpayers to stop wasting money trying to enforce marijuana prohibition, and to realize the tax benefits from a legal, regulated market instead,” said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, a sponsor of the bill.
As introduced, Ammiano’s measure would allow for the licensed production and sale of cannabis to consumers age 21 and over. Licensed cultivators would pay an excise tax of $50 per ounce of cannabis. In addition, the proposal would impose a sales tax on commercial sales. (Ammiano’s proposal would not affect the state’s medical marijuana law, allowing patients and caregivers to grow their own medicine.)
If enacted, the measure would raise over $1 billion per year in state revenue, according to an economic analysis by California NORML, available online here.
Ammiano’s bill comes at a time of growing public support for legalizing marijuana. A recent Zogby poll reported that nearly six in ten west coast voters support taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol.
Faced with a $40 billion budget deficit, other public officials have joined in endorsing Ammiano’s bill, including San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessy and Betty Yee, a member of the State Board of Equalization, which oversees collection of sales taxes.
Currently, tens of millions of dollars are paid annually in state and local taxes by licensed distributors of medical marijuana. However, these sales only represent a fraction of the overall statewide marijuana market. “The millions of dollars raised each year on the sales of medicinal cannabis is only the tip of the iceberg,” Gieringer said. “Kudos to Assemblyman Ammiano for proposing a path-breaking bill that would benefit our economy, safety and freedom by making marijuana a winning proposition for California.”
How can we help make this bill pass?
Keep reading NORML Lapaul.
Join NORML and donate even it’s a small amount.
Send emails to your government “leaders”.
Send encouraging emails to California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco).
Most of all, keep the faith.
ur fuckin stupid “american with a brain” there will be no difference in the amount of people that smoke because everyone already smokes anyways. weed doesnt make you fat either, i know so many people that smoke every day and eat a lot and are hella skinny. and driving while high? its no different than alchohol. well, actually it is because drunk drivers kill people and high drivers dont, ive seen it. so fuk u and legalize it!!!
this would be so awesome if it passed
I hope so much this happens but even if it does fail and its close enough then that will still show that this is a legitamate arguement and more people will be looking into it. If more and more people learn the truths about weed then we’ll get more people on our side, remember they had to lie there ass off to get weed illegal alls we have to do is spread the truth. And as for the 50 dollar tax i think that the people growing the best will be selling so much there mark up per ounce will go down quite a bit im sure it’ll be cheaper than it is now.
LEGALIZE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is all fine and dandy, just one problem I see though. How many of us have smoked while we drank…not a good combo. We won’t have a way to test drivers who might be under the influence. Mixed with other substances, I don’t know, sounds kinda scary to me.
Hell yea california thats why im glad im from there! and hell yea ganjlover, Fuck you American with a brain obviously your against this because you probably have never done it so you dont really know what the hell your talking about in the first place. I find it funny how contradicting you are. You talk about how its a mind altering substance and that people will go kill each other when on it, which is completely ignorant of you to say because first, who is going to hurt or kill someone when high according to u it makes u lazy. I got a task for you “american with a brain” watch a documentary for me called The Union and find out what the statistic is for deaths per year affiliated with smoking weed and you might be surprised what the top 5 hell top 10 killers are in our world. The documentary also shows how your perceptions about the “so called” drug are completely wrong and proves it with actual facts and studies. Its a fucking weed…an herb! Studies have shown that weed can actually stimulate brain cells and aid people in so many ways i cant name them all and this is all with NO GOVERNMENT ADDITIVES!! How can you reject that especially when you really know nothing about it, that is just being close minded and ignorant.
LEGALIZE THE HERB!!!!
this is trully a historic day! hopefully now the pot smokers can finaly toke in peace. those in power are now realising that marijuan is an ecinomic jackpot (no pun intended) instead of the burden which it was once believed to be. and infact was forced to be a burden by the politicions which supported its criminalisation for there own monitary gains. this is a happy day but my question is will those people who are in prison for mariluana related crimes going to be released? and if marijuan is going to be regulated by the government is the quality of our chronic going to be comprimised?? im a patient so im not to worried about that since i can grow my own chronic but what about the average stoner? once his or her regular connection is put out of buisness will they be forced to smoke same kind of prerolled shwag that the government gave to the original cannabis patients? questions to ponder on. i trully hope this ends up being a good thing for the stoners and not just the government.
power to the pot head
– Doobie
McRoachclip
anyone cear to be grow partners in cali? I am a master grower from Il. WE can go 50/50.
It’s what I’ve been saying for 30 years now.Let smoke freely rise