California Takes First Legislative Steps Towards LEGALIZATION Of Marijuana

[Hardrock69]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/12/us/AP-US-Marijuana-Legalization.html?_r=1


Committee Approves Calif. Pot Legalization Bill

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 12, 2010

Filed at 7:39 p.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A bill seeking to legalize marijuana in California won initial approval from a legislative committee Tuesday in what may be a purely symbolic vote because a second committee likely won't take it up in time.

The state Assembly's public safety committee voted 4-3 on the measure that would tax and regulate marijuana in the same way alcohol is controlled.

But the health committee also must approve the measure by Friday before the full Assembly can consider it, an unlikely scenario.

The health committee is not considering the bill during its meeting Tuesday. And the bill's backers would have to get a special waiver to reconvene the health committee later this week.

If the bill does die, a spokesman for the bill's author, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, said the San Francisco Democrat would hold off on reintroducing legislation until after the November election, which could feature a marijuana legalization ballot proposition.

Though the successful committee vote could end up being purely symbolic, pot advocates hailed it as an important step forward.

''We're thrilled,'' said Stephen Gutwillig of the Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-legalization group. ''This to me, this is the formal beginning of the end of marijuana prohibition in the United States.''

The legislation would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess, grow and sell marijuana. The state would charge a $50-per-ounce fee and a 9 percent tax on retail sales.

State tax collectors have estimated the bill could bring in nearly $1.4 billion in revenue.

Under the bill, much of that money would go to fund drug abuse education and prevention programs. Republican Assemblyman Danny Gilmore ridiculed that idea during the hearing at the state Capitol.

''We're going to legalize marijuana, we're going to tax it, and then we're going to educate our kids about the harms of drugs?'' said Gilmore, a 31-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol. ''You've got to be kidding me.''

If the legislation fails to arrive on the Assembly floor this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely not be forced to take a stand on marijuana legalization before he is termed out of office early next year.

At an appearance in Mountain View on Tuesday, he reiterated his support for debate on the issue, though he believes in the current law that makes the sale of marijuana illegal except for medical purposes.

The opinions of the state's politicians could be rendered moot in November, however, if voters approve a proposed ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana under limited circumstances.

Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee, the initiative's main backer, has said supporters have obtained far more than the necessary 434,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

The Tax and Regulate Cannabis 2010 campaign is expected to submit those signatures for approval later this month.

One way they could continue to kick in door and arrest people would be for Tax Evasion.

Back in the late 1970s I was in a band in the Puget Sound area. A friend of ours was the president of a local chapter of a biker gang. I used to buy smoke from him occasionally, and my band would play all the biker parties they had.

One day I went over to his pad and found he had been raided. His pot was not confiscated. He WAS charged with Tax Evasion. Thereafter, whenever I bought smoke from him, he filled out a receipt. An ounce of Columbian Gold was going for $25 dollars back then, and the receipt would read something like:

1 Oz. - $23.50
Tax - $ 1.50
Total: $25.00

Wanna bet they pass the referendum scheduled for November? Once it is signed into law, the Feds are going to have to make up their minds as to what they are going to do about this.

[kwame k]

From what is coming out of Washington.......they are not going to interfere with a State's decision.

[Nitro Express]

So Californians can legally get high because they have outsourced their economy, taxed what's left to oblivian, and tossed the scraps to illegal alliens.

[kwame k]

What better reason to get high.

[LEFTY is Gar's Bitch]

smoking pot is the best.

[standin]

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[ace diamond]

What better reason to get high.

you said it.
this state is fucked.
might as well JUMP!!!

[blonddgirl777]

Are they going to do this already?
They've been talkin' 'bout it for a while now!

[ace diamond]

Are they going to do this already?
They've been talkin' 'bout it for a while now!

nope. it's the usual stroking.
purely symbolic.
if they do, it'll be 100,000 light years from now.

[Hardrock69]

No, California will do it this November, like it sez in the article.

The Feds, though, that is a different matter. Even though we have a Pres who ADMITTED he has smoked pot and INHALED (his exact quote was "that was the point, wasn't it?"), all of the idiot Retardlicans will do anything to prevent it from happening.

Yet look what happened when we tried to take their fucking booze away in the 30s. The Mafia began to murder people left and right, and made billions bootlegging. Just like the drug cartels are doing now. :mad:

[Golden AWe]

Home growing should be legal pretty much everywhere. Selling marijuana not. Period.

[standin]

Yes, on a global scale, not just the back roads of the American landscape. It is now the backlands of the world. In addition, praying on some of the weakest most enervated unsophisticated desperate peoples of the world.

And doing it with a Jim Jones vigor.



Al Qaeda linked to rogue aviation network
By Tim Gaynor and Tiemoko Diallo Tim Gaynor And Tiemoko Diallo – Wed Jan 13, 11:53 am ET
TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) – In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called "the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11."

The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa's most unstable countries.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat.

The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops, executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of al Qaeda are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to Europe, the officials say.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been held responsible for car and suicide bombings in Algeria and Mauritania.

Gunmen and bandits with links to AQIM have also stepped up kidnappings of Europeans for ransom, who are then passed on to AQIM factions seeking ransom payments.

The aircraft hopscotch across South American countries, picking up tons of cocaine and jet fuel, officials say. They then soar across the Atlantic to West Africa and the Sahel, where the drugs are funneled across the Sahara Desert and into Europe.

An examination of documents and interviews with officials in the United States and three West African nations suggest that at least 10 aircraft have been discovered using this air route since 2006. Officials warn that many of these aircraft were detected purely by chance. They caution that the real number involved in the networks is likely considerably higher.

Alexandre Schmidt, regional representative for West and Central Africa for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, cautioned in Dakar this week that the aviation network has expanded in the past 12 months and now likely includes several Boeing 727 aircraft.

The rest of a very interesting article
Al Qaeda linked to rogue aviation network - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_drugs_security_aviation)




No, California will do it this November, like it sez in the article.

The Feds, though, that is a different matter. Even though we have a Pres who ADMITTED he has smoked pot and INHALED (his exact quote was "that was the point, wasn't it?"), all of the idiot Retardlicans will do anything to prevent it from happening.

Yet look what happened when we tried to take their fucking booze away in the 30s. The Mafia began to murder people left and right, and made billions bootlegging. Just like the drug cartels are doing now. :mad:

[standin]

Home growing should be legal pretty much everywhere. Selling marijuana not. Period.

That's an interesting concept.

[Hardrock69]

Legalizing the one would cancel out the need for the other.

Damn...could you imagine the home dope fests that would result?

"Hey! Check out this cool Afghani-Thai cross-strain! It will make you see stars!" :D

[blonddgirl777]

We call it weed for a reason.
It would be one of those things that grows in your backyard, without any effort. While grooming your usual garden, you just sit and watch that one grow and dream of the day it's ripend' for the pickn'...

[blonddgirl777]

What better reason to get high.

Hi Kwame!
Are you gonna turn this one into yet, another stoner thread? :biggrin:

[Hardrock69]

Back in the 80s I lived in a duplex. My best friend lived on the other side. We TRIED to grow pot, but it always ended up in failure. We discovered that just tossing the seeds out in the back yard, the weed would grow all by itself without any help from us.

We let one plant grow just behind the garage. I had an old junk van parked there, and pretty much the only way you would know the plant was there was if you were in the back yard. It grew to be about 6 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter.....sort of a pot bush. About October of that year, we decided to harvest it, as it was growing taller and beginning to be obvious. We got a quarter pound out of it, and it was pretty good stuff.

Without having to do a fucking thing to it. :D

[kwame k]

Hi Kwame!
Are you gonna turn this one into yet, another stoner thread? :biggrin:

Hey......been a long time Blondie! How the hell are you?

Of course I'll turn it into a stoner thread.....would you expect anything else?;)

[blonddgirl777]

Haaaa... I got here just on time... For that pot thread!
Just like I always get aroung the pot circle, just on time... For a puff!

[kwame k]

:biggrin:

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Haaaa... I got here just on time... For that pot thread!
Just like I always get aroung the pot circle, just on time... For a puff!

puff, puff....give

[kwame k]

Really growing pot is as easy as HR said.

I got into growing it in the 90's indoors. Used a 1,000 watt metal halide bulb for the veg part and a sodium bulb for the budding part. I did 6 or 7 plants per cycle, never sold any of it and never got caught.

I'm actually going to start growing again and can even admit it, cause I'm legal here in CO:hee:

[blonddgirl777]

puff, puff....give

Don't you hate the one who puffs too much and takes too long to pass?

[kwame k]

Don't you hate the one who puffs too much and takes too long to pass?


Yes I do.....now pass that fucking thing BG;)

[blonddgirl777]

Really growing pot is as easy as HR said.

I got into growing it in the 90's indoors. Used a 1,000 watt metal halide bulb for the veg part and a sodium bulb for the budding part. I did 6 or 7 plants per cycle, never sold any of it and never got caught...

If I was high right now, I'd swear I'd be reading my husband!
Same exact experience... I bet you used the growrocks?

[blonddgirl777]

Yes I do.....now pass that fucking thing BG;)


Or the one that keeps talking with it in his/her hand without smoking and doesn't pass it... :pullinghair:

[blonddgirl777]

Playin' drums on Sonor and growin' weed...
My kinda guy!

Wait, do you have those cheezy sweat pants with the logo on one leg?
I can't bare to see those anymore! L.O.L.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Really growing pot is as easy as HR said.

I got into growing it in the 90's indoors. Used a 1,000 watt metal halide bulb for the veg part and a sodium bulb for the budding part. I did 6 or 7 plants per cycle, never sold any of it and never got caught.

I'm actually going to start growing again and can even admit it, cause I'm legal here in CO:hee:

we did a hydro set up years ago. 16 plants per tray. got very stinky in the hood, and scary. wouldn't do it again, but a great learning experience.:)

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Or the one that keeps talking with it in his/her hand without smoking and doesn't pass it... :pullinghair:

ya tell 'em, "pass that!" and they look down "what?..ooohhh"

[blonddgirl777]

Tell me Kwame,

Did you have that air thing? Jeez... I was to high to remember how it was called; A device placed in the ceiling to change the air and eliminate the smell... It worked!

[blonddgirl777]

ya tell 'em, "pass that!" and they look down "what?..ooohhh"

They are too high to remember the joint!

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Tell me Kwame,

Did you have that air thing? Jeez... I was to high to remember how it was called; A device placed in the ceiling to change the air and eliminate the smell... It worked!

atomizer? maybe?

[PETE'S BROTHER]

sorry kwame, not tryin' to answer your questions.


just a thread subject that i LOVE.

[kwame k]

Tell me Kwame,

Did you have that air thing? Jeez... I was to high to remember how it was called; A device placed in the ceiling to change the air and eliminate the smell... It worked!


No I didn't...I think it's called an Ionizer or something like that. I lived in SE Portland, OR when I was growing and every one of my neighbor's were potheads, too.

[kwame k]

sorry kwame, not tryin' to answer your questions.


just a thread subject that i LOVE.

No worries, Bro.....now pass that fucking joint;)

[kwame k]

Playin' drums on Sonor and growin' weed...
My kinda guy!

Wait, do you have those cheezy sweat pants with the logo on one leg?
I can't bare to see those anymore! L.O.L.

Sadly, my logo pants wore out years ago;)

[kwame k]

If I was high right now, I'd swear I'd be reading my husband!
Same exact experience... I bet you used the growrocks?
:biggrin: You have good taste in men, then:)

[PETE'S BROTHER]

No worries, Bro.....now pass that fucking joint;)

i use a pinchie box most of the time now. very convenient and saves some weed.

[kwame k]

i use a pinchie box most of the time now. very convenient and saves some weed.

Ah, that brings back memories........

[blonddgirl777]

... when I was growing and every one of my neighbor's were potheads, too.

And I bet you where everybody's "best friend" too?
Funny how people tend to hang around the house when you grow...
Back then it was cool but now, I couldn't stand that lifestyle anymore!

[kwame k]

And I bet you where everybody's "best friend" too?
Funny how people tend to hang around the house when you grow...
Back then it was cool but now, I couldn't stand that lifestyle anymore!

Exactly.....if I was to grow again it would be more of a hobby kinda thang;)

[LEFTY is Gar's Bitch]

pot makes me horny.

[Hardrock69]

Shut up, Gar whore

[Hardrock69]

I was talking to a friend in Washington this evening. People in the State of Washington are getting legalization as a ballot initiative in November also it seems.

Wash. Activists File Initiative to Legalize Pot - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9539821)




Wash. Activists File Initiative to Legalize Pot
APNewsBreak: Wash. activists file initiative to legalize all adult marijuana possession
By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE January 12, 2010 (AP)

Five activists filed a ballot initiative Monday that would legalize all adult marijuana possession, manufacturing and sales under Washington state law — one of the most sweeping efforts at marijuana reform playing out around the country this year.

Its sponsors include two Seattle lawyers and the director of Seattle's annual Hempfest. They call themselves Sensible Washington, and say that in a time of dire budget woes, the state's government should stop spending money on police, court and jail costs for people who use or produce marijuana.

Douglas Hiatt, a lawyer who represents medical marijuana patients, told The Associated Press the proposal would remove all state criminal penalties for adults who possess, grow and distribute pot — no matter how much. Criminal penalties for juveniles who possess marijuana and for those who provide the drug to juveniles would remain in place.

Driving under the influence of the drug also would still be against the law. And marijuana would remain illegal under federal law.

"It basically tells the federal government, 'Hey it's your prohibition — if you want it, you pay for it,'" Hiatt said. "We're tired of screwing around and wasting all this dough."

Volunteers are lining up to collect the more than 241,000 signatures required to place the initiative on the November ballot, Hiatt said.

The campaign has competition in Washington. One bill introduced here would legalize and regulate marijuana, while another would decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot, making it punishable by a fine rather than jail time.

Legalization bills have also been introduced in California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Nevada, and a group campaigning to place a marijuana legalization measure before California voters said last month that it has enough signatures to qualify for this year's ballot.

Alison Holcomb, drug policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, which is lobbying for the decriminalization bill, said she supports any effort to engage the public in discussing marijuana law reform, but she couldn't comment specifically on the initiative without reading it.

"If there were decriminalization of transfers of small amounts of marijuana not for profit, that might be one way to undermine the cartels' bottom line," she said. "But I think the push-back would be, are you just giving the gangsters a get-out-of-jail-free card in Washington state? Are you setting up incentives for criminal elements to come here and set up shop?"

Hiatt disputed that notion, saying the drug flourishes on the black market only because it is illegal. Furthermore, federal agents wouldn't stand for large-scale marijuana trafficking, he said.

He cited one recent study suggesting Washington could save tens of millions of dollars a year on law enforcement costs if marijuana was legal.

Hiatt said he was inspired to file the initiative in part by a recent conversation with Mason County prosecutor Gary Burleson, who told him to "put your money where your mouth is" and get an initiative before voters.

In an interview Monday, Burleson said he doesn't necessarily support legalizing marijuana — and certainly not in the unlimited, unregulated way the initiative proposes. But he said he's frustrated with Washington's complicated medical marijuana law, which authorizes patients to possess marijuana but is vague about how they can obtain it.

"Wouldn't legalizing this answer a whole lot of questions?" he said. "Aren't we just beating around the edges with all of these legal nuances?

"I don't have a problem with marijuana being legal, and I don't have a problem with it being illegal," Burleson said. "But right now, I have a big problem understanding what's legal and what's not."

[Panamark]

Just legalize all drugs already...

Its the most obvious thing on earth.
Organized crime would be fucked within 24 hours.

[blonddgirl777]

Just legalize all drugs already...

Its the most obvious thing on earth.
Organized crime would be fucked within 24 hours.

O.K. about the organized crime factor but still, I don't know if I'd like to see everdy drugs out there to be legalized... Like Crack ...??? :umm:

It's been said that pain killers are responsible for mor deaths than all the street drugs brought together. They are very accessible and people don't fell like drug additcs when using them.

In my spam mail box, I get those "offers"... Last time it went: "X-Mas clearence, 50% off..." You chose, you pay and they ship... Anything! (so they claim). That crap being legal is just as dangerous than any other drugs out there.

I don't know maybe you're right... :umm:

[Nitro Express]

Some drugs historically have been used as weapons. Read up on the opium wars. It became such a problem the Chinese had to threaten people with death to stop the addiction. You can destroy a society with certain drugs. I played around with drugs in my younger years but now I'm pretty much drug free. I don't even drink that much anymore; even though, I'm a partner in a distillery operation. I could be drunk all the time.

[Nitro Express]

We call it weed for a reason.
It would be one of those things that grows in your backyard, without any effort. While grooming your usual garden, you just sit and watch that one grow and dream of the day it's ripend' for the pickn'...

My mom said when she was a little girl it grew like a weed on my grandfather's farm. It was considered a neusance because if the horses or livestock wandered into it and ate it, they would go crazy. She said they would go around and chop it down and it did grow like a weed.

When the war on drugs started one government official given the task of getting rid of marajuana said he just looked at bunches of it growing down the banks of the Patomac river by Washington DC and he thought, we are supposed to get rid of this weed? I think this was in the 1930's. It used to grow all over but the white people didn't smoke it and it was looked down as being a black/mexican low life substance.

[Nitro Express]

I knew a guy who used to grow live rock and coral cultures for salt water aquariums. He had huge heated green houses full of tanks and lots of lamps. He grew some beautiful pot as well. He didn't want to get busted so the cheeba was only for him and close friends.

[Nitro Express]

Pot growing is almost like the 4-H Club or the country fair. Everyone is way into growing the prize winning agriculture and then at harvest, everyone is trying to outdo the other. They are obsessed with the whole process and out for perfection. Everyone wants the Canibus Cup.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

we had a cross between "white rhino" and "bubblegum", god i miss that shite.

[Panamark]

O.K. about the organized crime factor but still, I don't know if I'd like to see everdy drugs out there to be legalized... Like Crack ...??? :umm:

It's been said that pain killers are responsible for mor deaths than all the street drugs brought together. They are very accessible and people don't fell like drug additcs when using them.

In my spam mail box, I get those "offers"... Last time it went: "X-Mas clearence, 50% off..." You chose, you pay and they ship... Anything! (so they claim). That crap being legal is just as dangerous than any other drugs out there.

I don't know maybe you're right... :umm:


If you want to take crack, you will take crack, and find it.
Legalize the whole shebang and dispense it via medically
controlled outlets. We have this in Sydney for the heroin addicts, we
call em shootin galleries. They are given a little kit with clean needle,
all the swabs etc, proper disposal and also nurses who can
call medics if they OD. They have been very successful, they are
legal, so even though being in posession of Heroin etc is illegal
cops cant bust you in these premises (or on the way) as its
all govt sanctioned. If people want to live as junkies, they will
anyway, may aswell kill organized crime and have caring eyes
watching them.

[Golden AWe]

Legalizing the one would cancel out the need for the other.

Exactly, exactly...at least here in Finland.

Our culture is not exactly ready for legal pot growing yet, but chasing private pot smokers is fucking dumb and expensive, when it comes to police funds...they should cuntcentrate on hard drug criminals...and cut their share of pot sales.

[Hardrock69]

The 10 Most Successful Potheads on the Planet… Cool Enough to Admit It : COED Magazine (http://coedmagazine.com/2009/02/06/the-10-most-successful-potheads-on-the-planet-cool-enough-to-admit-it/)