Does California REALLY want to legalize pot?
A proposal to put the legalization of marijuana in California to a vote this November is causing some growers from the plant within the state to worry about a sharp drop within the value of their crop if the measure succeeds.
As The Los Angeles Times explained in January, when supporters from the proposed Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 turned in a lot more than sufficient signatures to get the measure about the ballot, the initiative “would make it legal for anyone 21 and older to possess an ounce of marijuana and grow plants in an region no larger than 25 square feet for personal use. It would also permit cities and counties to permit marijuana to become grown and sold, and to impose taxes on marijuana production and sales.”
On Monday, The Times-Standard newspaper in Humboldt County, a component of Northern California recognized as the “Emerald Triangle” for that density of its marijuana crop, reported:
[L]ocal business individuals, officials and those involved within the marijuana business are planning to meet Tuesday night and break a long-standing silence to talk about what supposedly is the backbone of Humboldt County’s economy — pot. A lot more specifically, the meeting will focus about the potential economic effects from the legalization of marijuana.
While the local newspaper’s report about the meeting quoted the its organizer, Anna Hamilton, by name, it did not state that she was, herself, a grower from the plant — which is legal within the state only when utilized as medication. According to The Times-Standard, Ms. Hamilton “said she is ‘intimately involved’ with the marijuana business.” That sort of coyness led Frank James to write on NPR’s news blog:
Marijuana growers tend to become a fairly secretive lot, most likely even in Humboldt, so I wonder what the attendance is going to be like and if the Drug Enforcement Agency is going to be there.
Ms. Hamilton told the local newspaper that if the county’s marijuana business prepares for legalization, there might be some positives for that region: “We need to embrace marijuana tourism, marijuana items and services — and marijuana has to become a component from the Humboldt County brand,” she said.
The ballot initiative, which is being presented in component as a method to raise tax revenues for California, is supported by Richard Lee, an Oakland businessman who makes his cash selling the drug legally. Mr. Lee also founded Oaksterdam University, which trains growers.
A campaign Web website, Taxcannabis.org, prominently features the results of a 2009 Field poll that found that “legalizing marijuana and taxing its proceeds” was supported by 56 percent of those surveyed in California.
The same Web website noted that three columnists for that Orange Country Register recently included the legalization and taxation of marijuana production in a list of ideas to assist California balance its books — along with calls to privatize the state’s prisons, suspend the fight against global warming and drill for oil within the waters near the state’s beaches.
