Schwarzenegger Says It's Time to Debate Legalizing Pot
Last week NORML reported on the results of a just-released Field Research Corporation poll that found that 56 percent of California voters agreed with the statement: “Legalize marijuana for recreational use and tax its proceeds.”
Today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked about the Field poll result, which was the third poll of 2009 demonstrating majority support for legalizing pot among west coast voters.
His reply: “I think it’s time for a debate
(regarding taxing and regulating the sale of cannabis for adults). I
think all of those ideas of creating extra revenues, I’m always for an
open debate on it. And I think we ought to study very carefully what
other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana and other
drugs, what effect did it have on those countries? It could very well be that everyone is happy with that decision and then we could move to that.“
What a difference eight weeks makes. After all, this is the same
Gov. Schwarzenegger that said in February that he vehemently opposed
California Assembly Bill 390:
The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act, which seeks to
impose a tax on the commercial production and legal retail sale of
cannabis.
And today? Well, today the Governor is singing a different tune.
“It’s time for debate. … I’m always for an open debate on it.”
So are we! Since March, NORML supporters have sent over 8,000 e-mails to their members of the California state assembly in support of AB 390, sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano. Now it’s time to start directing those thousands of e-mails, phone calls, and letters to the Governor.
Tell Gov. Schwarzenegger: “I am one of the majority of California
voters who supports taxing and regulating the use and sale of cannabis
by adults. Studies consistently show that countries that have removed
criminal penalties for the personal use of marijuana, such as Portugal and the Netherlands,
have far lower rates of cannabis use than the united States. I agree
that the time has come for an objective and public debate on this
topic. I urge you to encourage the legislature to hold hearings on this
important issue."
You can also send an automated e-mail to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office via NORML’s Take Action Center here.
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It took 13 years of prohibition, to find out it was never going to work. They didn't repeal prohibition because booze was determined to now be healthy for people. They repealed it to get rid of all the crime & corruption associated with it.
And all the cost in policing, prosecuting, and imprisoning people.
Would you send a buddy that offered you a beer from his six pack to prison for as many years as some get for drugs?
Basically that’s what you are doing with drug laws . And might have done during prohibition when it was illegal. The morality of the situation never changed, ONLY THE LAWS.
And since when is having the punishment worse than the offense done any good?
You can NOT regulate something that is illegal. The only way to regulate something is to legalize it.
Somehow, we haven't learned that lesson on the "War on Drugs" yet.
Around 80% of people in prisons are there for drug related crimes. States are going broke trying to imprison them all.
We have the highest rate of people imprisoned in the world. One out of every 100 people are in prison.
Police trying to battle drugs have abused citizens rights to the point of battering ram front doors down to enforce unenforceable laws. And this leads to mistakes & corruption in our police forces. And no knock warrants leads to deaths of sometimes innocent people.
And do I even need to mention strip searching thousands of people, including women & children , sometimes in public? (Whether they needed it or not.)
Police even had to go to multiple agency busts, to keep from having cops rip off dealers for their money , when they had just a couple cops investigating drug cases.
Addicts will commit whatever crimes they have to, in order to get money for drugs.
Disease is spread with dirty needles.
The negatives just go on and on.
All drugs should be legalized.
The knee jerk reaction from people is that everyone would then become an addict. And they think you mean legalized, with no controls.
Everyone didn't become drunks after the repeal of prohibition. And I'm sure that the same is probably true about drugs.
Even as employers don't like you coming to work drunk, they wouldn't be tolerating drug use at work either.
The government has ALL drugs lumped together, like they are all the same, but we all know there is a big difference between some of them.
If they were legalized we could at least get people off the worst of them.
After all if you can get pot, heroin, or coke, why bother with meth, PCP or crack.
LEGALIZING DRUGS WON’T GET RID OF THE DRUG USERS.
That’s not the point of legalizing them.
But it would get the drug money out of the hands of gangs, foreign mobsters, and the rest.
And with taxes it would bring in revenue to pay for programs to control it. And with a new industry we would get much needed jobs created.
And this would get rid of all the other problems associated with them, and it would give us a chance to try to 'control' the problem more, like we have done with alcohol and cigarettes.
We have fought this “War on Drugs” for decades, to continue to do the same thing and expect a different result would be insanity.
So the governor is thinking from the pocket book and long term problems legalizing drugs will cause? This is another attempt to place a bandaide on something to fix a problem, and ignoring future consequences.
Government at its worse.
How about refusing medical aid at the tune of 1 billion dollars to prisoners? Which some are for sex change operations.
Citizens need to start removing officials and replace them with common sense people. How about private businessmen?