Pubdate: Sat, 16 Jan 2016
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Author: Teri Sforza

THE POT OF GOLD IN LEGALIZED POT

Legalizing marijuana means going green, in more ways than one.

Colorado hauled in $76.2 million from taxes on marijuana sales and 
license fees in 2014. That windfall leaped nearly 71 percent - to 
about $130 million - in 2015.

Washington state pulled in $41.4 million in taxes and fees in its 
first 16 months of legal pot sales, and is on track to reap at least 
$60 million in new tax dollars in the fiscal year that ends in June.

Oregon's legal marijuana sales just began in October. The state's 
bean counters estimated new tax revenue would reach $10.7 million in 
the first two years. But pot sales that very first week surged past 
$11 million - and those in the cannabis business believe Oregon will 
haul in three to four times its sober projection when receipts are 
finally tallied.

All this makes dollar signs shine in the eyes of some Golden State 
officials. In November, California is likely to follow the lead of 
Colorado, Washington and Oregon, with several marijuana legalization 
initiatives vying for the ballot.

Support is lining up behind one initiative in particular, which would 
pump tax revenue "ranging from the high hundreds of millions of 
dollars to over $1 billion annually" into California public coffers, 
while slashing the cost of prosecuting marijuana cases by some $100 
million a year, according to the state Legislative Analyst.

Dubbed the "Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act," it 
would allow those 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of 
marijuana and cultivate up to six plants; regulate and tax the 
production, manufacture and sale of pot; and rewrite criminal penalties.

"This is it - this will be the year that California, and the United 
States of America, repeal marijuana prohibition," declared retired 
Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray, who shocked his 
then-Republican brethren by declaring the war on drugs a failure and 
calling for legalization back in the 1990s.

"Marijuana is the largest cash crop in California, larger even than 
grapes," Gray said. "It will bring in a lot of revenue to the state, 
and take away a lot of revenue from street gangs and lots of really 
bad dudes. What's to miss here?"

Legalized pot's $1 billion bounty would boost California's general 
fund by almost 1 percent, just like that. California would join the 
three renegade Western states, as well as Alaska and the District of 
Columbia, in legalizing marijuana for recreational use. And, as 
America's biggest gorilla, California would force the issue onto the 
national stage in a way that could no longer be ignored in Washington, D.C.

"If California votes for legalization - and Massachusetts is another 
big one people are looking at right now - we'll have something like 
one-third of the country saying marijuana is legal for all adults," 
said Sam Kamin, a professor specializing in marijuana law at the 
University of Denver, who has been watching the Colorado experiment 
unfold. "That would put a lot of pressure on the federal government 
to finally change."

The problem: Despite state laws saying marijuana is legal, it remains 
verboten under federal law. Cannabis is a Schedule I drug under the 
Controlled Substances Act, lumped with heroin and LSD as a highly 
addictive drug that has "no currently accepted medical use."

In spite of that, more than 20 states - including California - have 
passed medical marijuana laws on the belief that it does, indeed, 
have medical efficacy. California kicked it all off in 1996 when 
voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, with 56 
percent in favor.

The past 20 years of implementation, regulation and enforcement have 
been extremely problematic and uneven from one end of the Golden 
State to the other. But recent efforts to standardize the regulation 
of medical marijuana would be drafted into service by the passing of 
a state initiative legalizing recreational use of marijuana.

The last time Californians voted on marijuana legalization - back in 
2010 - they said no, with 53.5 percent voting against.

Critics then and now fear that the drug will get into the hands of 
minors and lead to more driving under the influence.

But times have changed, and legalization now stands a solid chance of 
passing, with 55 percent of likely voters saying that marijuana 
should be legal, according to a poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy 
Institute of California released last April.

In 2010, only 49 percent of likely voters said the same in 
pre-election polling. That's a sizeable six-point increase.

"Majority support for marijuana legalization is a consistent finding 
in our recent polls, and a change from a few years ago that coincides 
with legalization in other states," said Mark Baldassare, president 
and CEO of the PPIC.

"The fact that marijuana legalization could be a major source of 
revenue growth and cost savings will be important to fiscally 
conservative California voters," Baldassare said. "Still, there will 
be many questions about how to implement a new law in the current 
state and federal context."

Supporters need to gather about 366,000 signatures to qualify the 
initiative for the November ballot, a task made easier by the 
half-million dollars that former Facebook president Sean Parker has 
tossed into the kitty.

It costs about $2 million to $3 million to gather the requisite signatures.

"There are lots of good reasons to legalize, but money isn't 
necessarily one of them," said Kamin, the University of Colorado law 
professor. "It's not going to make you rich, and you don't want the 
government to become dependent on people smoking pot for revenue.

"I just happen to be one of those people who has concluded that the 
costs of marijuana prohibition are higher than the costs of legalization."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom