SACRAMENTO - The attorney general's office has been so inundated with marijuana legalization measures that it's been hard to separate the wheat from the chaff - or the stems from the buds, to use a more appropriate analogy. It costs less than the average price of an ounce of the stuff to file a statewide initiative, so it's been unclear which ones might emerge with enough financial backing to get on the ballot and maybe even win approval. That has all changed. In November, former Facebook President Sean Parker backed something called the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. Parker is a billionaire who has said he will dedicate millions to the effort. The proposal also earned the backing of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the 2018 gubernatorial candidate who headed the state's blue-ribbon commission on marijuana. [continues 675 words]
Tax Agency Estimates That Cannabis Industry Is a Growing Source of Revenues SACRAMENTO - The state's cannabis industry is learning that its expanding freedoms may come with a stiff price tag. In 1996, the state's voters approved Proposition 215, which legalized the sale and purchase of marijuana for medical purposes. It was hailed as a victory for freedom, but the initiative's details were hazy and the state has struggled for two decades to figure out how to tax and regulate it - especially given the feds still treat marijuana as a banned narcotic. [continues 764 words]
Regulators, Legislators Paving the Way for Expected Legalization SACRAMENTO - A colleague and I were standing in a hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh City in 2000 as part of a trip reporting on the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. He went to light up a cigarette, paused, and then asked the hotel clerk if that was allowed. The Vietnamese nationals we were chatting with broke out laughing. Of course, that was OK! This led to a lively discussion about the regulations we have in California. The chat covered far more than indoor-tobacco rules, although it was short and hardly comprehensive. Our Vietnamese friends were in disbelief that, in some instances, people in "free" America faced more regulations than in their communist country. [continues 732 words]
Sacramento - It's commonplace for legislators and commentators to criticize the "excesses" of direct democracy and propose reforms that limit the ability of voters to enact laws - or at least insert lawmakers more deeply into the initiative process. Yet a recently passed bill, approved in the final moments of the recently concluded legislative session, showcases why voters continue to take important matters into their own hands. The issue is medical marijuana. After struggling to put together regulations dealing with this quasi-legal industry, a bipartisan group of legislators - with last-minute negotiating from the governor's office - passed a package of bills. The most significant is AB 266, which "establishes a comprehensive licensing and regulatory framework for the cultivation, manufacture, transportation, storage, distribution, and sale of medical marijuana ... ." [continues 574 words]
SACRAMENTO - President Franklin D. Roosevelt cheered the end of Prohibition in 1933 with these famous words: "What America needs now is a drink." Roosevelt and other federal officials had been expecting the demise of America's widely panned policy of banning the sale, transportation, production and importation of booze. As various states put an end to the prohibition of marijuana, I've heard of no politicians extolling Americans to enjoy a good "toke" - but many are nevertheless plotting the regulatory and tax strategies for a post-legalization world. To many California officials, the issue is not whether to legalize recreational uses in a state that 19 years ago approved medical marijuana. It's about when change will happen and what the world is going to look like after it does. [continues 2760 words]
In expectation of legalization, state officials are charting the regulatory and tax framework for a coming marijuana boom President Franklin D. Roosevelt cheered the end of Prohibition in 1933 with these famous words: "What America needs now is a drink." Roosevelt and other federal officials had been expecting the demise of America's widely panned policy of banning the sale, transportation, production and importation of booze. As various states put an end to the prohibition of marijuana, I've heard of no politicians extolling Americans to enjoy a good "toke" - but many are nevertheless plotting the regulatory and tax strategies for a post-legalization world. To many California officials, the issue is not whether to legalize recreational uses in a state that 19 years ago approved medical marijuana. It's about when change will happen and what the world is going to look like after it does. [continues 2441 words]
In this week's Back Story, California columnist Steven Greenhut discusses his San Diego In Depth article about California's approach to coming marijuana legalization ballot measures. Q: How did the idea for this story come up? A: The topic is driven by news events. Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Washington, D.C., have voted to legalize recreational marijuana. We're seeing legalization play out with different regulatory frameworks - and to varying degrees of success - in Colorado and Washington. Voters in California and some other states may consider legalization on the 2016 ballot. Recently, California legislators have considered a bill to give local governments more control over medical-marijuana clinics and state authorities held hearings on taxing the marijuana industry. There is a lot going on. [continues 570 words]
Sacramento - Recent news stories and studies have documented the degree to which California law enforcement agencies use something called "civil asset forfeiture" to take cars, cash and even real estate from people who have never been accused of a crime. They need only offer probable cause the property has been used in the commission of a crime - and then it is fair game. There is so much financial incentive that some police agencies are accused of focusing their limited resources on forfeiture-related matters that bolster their budgets rather than on traditional crime fighting. It's outrageous. [continues 611 words]
Sacramento - Regardless of one's take on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on Friday forbidding states from banning same-sex marriage, it's clear the ruling didn't come in a vacuum. Analysts said the court "created" a new civil right, but public attitudes have shifted dramatically in recent years. The court simply gave its blessing to a cultural change that already has taken place. We see another long-in-the-making social change on the issue of marijuana. A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found 55 percent of likely California voters in favor of legalizing weed for recreational uses. Support for such an idea was barely perceptible decades ago. [continues 588 words]
Sacramento - California authorities are notoriously creative when it comes to wringing as much tax revenue as possible out of the state's businesses, yet they are leaving money on the table because of their failure to come up with a simple way for medical-marijuana dispensaries to pay their tab. Voters legalized this business 19 years ago with the passage of Proposition 215. But an uncertain federal legal status has complicated the matter since then. The state only collects a small percentage of the sales-and-use taxes these businesses owe, although a new program is attempting to address the imbalance. [continues 621 words]
Sacramento - In 2008, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms received bad publicity after it handed out to employees pocketknives engraved with "ATF" spelled out: Always Think Forfeiture. The agency was, in essence, caught encouraging its employees to seize as much property as possible under controversial civil asset-forfeiture programs. ATF stopped giving out the pocketknives, but federal, state and local agencies have come to depend increasingly on seized assets to bolster their budgets. Many new "toys" departments buy - fancy new vehicles, military-style equipment, weaponry and gadgets - are funded this way. [continues 635 words]
The federal agents who cracked down on the illegal distribution of alcoholic beverages traditionally were called "revenuers." I always liked the simple honesty of the term, given that the main goal of the revenuers was, as the name implied, to track down moonshining scofflaws who didn't pay their taxes. Federal agents long-ago shed that title, but sometimes it seems as if federal law is more about collecting revenues than anything more ennobling. At issue are civil-forfeiture laws, which allow officials to seize property that may have been used in a crime even if the owner has not been convicted or even charged with anything. The lure of revenues, some say, has distorted police priorities as money-hungry agencies think more about grabbing property than they do about fairly applying the law. An ongoing case in Southern California illustrates the problem. [continues 657 words]
The election reaffirmed the big-government status quo, but there was one good sign from the national results, as voters in Washington and Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana. SACRAMENTO - When it comes to real political change, the people almost always are light years ahead of the politicians, most of whom are so worried about re-election that they take only carefully crafted positions that appeal to their core constituencies. If anything, the general election reaffirmed the big-government status quo, but there was one good sign from the national results, as voters in Washington and Colorado passed, with strong majorities, measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Voters ignored the hysteria of Republican and Democratic politicians and did the right thing. [continues 932 words]
SACRAMENTO - When it comes to real political change, the people almost always are light years ahead of the politicians, most of whom are so worried about re-election that they take only carefully crafted positions that appeal to their core constituencies. If anything, the general election reaffirmed the big-government status quo, but there was one good sign from the national results, as voters in Washington and Colorado passed, with strong majorities, measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Voters ignored the hysteria of Republican and Democratic politicians and did the right thing. [continues 918 words]
SACRAMENTO - When it comes to real political change, the people almost always are light years ahead of the politicians, most of whom are so worried about re-election that they take only carefully crafted positions that appeal to their core constituencies. If anything, the general election reaffirmed the big-government status quo, but there was one good sign from the national results, as voters in Washington and Colorado passed, with strong majorities, measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Voters ignored the hysteria of Republican and Democratic politicians and did the right thing. [continues 913 words]
Sure, we're faced with seemingly insurmountable problems, but I'm heartened by the efforts of diverse groups of Californians to limit government and create a more freedom-friendly future. I, as a nattering nabob, see negativism everywhere. The Legislature manages to do just about everything wrong. The Obama administration - like the Bush administration - is an embarrassment bordering on a disaster. Debt is rising, freedom is receding, and our governments keep getting bigger and more wasteful. But even I can't avoid the hopeful signs apparent almost everywhere. I spoke Tuesday to about 300 conservatives in Silicon Valley about the problem of public employee pensions. This group was energized by local election prospects in November. It's a long shot for conservatives to expect big wins in the Bay Area, but don't try telling that to any of the activists who were in attendance. Up the road, in San Francisco, Public Defender Jeff Adachi jumped through the final legal hurdle recently and has placed a serious pension reform measure on the November ballot. If reform can happen in San Francisco, it can happen anywhere. [continues 856 words]
Sacramento - If the California Republican Party were serious about its oft-stated calls for limiting government, then it should be championing an initiative on the November ballot that would reduce government interference in our lives, increase the efficiency of law-enforcement, protect property rights and help fill the gaping hole in the state budget by following the principles of the marketplace. To make it even more enticing, this initiative echoes arguments advocated by free-market heroes Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley. Even better, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, the longtime market critic, has been stumping against this seemingly popular measure. [continues 890 words]
When it comes to foreign affairs, Americans are used to debating progress or setbacks in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the recent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. We're used to thinking about death and destruction thousands of miles from home and, as a result, we tend to debate these matters based more on glancing impressions drawn from newspapers, television or Web sites rather than personal knowledge or the knowledge of people who live in war zones. But what if I mentioned that thousands of people have been killed -- 7,337 at last count -- since 2007 in open warfare along our own southern border? [continues 1048 words]
When it comes to foreign affairs, Americans are used to debating progress or setbacks in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or on the Israeli invasion last month of the Gaza Strip. We're used to thinking about death and destruction thousands of miles from home and, as a result, tend to debate these matters based more on glancing impressions, quick reads of newspapers and Web sites and sound bites rather than personal knowledge or the knowledge of those who live in the countries at issue. [continues 1054 words]
When it comes to foreign affairs, Americans are used to debating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or on the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. We're used to thinking about death and destruction thousands of miles from home and, as a result, tend to debate these matters based more on glancing impressions, quick reads of newspapers and Web sites and sound bites, rather than personal knowledge or the knowledge of those who live in the countries at issue. What if I mentioned that thousands of people have been killed -- 7,337 at last count -- since 2007 in open warfare just a short drive from here? What if I noted that the violence has altered the lives of many neighbors, friends and co-workers, who have family members who dwell in the heart of the war zone? What if I added that, because of this war, we place our lives in jeopardy by simply visiting our favorite vacation spots? Would that cause you to think twice about your foreign-policy priorities? [continues 887 words]
