Thomas Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column, appearing twice weekly in 93 newspapers around California, with circulation of over 2.2 million. As a United States attorney in Alabama serving under President Ronald Reagan in 1986, the 39-year-old Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was charged with enforcing civil rights laws. But he said then that he didn't have much of a problem with what the Ku Klux Klan stood for, musing that he thought the KKK was "OK until I found out they smoked pot." [continues 640 words]
A sense of certainty that recreational, random marijuana use will be legalized, regulated and taxed in California after next month's election lies behind the millions of dollars invested so far in Proposition 64, which would allow adults to grow, buy and possess pot. No more medical marijuana ruses. The sense of inevitability stems partly from the experiences of Colorado and Washington state, where cannabis can be had anytime in very many places and is regulated somewhat like cigarettes. In short, not much. Polls now show between 55 and 60 percent of likely voters favor complete legalization, and national polls indicate almost exactly half of all Americans also want that. Support for freedom to use the weed has never been higher. [continues 592 words]
You've seen fire sales. They happen when goods or real estate are discounted sharply after fire damages a store or a building. But the term has new meaning in rural Calaveras County, where the devastating Butte Fire swept through thousands of acres last year, the seventh-worst wildfire in recorded California history. It's just possible that what's happening near towns like Mountain Ranch, Murphys and San Andreas could foretell at least one aspect of life in fertile parts of California if Proposition 64 passes this fall and legalizes recreational use of marijuana. [continues 662 words]
You've seen fire sales. They happen when goods or real estate are discounted sharply after fire damages a store or a building. But the term has new meaning in rural Calaveras County, where the devastating Butte Fire swept through thousands of acres last year, the seventh-worst wildfire in recorded California history. It's just possible that what's happening near towns like Murphys and San Andreas could foretell at least one aspect of life in fertile parts of California if Proposition 64 passes this fall and legalizes use of marijuana. [continues 593 words]
You've seen fire sales. They happen when goods or real estate are discounted sharply after fire damages a store or a building. But the term has new meaning in rural Calaveras County, where the devastating Butte Fire swept through thousands of acres last year, the seventh-worst wildfire in recorded California history. It's just possible that what's happening near towns like Mountain Ranch, Murphys and San Andreas could foretell at least one aspect of life in fertile parts of California if Proposition 64 passes this fall and legalizes recreational use of marijuana. [continues 660 words]
It surely looked like reefer madness was back the other day, when the state began advertising for a new medical marijuana czar. The timing of the listing, coming while a dozen proposed ballot initiatives to legalize recreational pot are pending, appeared to suggest an assumption by Gov. Jerry Brown and his administration that at least one will pass. The new pot czar, to be paid between $115,000 and $128,000 annually, would actually only be in charge of medical marijuana - to start with. (Two more putative ballot measures now authorized to seek voter signatures would make refinements to the 1996 Proposition 215, which legalized medipot.) The wide presumption is that if and when recreational marijuana is legalized, it will be regulated by the same czar as medipot, working under the state's Department of Consumer Affairs. [continues 558 words]
It surely looked like reefer madness was back the other day, when the state began advertising for a new medical marijuana czar. The timing of the listing, coming while a dozen proposed ballot initiatives to legalize recreational pot are pending, appeared to suggest an assumption by Gov. Jerry Brown and his administration that at least one will pass. The new pot czar, to be paid between $115,000 and $128,000 annually, would actually only be in charge of medical marijuana to start with. (Two more putative ballot measures now authorized to seek voter signatures would make refinements to the 1996 Proposition 215, which legalized medipot.) The wide presumption is that if and when recreational marijuana is legalized, it will be regulated by the same czar as medipot, working under the state's Department of Consumer Affairs. [continues 563 words]
As the state moves toward taxing marijuana growers for the first time, those same growers also are starting to face restrictions on water use, just like farmers of more conventional crops. One reason is that the water consumption of pot farms has caused serious depredations of salmon and trout runs in several Northern California streams, most notably the Eel River and its tributary streams in the so-called "Emerald Triangle" of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties. Marijuana has long been the largest cash crop in that region. [continues 627 words]
As the state moves toward taxing marijuana growers for the first time, those same growers also are starting to face restrictions on water use, just like farmers of more conventional crops. One reason is that the water consumption of pot farms has caused serious depredations of salmon and trout runs in several Northern California streams, most notably the Eel River and its tributary streams in the so called "Emerald Triangle" of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties. Marijuana has long been the largest cash crop in that region. [continues 637 words]
Four potential ballot initiatives completely legalizing marijuana are in the works for California's next general election, with pot advocates yet to choose the variation that will get their concerted push. But one thing for sure: Whichever one they send out for signature gathering will say nothing about the detrimental effects of the mind-altering weed, well known a proven demotivating factor for heavy users. The eventual pot legalization initiative (its official name is yet to be determined) will likely tax pot producers and dealers just like other businesses. And it will contain rules against anyone under 21 obtaining it, like measures adopted in Colorado and Washington. [continues 605 words]
The more time goes by since last fall's passage of the highminded Proposition 47, the more it begins to look like a well-intentioned mistake. This was the ballot measure that turned some "minor" felonies into misdemeanor crimes, thus easing the crowding in state prisons and many county jails. It has unquestionably helped some exfelons rebuild their lives. But as crime statistics for the first half of this year pour in from around the state, this measure looks worse and worse, on balance. The numbers are bearing out warnings Proposition 47 opponents made in their official ballot argument against the initiative before it passed by a whopping 60-40 percent margin. [continues 630 words]
The more time goes by since last fall's passage of the high-minded Proposition 47, the more it begins to look like a well-intentioned mistake. This was the ballot measure that turned some "minor" felonies into misdemeanor crimes, thus easing the crowding in state prisons and many county jails. It has unquestionably helped some ex-felons rebuild their lives. But as crime statistics for the first half of this year pour in from around the state, this measure looks worse and worse, on balance. The numbers are bearing out warnings Proposition 47 opponents made in their official ballot argument against the initiative before it passed by a whopping 60-40 percent margin. [continues 567 words]
Four potential ballot initiatives completely legalizing marijuana are in the works for California's next general election, with pot advocates yet to choose the variation that will get their concerted push. But one thing for sure: Whichever one they send out for signature gathering will say nothing about the detrimental effects of the mind-altering weed, wellknown a proven demotivating factor for heavy users. The eventual pot legalization initiative (its official name is yet to be determined) will likely tax pot producers and dealers just like other businesses. And it will contain rules against anyone under 21 obtaining it, like measures adopted in Colorado and Washington. [continues 605 words]
Four potential ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana are in the works for California's next general election, with pot advocates yet to choose the variation that will get their concerted push. But one thing for sure: Whichever one they send out for signature gathering will say nothing about the detrimental effects of the mind-altering weed, well known as a proven demotivating factor for heavy users. The eventual pot legalization initiative (its official name is yet to be determined) will likely tax pot producers and dealers just like other businesses. And it will contain rules against anyone under 21 obtaining it, like measures adopted in Colorado and Washington. [continues 522 words]
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." Robert Burns in his 1785 poem "To a Mouse." Bobby Burns couldn't have known it, but as California approaches what many experts forecast to be the worst wildfire season on record, his description of how good intentions can go awry, not always turning out as planned, might come into play here soon. Nothing but good intentions was contained in last year's Proposition 47, which passed by an overwhelming 59-41 percent margin and has since seen the release of almost 4,000 inmates from state prisons and about the same number from county jails. They were paroled or otherwise freed because the initiative converted drug use and possession, plus some other previous felony crimes, into misdemeanors with much lighter sentences. [continues 541 words]
The muscular young man with greasy hair, tattered clothing and a menacing demeanor sauntered into a Los Angeles fast food emporium the other day, his breath reeking of liquor and his demands very frank. "Give me some money," he demanded of a customer waiting for a breakfast burrito. "Not on your life, smelling the way you do," replied his intended mark. "No way am I paying for you to buy more booze." "That's not what I want," the young man scoffed. "I need my medical marijuana." [continues 704 words]
The muscular young man with greasy hair, tattered clothing and a menacing demeanor sauntered into a Los Angeles fast food emporium the other day, his breath reeking of liquor and his demands very frank. "Give me some money," he demanded of a customer waiting for a breakfast burrito. "Not on your life, smelling the way you do," replied his intended mark. "No way am I paying for you to buy more booze." "That's not what I want," the young man scoffed. "I need my medical marijuana." [continues 698 words]
When the Proposition 19 marijuana legalization initiative qualified for the ballot with a yes-or-no due vote in the November election, its passage seemed almost a foregone conclusion. Tax the approximately $12 billion pot industry in this state and you could collect $1.4 billion toward solving the state's budget deficit, not to mention helping out cash-strapped local governments. You would also take hundreds, maybe thousands, of law enforcement officers off the drug beat and allow them to go after "real criminals," said supporters of legalization. [continues 750 words]
Cannabis is not alcohol and the current confusion about marijuana does not constitute a situation anything like Prohibition. There's a sense among a lot of Californians that legalizing marijuana and then taxing it is some sort of panacea that would solve many law enforcement problems, make it safer to smoke pot and also produce a tax bonanza of $1 billion or more per year. Voters will see just such a proposal in November. Much of the pro-legalization thinking is based on analogies to the alcohol experience, which sees various forms of booze putting about $3 billion into the coffers of state and local governments each year and providing more than 300,000 jobs around the state. [continues 710 words]
Maybe it's because growers of medical marijuana are sitting ducks, not nearly as hard to find or as nasty to deal with as the Mexican drug cartels that run many large marijuana farming operations deep in forests on federal- and state-owned land, in parks and forest reserves. Maybe it's because of the enduring contradictions between state and federal laws - about to become more severe if Californians next year pass a pending initiative to flat-out legalize marijuana. For despite his campaign statements, President Obama has not ended confusion on the medipot front, dashing some hopes of patients, growers and operators of the medical marijuana dispensaries that have proliferated in many California cities. (Sure, some of those patients and dispensaries are phonies out for nothing but a high or a profit, but there are also plenty of legitimate medical users.) [continues 691 words]
