Prop. 19 stirs up both sides: Weed war
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The marijuana tug-of-war — with supporters likely endorsing a hemp rope — is gaining intensity as a state ballot measure to legalize the drug is less than 100 days away.
Those with a lot of TLC for THC — tetrahydrocannabinol, the main ingredient in weed — hope a passing vote for Proposition 19 allows pot smokers 21 and older to come out of the living room and, at the same time, add a chunk of cash to the state treasury.
Opponents, however, won’t go down without a fight, including the California Police Chiefs Association, which includes Vallejo’s Robert Nichelini, Benicia’s Sandra Spagnoli and Vacaville’s Rich Word. All three said in separate interviews that passage of Prop. 19 will lead to serious legal, safety and enforcement problems.
Those notions are rejected by one local backer of the mesaure.
“All too often,” said and Prop. 19 steering committee member Paul Armentano, a Vallejo author, “marijuana policy is guided by rhetoric, by ideology, by scare tactics.
“And it’s led to a
failed policy.
What we
need to have is a logical, rational policy that says, ‘Marijuana is already here,’ ” he believes.
“Tens of millions of Americans continue to use marijuana despite prohibition. We’re not talking about another vice in society. We’re talking about how we come to terms with a vice that already exists.
“We don’t regulate alcohol because it’s innocuous. We regulate it because it has potential for harm and we have laws and regulations
treating it appropriately. The same principal applies to marijuana.”
With billions spent on marijuana not going to local and state governments via taxes, “it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Armentano said.
Opponents say otherwise.
“There’s going to be a very broad coalition opposing this that will include law enforcement,” said John Lovell, a Sacramento lobbyist who represents the CPCA and other law enforcement groups. “We’ll educate people as to what this measure really entails.”
Vallejo Police Chief Nichelini said his “official statement” is that “until the federal government decides that marijuana is a legal substance, the states shouldn’t be trying to somehow skirt federal law.”
Armentano argues that medicinal marijuana is already legal in 14 states, “yet deemed illegal by the feds.”
“That’s my biggest argument against legalizing it in California,” Nichelini responded. “If it’s not legal under federal law, how can California decide to legalize something that’s illegal? It’s like saying it’s OK to counterfeit money in California, that for every $20 bill you print, give us $1.”
Nichelini added that the federal government needs to maintain continuity when it comes to the “medicinal marijuana” dispensaries.
“The last administration went after these dispensaries like crazy,” Nichelini said. “This administration is different, which shouldn’t happen.”
Still, Nichelini doesn’t believe the CPCA should either endorse or reject a ballot issue. “I think we’re the enforcement arm,” he said. “We should do what the people want. If people want to legalize marijuana, then legalize marijuana.”
Benicia’s Spagnoli agreed with the CPCA’s general opposition.
“I can tell you that marijuana is a ‘gateway’ drug for youth and if they have greater accessibility to this ‘gateway’ drug, we will see the same impacts as alcohol,” Spagnoli said, believing there will be increased accidents due to impairments and a greater likelihood the marijuana user will abuse stronger drugs.
“This law will have a negative impact on the youth in our communities, and other states have already learned this,” Spagnoli said.
Legalizing marijuana is not good for communities, said Vacaville’sWord. “I am deeply concerned about Proposition 19 and what it could mean for law enforcement and our cities if it passes,” he said. “I cannot see how making marijuana more readily available will improve public safety.”
The bill, said Spagnoli, encourages illegal growing. “For illegal cultivation — largely the province of organized criminal cartels — is reduced to a $100 fine,” Spagnoli said.
Hogwash, says Armentano. “The initiative specifically would allow personal growing by adults, but limit such grows to no more than a 5-by-5- foot space per parcel,” he said. “The implication that such small, personal grows is ‘largely the province of organized criminal cartels’ is ludicrous.”
Other negatives, said Spagnoli, include: Lowering the penalties to $100 for selling to children; no money is raised for the general fund; dramatic increase in availability of marijuana, permitting the sale at all liquor stores, groceries and drug stores that have a full liquor license.
Armentano almost laughed. “Either the bill will raise revenue via sales tax because it will be sold everywhere (grocery stores, liquor stores, and so on) and apparently everyone will be buying it, or it will raise no revenue because, I guess it won’t be sold anywhere or nobody will be buying it? Huh? The cops contradict themselves from one statement to the next,” he responded.
The act does not create a regulatory framework; therefore, local jurisdictions will have to craft their own, Word said.
“Imagine 478 cities and 58 counties making up their own rules around the issue,” Word said. “We’ll be left with total chaos and confusion.”
“The measure has no mandate for counties to do anything. There’s an opt-in clause, meaning that communities that choose to could elect to explore taxing and regulating marijuana,” said Armentano. “How they do so is up to them. Of course, most communities likely won’t elect to make any changes, and those that do will undoubtedly not be selling marijuana in grocery stores and drug stores.”
Similar laws are already in effect regarding alcohol, said Armentano.
“I grew up in a part of the country that enjoys wet and dry counties for alcohol,” he said. “The mores reflect the value and desires of the local citizens. It’s hardly total chaos and confusion. Presently, there are localities that allow marijuana dispensaries, and those that do not. Is this total chaos and confusion? Why would the regulator scheme envisioned under Prop. 19 be any different?”
From experience, “we know that when you make such substances more readily accessible to adults, then they are more readily accessible to juveniles,” Word said.
Armentano countered. “Hardly,” he said. “Under nearly 100 years of marijuana prohibition, some 85 percent of juveniles report on federal government surveys that marijuana is ‘easy’ to get. One-quarter can get marijuana in less than an hour, or in about the time it takes one to order a pizza. By contrast, surveys show that teens say it is more difficult for them to obtain legal beer and tobacco, because the sales of these products are regulated.”
Perhaps, reasoned Nichelini, “all the people who want to use marijuana are already using it. It’s so easy to get. Why would we assume that, with changes, everyone in California will buy it and smoke it?”
Word said he is certain the measure would “reduce student performance and worker productivity. Our local and state economies can ill afford such outcomes.”
“Let’s get real, may we?” said Armentano. “California lawmakers criminalized the possession and use of marijuana in 1913 — a full 24 years before the federal government enacted prohibition. Yet right now in California, the federal government reports that one out of 10 people annually use marijuana and together consume about 1.2 million pounds of it. Self-evidently, cannabis is here to stay.
“Let’s address the reality and stop ceding control of this market to unregulated, untaxed criminal enterprises and put it in the hands of license businesses. Proposition 19 is a first step in this direction.”
“These allegations are tired and all false (by implication) or outright false on their face,” Armentano said.
Possession of an ounce or less has been a misdemeanor with a $100 fine since 1975, when Jerry Brown, who was then governor, signed a law that reduced tough marijuana penalties that had allowed judges to impose 10-year sentences.
According to the NORML Foundation, a nonprofit supporting the removal of all penalties for private possession and “responsible use” by adults, enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers an estimated $10 billion annually and results in the arrest of more than 847,000 individuals per year.
Regulate marijuana and the drug cartels that deal with the drug are reduced as are other crimes, say many Prop. 19 supporters.
“I do not agree,” Word said. “I believe this measure would very likely result in an increase in crime. Just think of the serious public safety and social problems already caused by the abuse of alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs such as domestic violence and drunk driving.”
The Vacaville chief, said Armentano, “must think that organized crime grew stronger after alcohol prohibition was lifted. Strange memory.”
Nichelini’s take: “I would think that a good proportion of marijuana is home-grown and if it’s legal even more would be grown in California. I don’t see a direct impact on serious crime since most drug-related violent crime does not relate to marijuana. But I could be wrong.”
Nichelini said it’s impossible to tell what impact legalization would have on local law enforcement.
“If it’s legalized, it’s something we would deal with,” he said.
“What possible social good is advanced by legalizing yet another mind-altering substance?” Spagnoli said. “Into the bargain, this mind-altering substance is carcinogenic.”
Agreed, said Nichelini. “Too much of anything changes your brain and your body. How can that be good for you? And we all learned that smoking (cigarettes) is not good for your health,” he said. “How then can smoking marijuana be good for your health? It’s still smoke.”
It makes no sense, Nichelini continued, that it would be illegal to smoke cigarettes in buildings but legal to smoke medicinal marijuana.
“It’s the same issues,” he said.
Prop. 19 is not healthy idea, Word said. “Given the effects of marijuana — distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, increased heart rate and reduce blood pressure — I am certain this measure would reduce student performances and work productivity, ” he said.
Armentano points to a 2007 George Mason University economic study that says U.S. citizens each year spend some $113 billion on marijuana.
“Under prohibition, all of this spending is directed toward an underground economy and goes untaxed.,” he said. “That means the state and local governments are presently collecting zero dollars to offset societal and health costs related to its population’s recreational marijuana use, and that the imposition of any retail tax or excise fee would be an improvement over the current situation.
“The assessment that present taxes on alcohol and tobacco — two deadly products — do not raise sufficient funding to offset their related social costs is not an argument in favor of maintaining the status quo, particularly when one recognizes that the social and health costs related to cannabis use are far less than those associated with the use of other intoxicants.”
With billions spent on marijuana not going to local and state governments, “it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Armentano said. By Rich Freedman.
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