California is inching its toward legalization:
A proposal to legalize and tax marijuana in California was approved by a key committee of the Assembly this morning, over the dire warnings of police chiefs and prosecutors. The Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 to approve AB 390 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who said the bill would provide tax revenue to the state and regulation of the drug. The new law includes a requirement that users be at least 21 years old.
Who would have ever thought that the government of California would be praised with doing something right?
title?
This is something wrong. For so much of our talk on the need to remove government from issues of health and personal privacy, we may be a bit too quick to jump on the bandwagon when the government expands... just so long as we get what we want.
Legalizing drugs just so they can be taxes, regulated and controlled by the govenment may be a solution worse than the problem. Decriminalize them and make them issues of privacy fine, but don't give the state the power to control.
This is the common nay-saying comment I hear from libertarians all the time. How can you honestly expect it to change just like that. I would love to see all drugs legalized because it is a persons right to put in their own body what ever they want as long as they are not harming anyone else. We have recognize that the world is not so black and white. I see this as a step in the right direction. Is it perfect? No, but I'll take what I can get. Nothing is accomplished in politics in great strides, there are simply to many people you need to convince for that to happen.
You might have thought when the 13th amendment was ratified that equality was the default position. Yet we are still trying today to convince people that race isn't a factor. Ten years ago the idea of a state legalizing marijuana outright was laughable yet through the medical step they were able to show its harms are less than once thought.
Its the movement you've made with the little steps you have taken that lead you down the right path. While they may not get you there as fast as you want, it does get you there. As the old saying (might) go, "How do you run ten miles? One step at a time."
ps. Nothing personal, this is not targeted at you, its just a common theme I hear all the time that erks me.
Sarcasm, I think. (re: the title)
Yeah, that's a shocker for sure. But when you look at it, the ONLY reason they're even considering it is the same reason prohibition was overturned - tax revenue. Sacramento is so broke they are looking at every conceivable source of revenue; even that ultimate evil: demon weed, about the second or third biggest crop produced in the state.
Jack is right. This 'solution' may ultimately be worse than the nonexistent problem. I'm personally NOT in favor of anything that gives the state more money, period. Decriminalization is definitely preferable, but there is no way that will happen in CA unless the entire govt apparatus collapses. Which would be great.
With Holly and Steve I agree
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