I sincerely hope this passes. I was so happy when I read this on NORML today, and Alabama has a medical bill being worked in, change is coming. Get ready for billions of revenue to start flowing, strengthening the economy, less prison crowding, no more dealing with shady dealers, it just makes me grin real big.
god dammit can someone on here write a better email on this board so we can copy and paste it and get rid of that stupid ass premade one. I dont even wanna send that stupid premade email to my representative.
yeah but good thing its california and we have a shit load of liberals! a recent norml study say that 6 out of 10 west coaster believ in the legalization and taxation of weed!
i just wanted to add the fact that I LOVE LIVING IN CALIFORNIA THE HOME OF THE BEST WEED IN THE FUCKIN WORLD!!!!!!!!!!
Doesn't bother me, for I am 22! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahaHAHAHahahahahahhahaaaahhahaha! p.s. I really hope this passes... A tax return would be fantastic.
If you want this to pass, you HAVE to write your representative. The reason nothing changes is because 99% of the people that read something like this say "Oh, cool good news" and just expect someone else to write, but the next person and the person before do the same thing. You will get no where, "If you want to change the world you got to change yo self"
You do realize that nobody really reads these things to the Reps, right? They get waaayyyyy too many letters to personally read every one. They get their assistants to essentially give them an idea about how many letters they're getting in favor/against certain topics. While the letter may not be a particularly compelling one, it really doesn't matter. All that matters is that your Rep. knows that you support his/her voting for the bill, so just send the premade one.
If this is passed, i'm dedicating the next few years of my life to save up cash and live in cali. Seriously, i'm not even joking.
Just write something up yourself, if they get thousands of personalized emails, they will take notice, as opposed to all the same pre-made copy pasta stuff over and over. Speak from your heart and keep it short and sweet. Get to the point and focus on things that politicians like to hear: Generating billions of dollars in tax revenue!!! Diverting police energy to violent crimes Eliminating black market crime and gang violence This would also mean that California would also be able to grow and take advantage of industrial hemp, which would be used for all kinds of things, but it's probably not best to delve into this kind of thing. I guess if I lived in California my letter would be something like this: Name Address phone # email 2-24-09 Dear representative, I am writing this email to voice my support for the legislation that Mr. Tom Ammiano proposed on Monday, February 23 regarding the legalization and taxation of cannabis in the state of California. Please, take the billions of dollars spent on cannabis every year out of the hands of black market dealers and put it into legitimate, taxable entities and save us from this financial crisis. It saddens me to see millions of tax dollars wasted every day on a prison system that could be used to revitalize and enrich our education and public services. Let's bring a rational approach to our drug policy again and fix our mistakes from the war on drugs. Cordially yours, Dude
^Cali residents, copy, paste then change this slightly and send it to a representative! There's hardly any effort involved!
That guy who was opposed to it offered such a poor argument. "Pot is a gateway drug so we shouldn't do this." What a dumbass. These people don't realize that legalization will not change demand, and very few new smokers will start (and some will probably stop). All it does is change control from criminals to the government. Also, cannabis as a gateway drug has been highly refuted, and although it definitely has some gateway properties, the same goes for alcohol and cigarettes.
IMO, IF there were such a thing as a gateway drug, it would be caffeine. I experimented with caffeine LONG before I ever tried pot. It's a super easy access and addictive drug...Hell, two friends of mine in high school overdosed on yellow jacket caffeine pills and got EXTREMELY sick and had to go to the ER.
I think the black market aspect of pot is what makes it a "gateway drug" That is, if you are exposed to people who are making money selling illegal things, chances are you are going to run into someone with something other than weed to sell. My guess is that people exposed to other drugs have a higher chance of trying them than people not exposed to them
This is great news! My only worry from this is that private cultivation can still feed a black market which will give people like the DEA room to argue that legalization of marijuana does not work. Give a limit to private cultivation, but private sale and distribution by people without a license to do so (similar to alcohol selling license) should be strictly enforced. That way there can be a safe and controlled market for marijuana.
even though there would still be a black market of growers, i dont think it would be that big of a deal for the simple fact of convenience. although growing weed is easier than distilling your own alcohol its still a long process so personal users wont necessarily start growing there own. when prohibition was overturned in 1933 people could still get alcohol by illegal means but eventually the supply outgrew the demand the prices dropped and now the only one illegally getting moonshine are hillbillies
EDIT: beat me to it^ I dont think this is true at all. If marijuana is legalized why would you go to a private dealer, unless he was your buddy or something, when you could either just grow it or pick some up at the store. I see no reason for marijuana being anymore expensive than cigarettes are. Dealers couldnt compete with the market and they wouldnt bother trying to smuggle in marijuana.
Agreed. How often do you see shit that's legal in america being smuggled in the black market? The black market is making so much money off marijuana, why? Because it's ILLEGAL and BY FAR IN DEMAND, but you can't get it anywhere legally. I'm pretty POSITIVE if it were legal in the USA the black market would virtually lose almost all money unless it's being smuggled to other countries.
I was thinking about this earlier. What's stopping gangs from operating HUGE grow ops and reaping huge pay loads from it? If I were to design this aspect of the bill I would classify growers into two categories: personal and public. Personal growers are allowed to have 6 plants while public growers can grow as much as they want. In order to become a public grower you would need a license, which is hard to get and easy to lose.