United States Attorney General Eric Holder informed former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration that the federal government will continue to enforce marijuana laws in California even if the state votes to legalize the plant.
Holder promised to follow through with marijuana law enforcement even if state Proposition 19 is passed Tuesday. Proposition 19 is the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. It will appear on the statewide ballot in Calif. on Nov. 2. If Proposition 19 passes, California will be the first state to legalize marijuana.
Proposition 19 would make marijuana legal for people over 21 years old, and allows businesses to tax marijuana and regulate sales. It will also allow for various civil and criminal penalties. The official advocacy group for this proposed law is Tax Cannabis 2010.
The federal government has not legalized any type of cannabis. Under federal policy, marijuana is illegal for all uses. Medical marijuana has been legalized in some states and decriminalized in some states. Yet, the federal government can override these laws and take action.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) does not seem to be too concerned with Holder’s promise.
“It’s a pretty hollow threat,” said Executive Director of NORML Allen St. Pierre. In 1996, the federal government made the same promise if medical marijuana was to be legalized in states, explained St. Pierre.
Today there are approximately 2,400 medical marijuana dispensaries. Colorado, New Mexico, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington D.C., and Maine all allow licensed taxation of cannabis used for medical purposes. For the past 14 years, the federal government has not enforced its policies upon the state governments in regard to this issue.
If Proposition 19 passes, and the federal government still plans to enforce policy on local government, roughly 99 percent of people will face no problems if choosing to use marijuana, said St. Pierre. The federal government is only concerned with people who have over 1000 pounds of marijuana or 1000 plants. Anyone who possesses less than this amount will most likely not face any issues from the federal government.
“Approximately 13 percent of California’s state budget goes to jails, and keeping convicts in jail. A portion of these people are low-level marijuana dealers. They are some of the people that are costing so much in state budget. Therefore it makes more sense for us to legalize marijuana, tax production of marijuana and save money on imprisonment,” said Danielle Marshall, a student at the University of California-Berkeley.
According to “Yes on 19,” an advocacy group for marijuana legalization, the three main changes that will be made if the question is enacted are: marijuana would be controlled like alcohol, the bill would direct police priorities away from marijuana enforcement and towards violent crime, and it would generate billions of dollars in revenue.
Those against Proposition 19 say enacting this law will allow people to smoke marijuana immediately before operating a vehicle, which they argue will increase the amount of accidents associated with drivers under the influence, according to another advocacy group, No on Proposition 19.
The federal government will enforce policy on those who do possess large amounts of marijuana. For example; California resident Todd McCormick was arrested for possessing thousands of plants, according to St. Pierre. Eddy Lepp, a Vietnam veteran, is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for “conspiracy and cultivation with the intent to distribute marijuana.” Lepp was growing over 20,000 marijuana plants at his home in Northern California.
Simone Shenny can be reached at [email protected].
Mike • Mar 23, 2011 at 2:38 am
Bring the girl to me!!!
Ronin • Feb 10, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Street drugs should be legalized, taxed and somewhat controlled. That would remove the criminal element from the distribution chain. Though legalization might reduce the stigma of “street” drugs and, thereby, make them seem less harmful and more acceptable, realistically everyone who wants to do drugs is doing them already.
Sarah Hardy • Nov 1, 2010 at 9:46 am
As a California student on exchange at UMass, I can absolutely say that the state needs the money from Prop. 19.
Something unimaginable to many students in Massachusetts are the “furlough” days that the state government has implemented in California because it cannot afford to pay government workers. For students, this means that there are nine (I think it’s nine – at least that’s how many there were last year) days a semester that professors can’t teach. They aren’t even allowed to answer e-mails to students from home. In addition to these furlough days, which were scheduled randomly by each professor at my university, we had university-wide furlough days where the president was not allowed to work.
California’s budget problems have had an enormous impact on students at every level, not to mention the rest of its citizens.
On the other hand, the area where I go to school, Humboldt County, is famous for its marijuana growing. Prop. 19 is extremely controversial in the county because many people think that if weed was legalized, it would be mass produced in the San Fernando Valley and my nice northern California town would take a huge hit in revenue that it currently gets from growing. But even if it hurts my county, I honestly think passing Prop. 19 would benefit California as a whole.
mgh • Nov 1, 2010 at 7:35 am
Well someone’s finally got the brains to help this state earn some money. For those of you who think Pot will cause or increased crime or cause fatal accidents, you are wrong. There will be laws and penalties against use of the drug if you are involved in an accident, and found to be under the influence or intoxicated. There are no proven statistic’s that show Marijuana smoking contributes to vehicle fatalities in this Country or any other country in the world. (NONE) What’s important here is the fact this will generate billions of dollars for the state’s poor budget, and I would rather use the money the state can earn in education on the use of drugs. This is the only way we as a society will have any chance of converting a user to a non user. Our prisons are over burdened with criminal’s who are there be cause of drug use. Our approach has been wrong and it’s time to charge the out look on drug use. it’s not something we can not deal with. Legalization will release people from prison who are costing the taxpayer 100’s of 1000’s to incarcerate for for simple use of drugs.. I am sorry, but it is morally wrong to incarcerate someone with a drug problem.
California Charles • Oct 31, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Why do we lock up low level dealers for selling something that the possession of which is only an infraction and doesn’t even rise to level of a misdemeaner?
This is a policy that is built on lies and uses lies to see to it that the policy isn’t changed.
It’s time that we don’t get fooled again. Vote YES on Prop 19.