At a time when the recession is forcing tax increases and deep cuts in government spending -- and when California is being ordered by federal judges to substantially reduce its prison population -- this would seem to be the ideal moment to end the costly, wasteful war on drugs.
That's the hope of Assembly member Tom Ammiano, who tells the Guardian that next week he will introduce legislation to decriminalize and tax marijuana, a move that might instantly turn a huge drain on the public treasury (at least $17 billion a year nationally, and closer to $50 billion once related costs are figured in) into what saves the state from financial ruin, given that pot is California's number one cash crop.
"This is long overdue," said Ammiano, who will work on the measure with John Vasconcellos, who represented the Silicon Valley in the Legislature for 38 years and was the last legislator to really carry the banner for legalizing marijuana. In fact, Ammiano says he's basically reintroducing Vasconcellos's bill from 2004, which went nowhere.
Meanwhile, another former member of the Board of Supervisors, Carol Ruth Silver, this week resigned as director of SF's Prisoner Legal Services program out of frustration with the large number of nonviolent drug users in the San Francisco jail, joining a new Law Enforcement Against Prohibition campaign for the legalization of all drugs.
As she told the Guardian, "The jail is full of people who should not be there."
Silver has worked for San Francisco on an off for 15 years, starting as legal counsel to then-Sheriff Dick Hongisto before being elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1977, the same year as Harvey Milk. "We passed a gay rights ordinance, rent control, all kinds of progressive things," she says.
She left city government in 1989 after her third term as supervisor, but returned a year ago to work for Sheriff Michael Hennessey to do legal services with jail inmates. Silver has nothing but praised for Hennessey, but said she was shocked by her experience of helping non-violent inmates with evictions, child care, and financial matters.
"I was participating in a system that made me feel criminal," she said, noting one case in of a woman charged with selling marijuana. "She should not be prosecuted, she should not be in jail, and here I was helping to place her children [in foster care]."
So Silver has resigned in protest, summarizing her reasons in a letter you can read here, and decided to join the LEAP (which I also wrote about a few years ago) campaign to end the war on drugs.
Both Silver and Ammiano know they face long odds, but they say now is the time to do this, and they have strong moral and fiscal arguments on their side.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian
Author: Steven T. Jones
Contact: San Francisco Bay Guardian
Copyright: 2009 San Francisco Bay Guardian
Website: New Push To Legalize Drugs
That's the hope of Assembly member Tom Ammiano, who tells the Guardian that next week he will introduce legislation to decriminalize and tax marijuana, a move that might instantly turn a huge drain on the public treasury (at least $17 billion a year nationally, and closer to $50 billion once related costs are figured in) into what saves the state from financial ruin, given that pot is California's number one cash crop.
"This is long overdue," said Ammiano, who will work on the measure with John Vasconcellos, who represented the Silicon Valley in the Legislature for 38 years and was the last legislator to really carry the banner for legalizing marijuana. In fact, Ammiano says he's basically reintroducing Vasconcellos's bill from 2004, which went nowhere.
Meanwhile, another former member of the Board of Supervisors, Carol Ruth Silver, this week resigned as director of SF's Prisoner Legal Services program out of frustration with the large number of nonviolent drug users in the San Francisco jail, joining a new Law Enforcement Against Prohibition campaign for the legalization of all drugs.
As she told the Guardian, "The jail is full of people who should not be there."
Silver has worked for San Francisco on an off for 15 years, starting as legal counsel to then-Sheriff Dick Hongisto before being elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1977, the same year as Harvey Milk. "We passed a gay rights ordinance, rent control, all kinds of progressive things," she says.
She left city government in 1989 after her third term as supervisor, but returned a year ago to work for Sheriff Michael Hennessey to do legal services with jail inmates. Silver has nothing but praised for Hennessey, but said she was shocked by her experience of helping non-violent inmates with evictions, child care, and financial matters.
"I was participating in a system that made me feel criminal," she said, noting one case in of a woman charged with selling marijuana. "She should not be prosecuted, she should not be in jail, and here I was helping to place her children [in foster care]."
So Silver has resigned in protest, summarizing her reasons in a letter you can read here, and decided to join the LEAP (which I also wrote about a few years ago) campaign to end the war on drugs.
Both Silver and Ammiano know they face long odds, but they say now is the time to do this, and they have strong moral and fiscal arguments on their side.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian
Author: Steven T. Jones
Contact: San Francisco Bay Guardian
Copyright: 2009 San Francisco Bay Guardian
Website: New Push To Legalize Drugs
