Marijuana. Decriminalize, tax and regulate. Makes a lot more sense than ban, spray and incarcerate. Of course, it’s just the dark-skinned ones that we jail mostly. For middle class kids, it’s just “experimentation”!
That was the message of retired Judge Jim Gray at last night’s packed meeting of the Neighbors United for Fullerton at the main library. Gray told the supportive NUFFsters that imprisoning marijuana offenders costs California taxpayers $1 billion yearly and taxing it would add $4 billion to state coffers. That’s a net of $5 billion!
Who are the big winners in the drug war? Prison guards, prison builders, drug lords, dumb politicians and Big Pharma. (Tough to profit from a plant that grows in the wilds!)
Elected officials attending–and positively responding–were Supervisor Chris Norby and AnaheimUHSD Board Member Katherine Smith.
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Having seen how “Decriminalize, tax and regulate” works in the Netherlands, I don’t think that’s the model we want to follow. I’m afraid the devil is in the details. Criminals don’t turn into nice guys because we’ve changed the law – you can see them hanging around all the pot stores in the Netherlands as a sort of safe haven.
Larry, the big difference is that the Netherlands is a small country, and thus attracts a lot of people from the neighboring countries that don’t decriminalize Marijuana yet.
Now that the tax bills are defeated, I expect the decriminalization move to pick up speed, to help with the budget.
Why tax? Seriously, it’s not even legal, and people already want to tax and regulate it!
#3: do you prefer the money going to drug lords or to the state?