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Schwarzenegger Says Calif. Should Study Pot Laws

Tue, May 05, 2009 5:40 pm

more: drug policy news, headline news, legalization, california, tax

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that California should study other nations' experiences in legalizing and taxing marijuana, although he is not supporting the idea.

He said it's time to debate proposals such as a bill introduced in the state Legislature earlier this year that would treat marijuana like alcohol.

State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat, said legalizing marijuana for adults over age 21 and taxing it at $50 an ounce would help the state as it faces annual budget deficits. Ammiano cited a California Board of Equalization estimate that the tax could bring in $1.3 billion a year, depending on various assumptions.

"It's time for debate. ... I'm always for an open debate on it," Schwarzenegger said in response to a question during a news event. He was in Davis, a university town just west of the state capital, to promote wildfire safety.

Schwarzenegger also cautioned that some other nations have had negative experiences.

"I think we want to look at all that," the governor said. "Just because of raising revenues, we have to be very careful not to make mistakes at the same time."

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear later said the governor was drawing on his conversations with officials in Europe, including a police officer in his hometown of Graz, Austria.

"He's talked to some folks over in Europe," McLear said. "It hasn't worked out so well for them."

Ammiano spokesman Quintin Mecke said he is unaware of any negative consequences from taxing marijuana. He cited studies that show treating the drug as a regulated commodity reduced consumption among young users.

"We would welcome the debate. The debate is long overdue," Mecke said Tuesday. "Not only as a state but as a country, it's time to have a rational drug policy."

Ammiano's bill is on hold in the state Legislature. He delayed seeking approval until next year.

California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, doing so in 1996.

» add a comment

Joe

May 18 2009, 9:36 pm

I wanna know where the government or anyone else thinks they get the authority to tell me how to live or what I can and can't do as long as I'm not hurting other people.

I can do as I please on my property and nobody will tell me otherwise.

Yes!

May 11 2009, 6:08 pm

You got it Treehugger!!!

treehugger

May 11 2009, 1:46 pm

Bring one of these raids cases before Chief Justice Antonin Scalia - and he'll straighten it out. Just gotta get him to find that the laws on the books are unconstitutional!

John Galt

May 11 2009, 12:11 am

1.3 billion dollars per year for CA, at $50/oz State tax, equates to a California estimate that 1,625,000 pounds of marijuana are used per year by Californians, whether smoked or eaten. That's a lotta dank!

ALEX JONES

May 8 2009, 4:13 pm

AHNOLD IS AN EXCELLENT ACTOR JUST LIKE ALL POLITICIANS WHO WIN ELECTED OFFICE.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF STAGED ELECTIONS COURTESY OF THE MEDIAS BRAINWASHING

OBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

hoosier

May 8 2009, 1:16 pm

those of you talking bad about schwarzenegger need to calm down. because if i recall correctly he is the most well known politician to say lets have a debate about legalization. personally i believe california will have to be first to make this leap and then the rest of the states will start to follow. sooooooo let the debate begin!

treehugger

May 8 2009, 10:38 am

? - more likely the cotton, lumber, vegetable oil, sunscreen, dairy/butter and now BIG PHARMACEUTICAL industries and their lobbyists. But now Americans are more savvy, why have all those idiots, when you can accomplish the same with one crop? Maybe two, you don't want to neglect bamboo either, but grass is grass! Doesn't it seem more green?

treehugger

May 8 2009, 10:30 am

I've never heard of any trouble in those countries, maybe he was just appeasing the bureaucracy, while putting his hand on the chopping block(politics). Nonetheless, he's talking, and that's positive change. And other states are moving in the right direction to.

Head to the west coast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graham Hancock c2c

May 7 2009, 12:52 am

The war on drugs and the drug laws have handed over the keys to our consciousness to massively publicly funded armed state bureaucracies and somehow the con trick is so cleverly done that most of us accept this without question. We demand our independence. We demand our freedom. Our rights as individuals. Even our rights to own guns, and yet we passively accept that our government, those men in suits, may control what we experience or do not experience with our own consciousness. The government knows that if everyone experienced being "high" that the government's grip on everyones hearts and minds would be broken forever.

We have to respect the adults' right to explore his or her own consciousness, because if I am not sovereign over my own consciousness, then I am not sovereign over anything, and its a waste of time to talk about freedom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdJrJ1cqwzc

New Stock

May 7 2009, 12:30 am

THC, put your money on the fastest and most stable market you could think of.

When was the las time the canabis market crashed?

I just got us on the Stock Exchange....how easy is that.

We all put in $10 to this stock and we could rule the stock market....that would be a slap in the face of our sritics.

Frank

May 6 2009, 11:14 pm

Screw the governor hes an ACTOR terminator man. Why would you let an actor which is good at acting be a governor? Obviously you can tell hes hopped up on some coke or something. All these politicians know these pot smokers know what there talking about thats why they are stalling tryin to come up with new ways to get rid of legalization. pot smokers know weed better than anyone. Money is god plain and simple. Plus Arnold favors steroids which is way more dangerous than weed.

anonymous

May 6 2009, 10:06 pm

what the hell,other countrys having problems?who?i mean besides us.and you can take this to the bank..the worst nightmere we can have in this thing we do is ...goverment in our weed .....enough said

ALEX JONES

May 6 2009, 4:22 pm

The elite don't want you to have guns.
The elite don't want you to have free speech.
They don't want you to know all of government is bought and paid for by special interest groups which they work in favor for.

Everyone in government at least the hyerarchy running things are members of the Bilderberg group and Council on Foreign Relations.

By the way pot will not be legalized because it is a threat to the petrochemical industries who reap billions from the scarce resources within the environment.
They do not want renewable energy.

WAKE UP FOLKS THERE NOT WORKING 4 YOU

gstlab3

May 6 2009, 3:52 pm

FOR ALL YOU NEW PEOPLE.,THE REASON MARIJUANA IS NOT LEGAL IS BECAUSE IT WOULD ALLOW ORDINARY PEOPLE TO THINK FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME REMOVING THEMSELVES FROM THE GOVERNMENT RUN ENVIROMENTS WE ARE PUT IN., TELEVISION VIEWING AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS WOULD BECOME OBSOLITE WHEN PEOPLE REALIZED THEY DO NOT NEED THE GOVERNMENT.,#2 WE WOULD DISCOVER THE MANY USES FOR THE MORE COMPLEX CHEMICALS IN THIS PLANT POSSIBLY AIDING AND CURING DISEASES THAT THE BIG PHARMECUETICAL COMPANIES DO NOT WANT CURED OR ALLIVIATED BY A FREE GROWING PLANT WICH REQUIRES NO DOCTOR TO PRESCRIBE OR BIG FACTORY TO PRODUCE.#3 THE POLICE WOULD BE OUT OF A JOB AS WOULD MANY COURTS AND PRISONS AND LAWYERS AND SNITCHES AND ALL THE PROPAGANDA CREATORS DOWN AT THE GOVERNMENT MIND AND BODY CONTROL WORKSHOPS WOULD HAVE TO FIND REAL JOBS AND HAVE TO STUDY REAL SCIENCES SUCH AS WHAT TO DO WITH ALL OF GODS CREATIONS FIRST. FREE MINDS AND BODIES SCARE THE HELL OUT OF THOSE POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON AND IN EVERY CITY AND TOWN. IF WE DO NOT NEED THEIR NANNY STATE AND THEIR GUIDING HAND IN EVERY ASSPECT OF OUR LIVES THE POLITICAL CLASS ie:BULLIES AND FEAR MONGERS WOULD BE EXSPOSED FOR WHAT THEY ARE., LIERS AND DECIEVERS OF MEN

fighttehsystem

May 6 2009, 2:24 pm

i think it should be 18 and older.

420Viper

May 6 2009, 12:54 pm

I'd like to know what countries have had negative experiences with legalization. Sure as hell isn't the Netherlands, Portugal or Spain.

to?

May 6 2009, 12:49 pm

I think the reason "aliens" won't communicate with us is because the aliens know that the zero tollerant humans would use they're military to kill them.

karma smoke

May 6 2009, 12:41 pm

what do you mean ,"delayed looking for support next year?"
this is so stupid. government - u are really wastin time on a topic that has been debated over and over for years. clearly the pros outweigh the cons . the proof is in every chart/statistic/ and the experience of the American, even the world. stop beating around the and legalize marijuana.

smoker

May 6 2009, 12:37 pm

An estimated 14 billion dollars in revenue is going untaxed and unregulated, need I ask who is making these huge profits and do they pay taxes, to the state?
why is the federal government protecting the black market?
Why are our american farmers being left out of the production of hemp, does'nt the government know very well that our cannabis is being imported, our american farmers could grow hemp and make products from hemp like clothes, paper,biodiesel, animal feed, and protein powder for people from hemp seed, lets tax this huge amount of revenue and stop importing our cannabis, read the new study that came out of Portugal, they decriminalized cannabis a few years back In 2001 and their citizens did not become heroin addicts or crackheads, the C.A.T.O. institute did this great research just watch the video at their site, it's about half hour long, very instructive and helpful.

Fuzz

May 6 2009, 11:59 am

Gen 1:29 "And the Lord God said, I have given you ALL the green herb bearing seed and every tree bearing fruit on all the Earth for your use"........And the Lord saw all that He had created, and it was good!
Enough said!.....Gov. Arnold & the establishment or God?
Debate....Over. :)

May 6 2009, 11:12 am

Why was weed illegal in the first place again? some dumbass was raccist against mexicans! our world is sooo fucked up we think its good but if we had another species of humans from another planet to compare with we would realize how stupid we really are! come on we haven't even made contact with other humans or creatures! we live in a universe with billions of other earth like planets and you think theres no other aliens out there...that just shows how stupid and ancient we really are...our kids will look at this time and say that would suck to have weed illegal and not know about other life exsisting on other planets...kinda like we look at the people back in the day and say "man they were stupid for thinking the world is flat!" realize its a plant not a drug and it probablly grows on other planets!!So get your head out of your ass and legalize already!!!

Gov Arnold

May 6 2009, 7:50 am

Your weed...give it to me. or i will crush you !!!!

Eric

May 6 2009, 3:03 am

Positive, though.

Living in Sweden, a brainwashed country. America needs to ignite this, since the EU and UN is holding and pushing back the subject quite efficiently in Europe at large. Just watch the daretoact.net business. Insane.

What?

May 5 2009, 11:20 pm

What is the negative impact in Europe? I haven't heard of any.

Why is the bill stalled?

Why is arnold not supporting it?

Why is the country so sucky?

Why am I here?

D-Bag

May 5 2009, 10:11 pm

Gov. Schwarzenegger needs to talk to Portugal officials. Everything seems to be just fine over there!

Pete in Texas

May 5 2009, 10:05 pm

What a loser Arnold is. He vetoed the hemp bill for California, and he is so bought off with "Big Pharma" money. Don't forget the only reason Obama and people like Arnie don't push for legalization is because the pill people hate it. The Doctors, nurses, and police are the ones who fight legalization. "Big Pharma"--pill pushers-- are the biggest scam ever put on the American people. Marijuana is the best medicine in the world, with no side effects.

kb4me

May 5 2009, 9:41 pm

it was about time somebody with some political weight said it. Now it isn't crazy to think of weed as alcohol. Shit, Terminator, The Governor of California would concider it, that's serious enough for me. Hahaha, In my lifetime i will see marihuana ligalized, oh yes... i will. Ha ha ha ha.

Baltimore Fred

May 5 2009, 7:03 pm

Wow, is Arnie the ultimate politricker or what? Can you imagine the cabinet meeting when they decided the best way to approach this issue? We can't do this, we can't do that, we don't want to look soft ..., we don't want to piss off ... What a mind fuck. Well at least he had the balls to put it on the table.