CALIFORNIA LEGISLATOR SEES BENEFIT IN LEGALIZING POT

SAN FRANCISCO -- A state legislator proposed legalizing the sale of
marijuana in California, saying the plan would generate more than $1
billion annually for the cash-strapped state.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a bill Monday that would legalize
possession and sales of the drug for people aged 21 and older. The
legislation would impose regulations and taxation similar to those
for alcohol sales. Federal law makes it a crime to possess or sell
marijuana, so the measure, if passed, would likely face an immediate
legal challenge. Mr. Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat who is well
known in the state as a champion of liberal causes, proposes a tax of
$50 on an ounce of marijuana, which sells for a few hundred dollars
on the street. California's dire financial situation was the impetus
for proposing the bill, said Quintin Mecke, a spokesman for Mr.
Ammiano. The state, which last week closed a $42 billion budget
deficit through steep spending cuts and tax increases, should be
making money on pot sales, Mr. Mecke said. He estimated that
marijuana is a $14 billion-a-year crop in California.

The pot-legalization bill will be up against significant opposition.
"It's one of these [proposals] that is based on fallacious assumption
that if we could only legalize marijuana, that we will have fiscal
and social Shangri-La," said John Lovell, a lobbyist who represents
three California police groups.

California has been drifting toward more-permissive approaches to
pot. Various ways of decriminalizing marijuana have been considered
for years in the state. In 1996, state voters passed a ballot
initiative legalizing medical-marijuana use. Medical-pot regulation
has been left largely to local jurisdictions, rather than statewide agencies.

But last summer, California Attorney General Jerry Brown created
controversy by issuing restrictive new guidelines on how
medical-marijuana operations should do business. He said that they
should be small nonprofits and indicated that larger operations may
be operating illegally. A Zogby poll commissioned by a group that
backs legalization found last week that 58% of West Coast respondents
approved of selling and taxing marijuana like alcohol or cigarettes.
A Rasmussen poll last week found that 40% of people nationwide
support legalizing marijuana, with 46% against. A spokeswoman at
NORML, a group that backs legalization, said about a dozen states
have decriminalized the use or possession of pot in some way. Alaska
has one of the nation's most-relaxed rules, with no penalty for
possessing one ounce or less in a residence.