SACRAMENTO SHERIFF, EX-JUDGE GO HEAD-TO-HEAD IN LEGAL POT DEBATE

Retired Orange Superior Court Judge Jim Gray said California will
save hundreds of millions of dollars in law enforcement costs by
legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said public agencies will
lose untold millions in federal grant money, and private employees
will face difficult workplace challenges if pot goes legal.

The two law enforcement figures offered competing views Tuesday in a
Sacramento debate on the November initiative to legalize marijuana
beyond medical use, allow small residential cultivation and let local
governments tax and regulate pot sales.

"I'm convinced when we pass this and actually control and regulate
marijuana, literally taxpayers of California will save hundreds of
millions of dollars in what is now being spent in a futile effort to
eradicate marijuana, the largest cash crop in the state," Gray said.

While the retired Orange County judge cited a State Board of
Equalization estimate that legal pot sales could generate $1.3
billion a year in tax revenue in California, McGinness argued that
the initiative is flawed and could create a black market for untaxed
marijuana. He disputed pot's potential as a tax-producing bonanza.

"I think the revenue to be gained is likely negligible," McGinness said.

The sheriff argued that the measure could cause law enforcement and
other public agencies to lose federal grants, because legal marijuana
use could violate federal "drug-free workplace" rules.

He said private employers could also face challenges from legal pot,
because "people can possess and use immediately before and after work.

"It's very difficult to make a determination as to whether or not
they're under the influence at any given time," he said.

In ruling on California's current medical marijuana law, the
California Supreme Court has said legal marijuana use doesn't
supersede workplace rules. It has ruled that employees can be fired
or disciplined for pot use even if they are legal marijuana patients.

The pot initiative states that no person can be "punished, fined or
discriminated against" under the proposed law.

But it says employers retain "the existing right ... to address
consumption that actually impairs job performance."

The Gray-McGinness debate took place at the Sol Collective in
Sacramento. The site is a local art gallery and community center with
no ties to the marijuana businesses.

Eric Vega, a board member for the organization, said the debate was
intended as a "conversation for young people to consider important
public policy questions."

On that point, McGinness said times have changed for marijuana,
reaching "virtual legality" when once "mere possession of a seed was a felony."

But he said allowing recreational use for all California adults over
21 isn't "the best course of action we can take."

Gray said California is prepared to go the way of Amsterdam, where he
argues legalized marijuana resulted in reduced pot use and social costs.

"The minister of health in Holland actually ... said, 'We have half
the marijuana use per capita as you do in the United States,'" Gray
said. "He said, 'We have succeeded in making marijuana boring.' "