CALIFORNIA DREAMING NOT LIKELY TO BECOME A REALITY HERE

A Poll Indicates That Half of the Sunshine State Will Vote to Tax and
Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in November Ballot

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government vows to jail
marijuana-growers, support grows for California's proposition 19 to
legalize, regulate and tax cannabis.

A poll last week indicated 50 per cent of the state is ready to vote
to transform the demon weed from a black hole in the state's balance
sheet -- a drain of police, prosecution and prison expenses -- into a
lucrative revenue stream.

There also are a couple of other legalize-the-plant laws under
consideration by state legislators.

Legal pot might remain a Cheechand-Chong joke in Ottawa, but it's no
giggling matter south of the 49th parallel.

California is pioneering cannabis legalization, but across America
many states are following the path California began blazing in 1996
when it established the first U.S. medical marijuana program.

More than a dozen have such programs today.

The medicinal market already has sparked Colorado, New Jersey, New
Mexico, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C., to enact regulations
overseeing the production and distribution of cannabis products.

Proposition 19, which is on the November ballot, will control
marijuana just like alcohol: adults 21 and older will be allowed to
possess up to one ounce. It also gives the state and local
governments the ability to tax sales.

Check out www.taxcannabis.org

The state's current subterranean cannabis market is estimated at $14
billion and initiative backers think legalization will produce $1.4
billion in tax revenue.

(Those figures, by the way, probably mirror the Canadian underground market.)

At the same time, depending on the study, savings in policing,
prosecution and prison costs range anywhere from $200 million to $1.9 billion.

A report by the main U.S. marijuana legalization lobby group (NORML.
org) suggested the regulated pot industry in California predicts
between 60,000 and 110,000 jobs paying between $2.5 and $3.5 billion in wages.

The new above-ground market potentially could create $12-18 billion
in spinoff industries.

(The suggestion that the price will drop I think is a canard exposed
by Amsterdam, where pot is legally dispensed for prices rivalling
Vancouver's. And California's medical dispensaries often charge as
much as the black market, as do some of Canada's compassion clubs.)

All that said, there is a great irony here: California is considering
legalization in part because of the implosion of America's great
get-tough-on-crime experiment.

The mandatory prison, spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child approach helped
push California into financial crisis because the state, along with
its other fiscal troubles, couldn't afford the cost of housing the
crowds these laws jailed. Conditions were so bad courts were
compelled to order the release of thousands upon thousands.

Other states, too, awoke to the same fiscal nightmare triggered by
the failed War on Drugs.

It is unbelievable that the federal Conservatives are intent on
repeating this costly and futile mistake in the face of such hard
evidence and common sense.

Just as we have done a good job controlling tobacco and alcohol
through public education, advertising curbs and other mechanisms
instead of the criminal law, so too can we regulate pot.

A more open and honest environment about drugs, smart doctors on both
sides of the border say, gives us a better chance of reaching young
people about the true concerns surrounding marijuana use,
particularly when smoked in a joint or pipe.

When crime rates have plummeted, why should Canadian taxpayers pay
for more cops, jail guards and prisons to lock up more guerrilla
gardeners and pot consumers?

As those pushing Proposition 19 say: It's better to tax and control marijuana.

In California they are having a very adult debate about the issue
without an overlay of the sophomoric humour that has for too long
clouded discussion on this side of the border. We should be listening.

Oh, I forgot, there are still some people who think we can't talk
about legalization in Canada because Uncle Sam might take offence and
retaliate against us.

(What are they smoking?)