HEARING SET FOR BILL LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

At 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, supporters of legalized marijuana in Maine
will crowd into a hearing room in Augusta to support a Portland
legislator's bill to decriminalize pot.

Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, sponsor of LD 1453, "An Act To
Legalize and Tax Marijuana," said she was thrilled to learn yesterday
about the hearing that has been scheduled before the Criminal Justice
and Public Safety Committee. The hearing will be in Room 436 at the
State House.

"It looks like I have a May 10 public hearing," Russell exclaimed.

Russell's Facebook page has become an ongoing conversation almost
exclusively about her bill to legalize marijuana. Russell said she's
encouraged after talking to other lawmakers, although she admitted
the legislation is meeting resistance.

"I really would like to see it pass, it's an uphill battle there's no
question," Russell said Tuesday. "It depends on whether mainstream
people show up and make the economic case."

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, writes, "Ending
marijuana prohibition in this country would mean billions in sales
tax revenue alone, to say nothing of the multi-billion dollar
industry it would spur and the jobs and revenue that would accompany it."

According to the group, cultural sentiments are changing in regard to
marijuana use. "When MPP was founded in 1995, medical marijuana was
illegal in every state and favorable legislation had not been
introduced in Congress in a decade," the group writes. "Since then,
the federal penalties for marijuana cultivation have been changed to
provide for the early release of hundreds of prisoners; medical
marijuana bills have been introduced in seven consecutive Congresses
[and] medical marijuana is now legal in 13 states."

Maine is one of the states where medical marijuana is legal, and
Russell's bill would adjust that system to one where marijuana is
allowed for those 21 and over.

Cosponsored by Rep. Richard Cebra of Naples, LD 1453 "reforms state
marijuana laws by establishing a special tax rate for marijuana,
legalizing the personal use and cultivation of marijuana, legalizing
and licensing certain commercial marijuana-related activities, while
providing provisions to protect minors, employers and schools, and
removing the registry system from the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana
Act," according to its legislative summary.

Part A of the bill establishes a tax rate of 7 percent, beginning
Jan. 1, 2012, for marijuana that is sold for commercial or medical purposes.

An online petition is pushing the legislation, and a variety of
supporters are arguing that legalizing pot would free up funding
diverted to enforcing laws against use of marijuana by adults.

"We've got 1,000 people on the online petition, there's been I can't
even tell you how many emails and phone calls and Facebook messages
on this," Russell said.

Russell said her correspondence has come from people as diverse as a
firefighter, a retired superintendent and a 38-year-old financial
professional who admitted to smoking pot.

"I think this is an issue where mainstream people are there, I just
think the politicians are afraid of it," Russell said.

The state representative for Munjoy Hill and the Old Port areas of
Portland said she has heard this message from colleagues in the
Legislature: "We're with you but we're just terrified to vote for it."

Popular sentiment supports legalization, she said.

"When you start talking to people on the streets and in coffeehouses,
it's totally like, 'Yes, it should be legalized,'" Russell said.