Assembly to weigh Ammiano bill legalizing marijuana

By: Mike Aldax
Examiner Staff Writer
October 27, 2009

San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a bill that would legalize and tax marijuana. (Examiner File Photo)

SACRAMENTO — State legislators will debate the implications of taxing and regulating marijuana similarly to alcoholic beverages — an idea proposed through legislation earlier this year by state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.

Ammiano, a former San Francisco supervisor who had made marijuana offenses the lowest priority for The City’s police to pursue, introduced AB 390 earlier this year, legislation to decriminalize marijuana statewide and tax it to address California’s budget deficit.

“It is time take to our heads out of the sand and start to regulate this $14 billion industry,” Ammiano said in a press release Tuesday.

Marijuana is currently legal in California for medicinal purposes only, which was approved by voters in 1996.

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Reader Comments

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Concerned Parent

Oct 29, 2009

Let's put the drug cartels out of business. Let's allow individuals to grow a little marijuana for personal use. Limit the size of the growing area or the number of plants, and put a small user-fee on it to cover administrative costs, something like a fishing license.

One possibility:$100 per year for a permit to cultivate a dozen plants. It's a win-win.

Who's on board for this?

SunflowerPipes

Nov 18, 2009

It seems a bit up surd that smoking a little “wacky tabacky” from a glass pipe is illegal. In America the self proclaimed, “land of the free” one would think we would by now be past monitoring the minor indisgressions and leisure activities of its citizens. Compared to the legal excess of Wall Street what’s wrong with a smoking pipe?
Sunflowerpipes.com