US Drug Czar, Religious Leaders & Law Enforcement Oppose Legalization in California

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske - Taxing marijuana in California is not good fiscal policy

April 3, 11:32 AM

Bishop Dr. Ron Allen, President of the International Faith Based Coalition, at the podium, is
joined by representatives from law enforcement during a rally against
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's, D-San Francisco, bill to legalize, tax, and
regulate marijuana use in California at the Capitol in Sacramento,
Calif. The campaign over a ballot initiative that could make California
the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use is shaping
up as a battle between some unusual allies. Free-market libertarians,
law enforcement officers frustrated by a failed drug war and rural
residents whose local economies could be boosted by pot cultivation are
some of camps likely to line up behind the "Tax Cannabis Act." (AP
Photo/Steve Yeater)

"There is a Federal Controlled Substances Act. Marijuana is against the law and that act is actively enforced. California has a 20 billion dollar deficit and they're only going to raise 1.7 billion
from this initiative. Why would anyone go out and pay taxes on a
substance that can be grown in their backyard or in their house? --- Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske

AP Photo by Eric Risberg

A.B. 2254 would create a regulatory structure similar to that used for
beer, wine, and liquor, permitting taxed sales to adults while barring
sales to or possession by those under 21.

"The fact that California’s largest cash crop continues to go untaxed and
unregulated is astounding, especially in such tough economic times,'
said Marijuana Policy
Project California policy director Aaron
Smith. 'We once again applaud Assemblyman Ammiano on his
dedication and leadership on this issue and remain optimistic that 2010
is the year California ends its state’s failed marijuana policies.'

Control & Tax Cannabis California 2010

In the photo a grower holds a marijuana plant being grown for medical purposes inside a greenhouse at a farm in Potter Valley, Calif.
In the mountain forests along California's North Coast, refugees from
San Francisco's Summer of Love have spent four decades hiding from the
law as they tended some of the world's most fabled marijuana gardens.
After all those years, several statewide efforts to legalize marijuana
could finally let those growers come out into the light. But at a
community meeting in the heart of Northern California pot country on
many growers said they were more worried about the cost of legalization
to their bottom lines than about any federal raid.

Director Gil Kerlikowske, Office of National Drug Control Policy, checks
out some of the tools of the trade employed by Coast Guard Tactical
Law Enforcement Team South in their counter-drug operations. Photos by
LT Amy Harmel