Judge Jim Gray on Marijuana
Marijuana. Decriminalize, tax and regulate. Makes a lot more sense than ban, spray and incarcerate. Of course, it’s just the dark-skinned ones that we jail mostly. For middle class kids, it’s just “experimentation”!
That was the message of retired Judge Jim Gray at last night’s packed meeting of the Neighbors United for Fullerton at the main library. Gray told the supportive NUFFsters that imprisoning marijuana offenders costs California taxpayers $1 billion yearly and taxing it would add $4 billion to state coffers. That’s a net of $5 billion!
Who are the big winners in the drug war? Prison guards, prison builders, drug lords, dumb politicians and Big Pharma. (Tough to profit from a plant that grows in the wilds!)
Elected officials attending–and positively responding–were Supervisor Chris Norby and Anaheim UHSD Board Member Katherine Smith.
Gray talked about all the costs of the entire drug war, but concentrated on cannabis as the one most likely to see real reform. AB 390 by Assemblyman Tom Amiano (D-San Francisco) would legalize and tax marijuana in California, to take effect only after federal law was changed to respect state autonomy on the issue.
How ’bout it Barack? Would society really have been better off had you been jailed back during your experimental youth?
There are just enough pro-freedom Dems and Reps to form a coaltion. Reefer Madness might soon be replaced by Reefer sanity!
So, what kind of taxes are they going put on me, if I decide to become a grower?
Admin, a friend of mine who was at the lecture told me that Judge Gray advocated for the decriminalization of mj not the “legalization” of it, please explain?
Just the facts, thank you for helping me with this very important fact. You are right, Judge Gray used the word “decriminalize”, not “legalize”. I have made the change to this post.
JTF, would you like to write a post or two?
legalize marijuana because I cant afford to pay higher taxes to support the war on drugs and government’s latest drug czars
The incredible power of a plant:
http://orangepunch.freedomblogging.com/2009/08/26/testing-hemp-for-biofuel/12335/
Today there was a shootout in the middle of a Terraza Place neighborhood in Sunny Hills that left two men wounded, and all over bag of weed. It’s time to admit we lost the war on drugs.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/wounded-terraza-basham-2586296-people-station
Apparently your cognitive skills are blasted by your dope use , Thunder. Nowhere in that article did it say the bag of weed had anything to do with the shooting. It just said it was found in the area.
Jim Gray for Governor?