California Assembly Bill 390 is an act to tax and regulate marijuana in California.

Some of the key messages I got from Judge Grey’s testimony:

• Legalizing is not the same thing as condoning. Just as we do not condone smoking cigarettes, we will not condone smoking marijuana.
• If legal system is being hard on drugs (marijuana), it’s being weaker on worst crimes — limited resources.
• Criminal => enormous profit => violence. We have to remove the profit, and take the power from these violent monsters. This will save lives.
• Lets have it strictly regulated and controlled with no advertising.
• Children are the victims of prohibition. “Dealers don’t ask for ID.” Dealers recruit children to deal to other children.

His comments on children hits most home for me. I remember as a young teenager having far greater access to marijuana (and far worse drugs) than to alcohol. I don’t want my son to have to deal with this garbage.

I sincerely hope Bill 390 is successful. The success of their program will be an important lever in the debate for ending prohibition in British Columbia and all of Canada.

Resources

• LEAP – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Cops Say Legalize Drugs (USA).
  “Founded on March 16, 2002, LEAP is made up of current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who are speaking out about the failures of our existing drug policies. Those policies have failed, and continue to fail, to effectively address the problems of drug abuse, especially the problems of juvenile drug use, the problems of addiction, and the problems of crime caused by the existence of a criminal black market in drugs.

  Although those who speak publicly for LEAP are people from the law enforcement and criminal justice communities, a large number of our supporting members do not have such experience. You don’t have to have law enforcement experience to join us.

  By continuing to fight the so-called “War on Drugs”, the US government has worsened these problems of society instead of alleviating them. A system of regulation and control of these substances (by the government, replacing the current system of control by the black market) would be a less harmful, less costly, more ethical and more effective public policy.”

• Insite – Supervised Injection Site. North America’s first legal supervised injection site. (Vancouver, BC).
  “Since opening its doors in 2003, Insite has been a safe, health-focused place where people can go to inject drugs and connect to health care services – from primary care to treat disease and infection, to addiction counselling and treatment.  Insite is an integral part of Vancouver Coastal Health’s continuum of care for people with addiction, mental illness and HIV/AIDS in the Vancouver community.”