Ok, lets move to Sacramento...or...It's 420 time !!!

[Over-Head]

(sorry if re-post)


Assembly committee OKs recreational marijuana

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...H4AR.DTL&tsp=1



(01-12) 11:09 PST Sacramento - --
A bill to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana - and allow the drug to be sold and taxed in California - cleared a key hurdle this morning,

as the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 to move it to the next step in the debate. But a Friday legislative deadline could mean the legislation will die before making it to the Assembly floor.




Members of the committee who approved the bill are all from the Bay Area and said they did not necessarily support the plan but wanted debate on the state's marijuana policy to continue.


After the vote, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who sponsored the bill and chairs the committee, said "the conversation is definitely gaining traction in Sacramento."

"This is a significant vote today because it legitimizes the quest for debate, the quest for discussion. There was a time when the 'm' word never would have been brought up in Sacramento," Ammiano said.

The bill, AB390, would allow possession, sale and cultivation of marijuana for people over 21, and impose a $50-an-ounce sales tax on marijuana, much like taxes on tobacco and alcohol.
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control would be tasked with regulation.

San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer, who is acting president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said she was "disappointed" by the committee's action.

"I think we need to have the full dialogue in debunking the myths," she said, predicting the social costs would outweigh any tax gains.
While the bill moved out of committee, Ammiano would need special permission to have it heard in the health committee before a Friday deadline for this piece of legislation. It would have to pass out of that committee before it would be heard by the full Assembly.

The vote in Sacramento comes as state lawmakers in New Jersey on Monday made that state one of the few on the East Coast to approve medicinal marijuana use. Up north in Olympia, the Washington State Legislature will consider two bills tomorrow to remove state criminal penalties associated with marijuana.


LIGHT EM UPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP