Bill Legalizing Marijuana Introduced in Sacramento

SANTA MARIA – Under Assembly Bill 390, marijuana producers would pay an excise tax of $50 an ounce, distributors and users would pay additional sales tax that would generate annual state revenues of $1 billion or more.

Democrat Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who introduced AB 390, says his bill would also save the state close to $200 million a year in costs for arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of marijuana offenders.

“Certainly that money could be used for more effective drug prevention programs, particularly education for our young people”, Ammiano says, “treatment of addictions would be a benefit.”

Opponents of legalization say marijuana is a dangerously addictive “gateway drug” that leads to more serious drug abuse particularly among young people.

“We already have a problem in schools, where kids are dropping out, grades are going down, attendance is reduced, all directly connected to their marijuana use”, says Frank Warren who runs prevention programs for San Luis Obispo County’s Drug and Alcohol Services Department, “we’re seeing a lot of young people with marijuana disorders and its effecting their life in a negative way, there’s a connection between marijuana and depression and suicide, its certainly not something that we take lightly.”

An analysis of AB 390 by the State Board of Equalization indicates about 16 million ounces of marijuana are consumed in California each year.

Its estimated consumption of marijuana would increase by about 40 percent if the bill becomes law, something Ammiano concedes.

“It’s a reality I suppose”, Ammiano says, “you know people who were intimidated in the past by being thrown in jail and so forth may then want to experiment with it, I don’t think it’s necessarily bad if there’s not abuse of it.”

Assembly Bill 390 is scheduled to be heard next month in the Assembly Health Committee.