America regulates marijuana, mostly, by prohibition. Despite criminalizing cannabis, and spending vast sums to find, fine, arrest, and jail pot smokers, the level of actual consumption seems unchanged.
(Americans, by the way, are increasingly supportive of marijuana decriminalization. Government officials can only sell expensive ineffectiveness for so long. The trend toward decriminalization is clear.)
I’ve no interest in smoking tobacco, let alone cannabis, but one needn’t be a smoker to see the failure of present policies. Criminalization is an expensive failure, and a dishonest one, too.
Officials spend too much time lying about failures and pretending they’re successes.
What if America replaced a failed prohibition with moderate and comprehensive regulation? That’s the subject of a California initiative.
Here are excerpts of a press release from the LP about the Golden State effort:
At the last meeting of the Libertarian National Committee in December, we endorsed the California ballot initiative to “Regulate Marijuana as Wine” by a vote of 14-0 (with 2 abstentions). While most Libertarians would rather have no regulation on marijuana, we believe that this is an incremental step in the right direction….
REGULATE WINE LIKE MARIJUANA
….It’s exactly what it sounds like: A new law that gives use, possession and sale of marijuana exactly the same legal status as drinking a glass, cellaring a bottle, or selling a case of Napa Valley White Zinfandel….
California led the way on medical marijuana back in 1996 with Proposition 215. Since then, 15 more states and the District of Columbia have passed medical marijuana legislation, bringing much-needed legal relief to the millions of patients…who rely on cannabis to relieve chronic pain, restore appetite and suppress the nausea associated with cancer chemo and AIDS medications, and even to outright keep them alive…
We’ve tweaked the Prop 215 template to eliminate those weaknesses make the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Initiative even more successful, not just in California but in the post-California national adoption phase.
Regulate Marijuana Like Wine specifies the EXACT scope of police and prosecutorial powers and the MAXIMUM fines and punishments which can be levied for infractions. It repeals all previous laws that might be used as hooks to hang a prosecution on. No more latitude for creative interpretations. No more loopholes to “up-charge” infractions so as to increase the penalties. Under this new law, smoking a joint will be treated EXACTLY like drinking a glass of merlot, traveling with an ounce of marijuana in your car will be treated EXACTLY like driving home with a bottle of chablis, and selling marijuana will be treated EXACTLY like running a liquor store.
“MARIJUANA IS THE LARGEST CASH CROP IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. NUMBER TWO IS GRAPES. BUT TODAY YOU DO NOT SEE THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS RAISING ILLEGAL VINEYARDS IN OUR NATIONAL FORESTS IN COMPETITION WITH ROBERT MONDAVI. WE CAN FORCE THESE THUGS OUT OF THIS BUSINESS. WE CAN REGULATE MARIJUANA LIKE WINE.”
ENDORSEMENTS
The Libertarian Party
Gov. Gary Johnson
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
Kenny Loggins
Judge James P. Gray (ret.)
LAPD Deputy Chief S. Downing (ret.)
Assemblymember Chris Norby
Lt. Diane Goldstein (ret.)
Ed Rosenthal
NORML Founder Keith Stroup
Thomas Chong
Rick Steves
Vivian McPeak Seattle Hempfest
Lynnette Shaw Marin Alliance
Alice Huffman President California NAACP
Rob Kampia, MPP
Norm Stamper, former Seattle Police Chief
Craig Beresh, California Cannabis Coalition
A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing)
LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)