by Jason Stotts
Apparently the California state legislature is considering the full out legalization of marijuana. An article on the Bay Area NBC website notes that the assembly public safety committee has already approved the bill and that now it is going to be sent to the floor for a full vote. “The bill, authored by San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, would essentially treat pot the same way alcohol is treated under the law and would allow adults over 21 to possess, smoke and grow marijuana.”
I think that this is a major step in the right direction and I want to publicly endorse it.
While I don’t support the choice to use marijuana, I think that it should be legal and that the choice to use it or not should be left up to the individual. I think that legalizing it will do a great deal to discourage crime by bankrupting drug dealers and will help reduce our taxes by taking people out of jail who are no danger to anyone else.
For a more robust discussion of my views on marijuana, see my essay On Marijuana from October 2009.