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Tag Archives: Legalization

States High on Pot Tax as Budget Cure

California’s current budget gap may be large at $20 billion, but it is not unique, and the outcome will be closely watched. The National Governors Association says the recession will not end in some states until 2012. As California moves closer to a vote on legalizing marijuana, which most states banned in the 1930s, the [...]

Ahead of state-wide vote, marijuana legalization battle heats up in California

Activists estimate that California could earn 1.5 billion dollars in excise taxes, and save another billion dollars currently spent on law enforcement and prisons by legalizing cannabis. They also point to earnings for marijuana-linked businesses. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in California estimated the total economic impact of such a move [...]

In California, legalizing marijuana not just for hippies

Far from being a war between hippies and police, the fight to legalize marijuana in California centers on whether decriminalizing and taxing cannabis can help fill the state’s fiscal hole. Using the drug for medical purposes has been legal for 14 years in the western state. But a new initiative that will appear on the [...]

Marijuana Legalization Officially Qualifies for California Ballot

It’s official. Tax Cannabis 2010, the most far-reaching state effort ever, which would legalize the consumption of cannabis for all adults over 21 — and would finally take the industry that serves those consumers out of a legal gray area — will qualify for the November mid-term ballot later today. The Tax Cannabis campaign gathered [...]

The Beginning of the End of Marijuana Prohibition

Neither the administration nor Congress is ready for a serious dialogue on ending marijuana prohibition, though. Congress is even stymied when it comes to medical marijuana — many elected officials still insist they can’t spend their political capital on it. With support for medical marijuana at 81 percent, one has to wonder — just how [...]

Eight in 10 Americans favor legalizing medical marijuana: poll

The medical marijuana debate among American voters is over. Eight in 10 Americans — 81% overall — support allowing doctors to prescribe cannabis, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll. That’s up from just 69% in 1997, the last time the two firms asked that question, and from 75% in 2003, according to Gallup. via [...]

High Expectations? States Weigh Pot Reform

Washington is one of four states where measures to legalize and regulate marijuana have been introduced, and about two dozen other states are considering bills ranging from medical marijuana to decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the herb. “In terms of state legislatures, this is far and away the most active year that we’ve ever [...]