Christian Science Monitor:
As part of the continued push to legalize marijuana in California, the state Assembly’s public safety committee approved a bill Tuesday to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. It’s the farthest that efforts to legalize marijuana have got in the state. […]
Reaction to the 4-3 committee vote has been swift and strong on both sides of the issue. Advocates of legalization are overjoyed.
“The mere fact that there was a vote in the Assembly to regulate and control the sale and distribution of marijuana would have been unthinkable even one year ago. And if the bill isn’t fully enacted into law this year, it will be soon,” Tom Angell with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition said in a statement.
Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee, the initiative’s main backer, has said supporters have obtained far more than the necessary 434,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
Brendan Kiley caught the story… coincidentally juxtaposed on the LAT’s homepage (photo above) with the capture of one of Mexico’s most wanted drug cartel bosses:
Teodoro Garcia Simental, believed to be behind a campaign of massacres, beheadings and kidnappings in Tijuana, was arrested by Mexican federal authorities without firing a shot and flown to Mexico City.
… During his reign, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Tijuana residents moved out of the city to avoid being kidnapped, more than 42 police officers were killed and more than 1,400 people died in drug-fueled violence.
Emphasis is Brendan’s.
Meanwhile Andrew Sullivan comments — and the bud goes on — on yesterday’s news out of NJ:
I suspect that when historians review the Obama presidency, one of the biggest shifts will be more sanity in the drug war. Obama has done nothing in this but respect states’ rights. And federalism allowed this issue to be resolved.
NJ will be #14. The others: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.