Double Toke! Ammiano Reintroduces Bill to Legalize, Tax Marijuana.

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Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has reintroduced his pioneering bill seeking to legalize and tax pot in California.

In a statement released this afternoon, Ammiano's office said the San Francisco Democrat hopes the new legislation will build on support garnered by AB 390, his first pot-legalization measure, which passed out of committee in Sacramento but overran its deadline for consideration by the rest of the Legislature.

The bill's expiration last month appeared more or less in line with the grand strategy of Ammiano, who said he wanted to take plenty of time to build consensus on the issue. Now AB 2254, the latest incarnation of the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act, will get a second shot.

"We're even more optimistic about the fate of this bill than we were about AB 390," Aaron Smith, California director for the Marijuana Policy Project, told SF Weekly.

"Our prisons are overflowing and it's easier now for teenagers to get Marijuana than alcohol," Ammiano said in his statement."We simply cannot afford to continue keeping our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is fine."

Okay. But wouldn't it be sorta cool to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine ... while you're HIGH?

Comments (24)

h. brown says:

Tom,

I almost kinda thought for a second that Tom's election to the State legislature was like a retirement thing?

Nope, just like he gave SF the best health care in the nation and made it OK to be gay and teach school?

The man never stops.

God bless Tom Ammiano.

And?

Go Giants!

h.

Posted On: Thursday, Feb. 18 2010 @ 8:25PM
christoff says:

"Okay. But wouldn't it be sorta cool to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine ... while you're HIGH?"

Ok, this was unnecessary and stupid at best.

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 6:33AM
Travis says:

"Okay. But wouldn't it be sorta cool to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine ... while you're HIGH?"

Respectable potheads everywhere sigh in disgust.

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 8:56AM
Peter Jamison Author Profile Page says:

Dear Travis, Christoff, code347, and A Toker,

Really, guys? You don't think it would be kind of cool? Have you ever tried it? Maybe with a blacklight?

Regards,
Peter Jamison

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 9:09AM
code347 says:

"Okay. But wouldn't it be sorta cool to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine ... while you're HIGH?"

Really? Was this an op/ed piece? Or news?

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 9:38AM
A Toker says:

Peter, your entire article was fine up until that last unneeded paragraph. what do you gain by saying that? It makes you sound uninformed and unable to leave your agenda out of reporting

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 9:38AM
Brick says:

The problem lies in the fact that the government want to "tax" and "control" marijuana. I'm all for legalization but giving control to the government would be the worst thing they could do. The government can't run anything efficiently. If they are allowed to take the reigns on pot it'll undoubtedly be an inferior product at an inflated price thanks to the bureaucracy inherit in all government programs. Let the free market have it, empower entrepreneurs to start their own marijuana manufacturing and distribution businesses and put that money back into their communities. Money and jobs in the free market not this government regulated b.s. that has gotten us where we are today.

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 9:38AM
Anonymous says:

"Okay. But wouldn't it be sorta cool to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine ... while you're HIGH?"

Wouldn't it be sort of cool to let people escape with the recreational drug called alcohol, while making criminals out of those who prefer use a safer alternative called cannabis? Really, this is what you support?

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 9:53AM
Peter Jamison Author Profile Page says:

Dear Anonymous,

Do you really think so? I don't think that would be anywhere near as cool as sticking your head in the sand while you're high.

Regards,
Peter Jamison

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 10:06AM
Mr. Peter Dumass says:

lets all go get drunk and beat our wives among other things...

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 11:01AM
Anonymous says:

"Okay. But wouldn't it be sorta cool to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine ... while you're HIGH?"

Almost as cool as stealing a reference from a 1998 movie that perpetuates stereotypes about your subject matter and thinking it'll go over well. So here's to attempting to marginalize things that scare you. The true COOL thing to do.

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 11:11AM
peter is lame says:

Wow, Peter, you really are not funny. Why don't you just go stick your head in the sand? (and don't worry about if you are sober or not...just try it...have fun.)

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 11:11AM
heatherrr. says:

""Okay. But wouldn't it be sorta cool to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine ... while you're HIGH?"

Respectable potheads everywhere sigh in disgust."

cannabis users don't like the term pothead, even if they are respectable. we all know people who blaze up every day who you would never label as a "pothead", and there are others who perpetuate the stereotype. the funny, non violent, harmless baked out stereotype...

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 11:28AM
Anonymous says:

If the netherlands can implement this successfully why can't America? Not to mention that they have less crime. We should look to european countries as an example for drug policies.

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 12:06PM
monte lasagna says:

had cannabis been legalized in 1970 steada demonized ........

LEGALIZE the blessed and righteous herb yesterday.

thanks

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 12:13PM
anonymous says:

Everyone has their opinion, that was his. you cant say its wrong or right. Just because you dont like marijuana doesnt mean its wrong for other people to have a different opinion on the subject.

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 1:22PM
MarijuanaLobby says:

Readers, stick your head(s) in this:
http://MarijuanaLobby.com

AND we won't have to keep seeing the press milk the crap out of our Marijuana's Movement in America...

Join us: http://MarijuanaLobby.com

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 5:02PM
drew says:

@christoff

the author was clearly leading you to believe that the majority of potheads just get high and forget about the legalization battle, which is not what we want. We want the pot smokers to come out so to speak.

Posted On: Friday, Feb. 19 2010 @ 5:38PM
Monika says:

I would feel sticking in my head in sand while high, sober, or drunk would be rather uncomfortable.

It was not a funny joke and made people pro legalization of this topic seem less creditable.

Thank you and suck it, retard.

Posted On: Saturday, Feb. 20 2010 @ 1:01AM
Anonymous says:

Also, some of the most gung ho smokers I know are not pro legalization...
For reasons, reasons I may not back up so do not wish to share...
BUT they are not so high out of their minds that they aren't taking action.
They DO NOT WANT to take action for their own reasons.


Stop with generalizations and stereotypes.

Many med students are going through med school, smoking pot, and passing drug tests quite easily. If they can still study for their exams they aren't just lazily taking action in this movement, they have a reason.

Posted On: Saturday, Feb. 20 2010 @ 1:04AM
Tim Giangiobbe says:

I have just one thing to say,Legalize and TAX TAX TAX then we will no longer be wasting resources busting human beings for using a HERB,a NO BRAINER

Posted On: Saturday, Feb. 20 2010 @ 12:07PM
terence anton leary says:

what is the use of trusting science at all if we cant trust it enough to know that cannabis is safe and useful?
this is a big issue we are talking about here and the science that helps us to live almost twice as old our recent ancestors is the same science that is saying cannabis is, if anything, good for us. God forbid it makes us a little high and more questioning of things in the process of making us healthier.
it is becomming very clear that the real reason cannabis is illegal is because it makes you question what is true and what isnt and what could be "maybe".
yes, cannabis functions like mental "ankle weights" sometimes if you will, but that is part of what makes it great. it only makes you stronger. afterwards it seems people are all the better for having their herbal cannabinoid uptake session or at the least no worse for wear.
it seems as though the government would want to re-legalize cannabis as soon as possible to show that they are an institution that can be trusted and has nothing to hide.
that's how i see it any way.

Posted On: Monday, Feb. 22 2010 @ 5:31PM
Kameron Reeves says:

yes you need to leagalize it and tax it but if we taxed it in the us we would be rolling in 60.5 billion dollars a year!!! i could by a country with that much money. i agree with you 150% marijuana needs to be legalized!!! go Tom im pro-marjuana all the way!!! smoke it up!!!!!!!!!

Posted On: Wednesday, Feb. 24 2010 @ 7:19AM
TO says:

You would never believe, looking at me, that I have been a daily smoker of pot for almost 7 years now. I am a female, I own and run a gymnastics center, I just bought my second house and I have a five year old son. I don't touch alchohol, I've never had a beer, YUCK! I hate being a criminal. Why? I don't sell, I don't commit crimes, I take care of my family, my business and pay my taxes. And hell ya I would pay taxes on weed. I asked my republican mother in law why she was going to vote against it. She said that everyone was going to start smoking pot. I asked her if she was going to? No. I guess the only people who would be buying it legally are the ones now buying it illigally! Our state is in a huge mess and its the kids who suffer!(EDUCATION! is our biggest complaint here in California-I'm sure over 1 billion dollars a year could help that!)
I'm am only one face, but I know (friends) that there are so many more. Please stop treating me like a criminal. I'm not.

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 25 2010 @ 6:07AM

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