Kerlikowske Finds Ideology
7/24/09, 12:34 am EST
This is a major disappointment:
Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske hit the road this week to rail against the perils of pot:
“Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit,” he said at an appearance in Fresno, California.
This is a striking departure from what Kerlikowske told me in an interview in May.
Because of the restrictive terms the Vice President’s office imposed on our interview, I’m not at liberty to quote the drug czar directly.
But when I asked Kerlikowske for an example of how he hoped to bring sound science back to Office of National Drug Control Policy, he told me that science would answer whether smoked marijuana has any medical benefit.
That’s a question that science answers, he told me, not ideology.
From this week’s comments, it appears it took just two more months on the job for Kerlikowske’s openness to scientific uncertainty to snap shut in a fit of ideological conviction.
Tim Dickinson
Featured On Norml.org
Tags: anonymous-says, federal, july-26th, News, norml, NORML Executive Director, Obama, people, president, Rolling Stone
Posted by Paul Armentano NORML Deputy Director on Apr 22, 2009 in
Illinois,
Medical Marijuana,
Minnesota,
NORML Feed,
New Hampshire,
New York,
News,
new jersey 
A number of state legislatures are actively vying to join Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington to become the fourteenth state to legalize the physician-supervised use of medicinal marijuana.
Here’s how you can help make these efforts a reality.
Illinois: This week the Marijuana Policy Project began running targeted ads in support of House Bill 2514 and Senate Bill 1381, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Acts. Both bills have already passed various legislative committees and are expected to receive floor votes imminently. If you live in Illinois and have not yet contacted your House and Senate members in support of these measures, please do so now by going here.
Minnesota: A pair of bills (SF 97 and HF 292) seeking to allow for the use and distribution of medicinal cannabis have cleared committee and are expected to be voted on shortly by members of the full House and Senate. One potential hurdle: Governor Tim Pawlenty, who has voiced opposition to the measures. Tell the Governor that “it is unconscionable to deny this effective medicine to sick and dying patients” by going here.
New Hampshire: Members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee are expected to take action on HB 648 later this week. UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE! THE COMMITTEE VOTED 4-1 IN FAVOR OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA THIS AFTERNOON. THE FULL SENATE WILL DECIDE ON HB 648 NEXT WEEK! Contact information for the New Hampshire state senate and Gov. John Lynch is available here.
New Jersey: In February, members of the state Senate approved the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act by a vote of 22 to 16. Yet months later, leadership in the Assembly has still not taken any action on this measure, which has received the support of the Governor and the Attorney General. Please contact your member of the Assembly here, and urge him or her demand that their colleagues hold hearings on medical marijuana.
New York: Lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly introduced legislation this week to legalize the state-sanctioned use and distribution of medicinal marijuana. The bills’ sponsors are confident that they have the necessary votes to pass medical marijuana law reform in both chambers. Further, according to news reports, Gov. Patterson is also privately supportive of medical marijuana law reform. If you reside in New York, please consider assisting this campaign by going here and by contacting your elected officials here.
The rest is here:
NORML’s Weekly Legislative Round Up: Which State Will Be The Next To Legalize Medicinal Cannabis?
Tags: Florida, house, Minnesota, new jersey, New York, News, norml, virginia, week
Posted by Paul Armentano NORML Deputy Director on Apr 15, 2009 in
14 billion,
Allen St. Pierre,
NORML Feed,
New York City,
News,
Tax Day,
US Treasury,
tea party 
NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre presented a mock check to the U.S. Treasury Department in the sum of $14 billion this morning at a press conference on the steps of the General Post Office in New York City.
The $14 billion check total represents the combined savings and tax revenues that would be generated by regulating the sale and production of cannabis like alcohol, according to a 2005 analysis by Harvard University senior lecturer Jeffrey Miron and endorsed by over 500 distinguished economists.
Media representatives from CNN, Fox News, Sirius Satellite Radio, and other news outlets were on hand to cover the event.
“On a day when so many Americans lament having to pay state and federal income taxes, we’re representing America’s millions of otherwise law-abiding cannabis consumers, who are ready, willing, and able to contribute to our struggling economy — while providing truly ‘green’ jobs and allowing police to focus on more important priorities,” NORML told reporters. “All we ask in exchange for our $14 billion is the right to enjoy pot responsibly and in peace.”
Additional background information and photos from this morning’s event are available at The Huffington Post here, and at The Hill’s Congress blog here. As always, NORML encourages you to leave your feedback in support of marijuana law reform at these to influential blog sites.
NORML is holding follow up, public protest later today at 4:20pm est. We hope to see you there!
Go here to see the original:
Update From NORML’s ‘A Different Kind Of Tea Party’ Tax Day Protest
Tags: Allen St. Pierre, article, chair, congress, drug, Government, media, message, New York City, News, norml, people, tea party, Time
Posted by Paul Armentano NORML Deputy Director on Apr 14, 2009 in
14 billion,
Allen St. Pierre,
April 15,
General Post Office,
NORML Feed,
New York City,
News,
Tax Day,
US Treasury,
norml,
tax and regulate 
What would you do with an extra $14 billion dollars? NORML will be asking the Obama administration that very question tomorrow when Executive Director Allen St. Pierre will present a mock check to the U.S. Treasury Office at a press conference on the steps of the General Post Office in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.
WHO
Representatives of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, including NORML’s National Director Allen St. Pierre, and New York NORML
WHAT
Marijuana law reformers will present a $14 billion check to the U.S. Treasury
WHEN
April 15th, 2009 at 8:00 AM (press conference with mock check) and 4:20 PM presentation of check with NORML supporters.
WHERE
The steps of the General Post Office in Manhattan
441 Eighth Ave
New York, NY
If you reside in the New York area, please consider showing your support for marijuana legalization by attending this event. Taxing and regulating doesn’t just make sense, it makes ‘cents’ too!
Legalizing Pot Makes Lots of Cents for Our Cash-Starved Government
via Alternet.org
What could you do with an extra $14 billion dollars? Members of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and other likeminded organizations will be asking government officials that very question on Wednesday, April 15th, when they present a mock check to the U.S. Treasury Office.
“We represent the millions of otherwise law-abiding cannabis consumers who are ready, willing, vocal and able to contribute needed tax revenue to America’s struggling economy,” says Allen St. Pierre, NORML’s Executive Director. “All we ask in exchange for our $14 billion is that our government respects our decision to use marijuana privately and responsibly.”
But it’s not just NORML that is calling on lawmakers to tax and regulate marijuana. In today’s economic climate, the question is: who isn’t?
Late last month, during President Barack Obama’s first-ever Internet Town Hall, questions pertaining to whether legalizing marijuana like alcohol could help boost the economy received more votes from the public than did any other topic. The questions’ popularity — and the President’s half-hearted reply (”No,” he laughed.) — stimulated a torrent of mainstream media attention. In the past two weeks alone, commentators like David Sirota (The Nation), Kathleen Parker (Washington Post), Paul Jacob (TownHall.com), Clarence Page (Chicago Tribune), and Jack Cafferty (CNN) have all expressed sympathy for regulating pot. Even Joe Klein at Time Magazine weighed in on the issue, writing this month that “legalizing marijuana makes sense.”
It makes cents too.
According to a 2005 analysis by Harvard University senior lecturer Jeffrey Miron — and endorsed by over 500 distinguished economists — replacing pot prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation similar to that used for alcohol would produce combined savings and tax revenues of between $10 billion and $14 billion per year.
A separate economic analysis, conducted by George Mason University professor Jon Gettman in 2007, estimates that the total amount of tax revenue derived from cannabis could be far higher. According to Gettman, the retail value of the total U.S. marijuana market now stands at a whopping $113 billion per year. Using standard tax percentages obtained from the Office of Management and Budget, he calculates that the diversion of this market from the taxable economy deprives taxpayers of $31.1 billion annually.
For local and state governments, taxing and regulating pot could help reduce growing deficits. For instance, in Oakland, California the City Council gave preliminary approval last week to a proposal to raise the business tax paid by city-licensed medical marijuana dispensary operators. Council members estimate that the new tax will raise anywhere from $400,000 to a “couple million” dollars annually.
Likewise, lawmakers in Massachusetts and California are debating statewide measures to tax and regulate the production and sale of cannabis to adults. Both state proposals would impose a fixed excise tax on the retail production of marijuana — non-retail cultivation would remain untaxed — as well as sales taxes on the commercial sale of the drug to anyone 21 years and older.
“The revenue effect of the proposed Act is an estimated annual revenue gain of $1.339 billion,” says the California State Board of Equalization and Taxation, which is backing the measure. A more liberal economic assessment performed by California NORML’s Dr. Dale Gieringer estimates that the annual revenues raised via the advent of a legal cannabis industry in California could be far higher.
“A comparable example would be California’s wine industry,” Gieringer wrote in a 2009 report. “With $12.3 billion in retail sales, the wine industry generates 309,000 jobs, $10.1 billion in wages, and $2 billion in tourist expenditures. Extrapolating these figures to a legal marijuana market, … one might expect $12 to $18 billion in total economic activity, with 60,000 to 110,000 new jobs created, and $2.5 to $3.5 billion in legal wages, which would generate additional income and business taxes for the state.”
Finally, taxing and regulating cannabis would have the added bonus of taking the production and trafficking of pot out of the hands of criminal enterprises and, increasingly, drug gangs. According to the Associated Press, marijuana is the “biggest source of income” for Mexican drug cartels. Legalizing pot would eliminate this primary income source for these cartels and, in turn, eliminate much of the growing violence and turf battles that currently surround the drug’s illegal importation from Mexico.
Any way you look at it, legalizing cannabis just “makes sense.” So why aren’t we doing it?
Read more from the original source:
A Different Kind Of ‘Tea Party!’
Tags: April 15, april-16th, California, country, General Post Office, Government, Marijuana, media, norml, Obama, office, president, Tax Day
