Californians are trying to tax and regulate marijuana, through such measures as the Tax Cannabis 2010 ballot initiative and Assm. Tom Ammiano’s AB 2254. Meanwhile, legislators in the Rhode Island House of Representatives have also introduced a bill to legalize marijuana; text here: http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText10/HouseText10/H7838.htm. H7838 would regulate marijuana wholesalers, retailers, and home-cultivators, and set a tax of $50/ounce like CA AB2254. Looks like there’s a race on to see who can begin reaping tax revenues, first: at least 6 states (California, Rhode Island, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Nevada) will consider taxing and regulating marijuana by the end of 2012. H7838 specifically invokes corrections/enforcement savings as a reason for regulating marijuana: “There were more than 847,000 arrests for marijuana offenses in the US in 2008, which is more than Rhode Island’s entire adult population.”
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Irony of ironies: if they were to shovel the revenues into prison construction.
I had hoped that with Obama, rescheduling might have been a possibility, but the only way that's probably ever likely to happen is through a "Nixon goes to China" overture from someone with impeccable culture-war creds.
The question of "punitive credentials" is always a big one. On our marijuana panel, Alex Kreit expressed serious doubts on the extent to which the feds would cooperate with a state regulation regime.
Safe Harbor Treatment Center research has shown that women react more positively to treatment when they are in a gender-specific treatment environment. In the past, drug treatment programs were designed and driven by males. Though men and women both suffer and struggle with the disease of addiction, women have unique and differing needs than men
I believe the marijuana taxation programs do not have a treatment component. Supposedly, if marijuana is legalized and taxed, it becomes a consumable product like any other, and treatment becomes a business of the private sector (as in the case of smoking). Is that your understanding as well, Jesse?