Schwarzenegger Opens Debate on Legalizing Marijuana
By Steve Angeles, North America News Bureau | 05/08/2009 5:22 AM
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA—The marijuana debate is heating up again in California. Yesterday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger softened his stance against the legalization of marijuana by saying it's time to open the debate.
Charles Barcelona rolls a joint of cannabis in cigar paper, lights it up, and takes a deep puff of smoke. Barcelona smokes pot for his anxiety. He gets it by prescription from a cannabis club, the only legal way to get it. He spends $300 a month for his marijuana, but the government gets nothing back. Barcelona thinks it is time to legalize marijuana.
“75 percent of people say weed is not harmless and should be legal. It’d definitely take a lot of people out of the prison system, too,” Barcelona said.
After an ABC news-Washington Post poll found that 46%of Americans supported the legalization of pot use, Schwarzenegger said it’s time to look into legalizing and taxing marijuana.
State assemblyman Tom Ammiano proposed a bill in February that would legalize persons age 21 and over to buy, use, sell, and grow marijuana. The proposition predicts that marijuana taxes can generate $1.3 billion a year in state revenue.
Local cannabis activists say they do not condone drug abuse, but they believe this move could fix the state if regulated properly. Rudy Corpuz, a San Francisco activist, said, “If it’s going to help not only the budget but people who need marijuana because they are sick, who are we to tell them what not to put in their body?”
Still, legalizing marijuana faces stiff opposition.
At the Westbay Filipino Center in the South of Market district, one of San Francisco’s most impoverished neighborhoods, an afterschool program teaches local children the dangers of using cannabis and other substances. The Westbay understands California’s budget woes are already affecting afterschool programs, but believes pot is not the answer.
Tammy Arnaiz, a Westbay tutor, said legalizing marijuana “would work against us in Westbay as we try to keep kids on the right track.”
Governor Schwarzenegger says it’s not yet the time to vote on it, but it is a debate worth looking into, as California faces a $42 billion budget shortfall.
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