After gathering enough signatures, California voters are almost guaranteed a historical vote on whether to legalize marijuana in their state this November. While the majority of voters, activists and consumers are celebrating the real chance of marijuana legalization, there is strong opposition coming from more than just anti-marijuana lobbying groups.
Jack Herer, a well know activist and author who also has popular strain of marijuana named after him, has urged people to vote against the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010″. Herer’s main complaint about the initiative is that it will unfairly tax marijuana consumers. Supporters of the initiative are using the $1+ billion revenue for the state as a major selling point to voters but Herer, who spearheaded his own California initiative prior to suffering a near fatal heart attack last year, says marijuana should be legal without a tax or limitations on quantity or growing.
Herer is joined in his opposition by Dennis Peron, a primary author of California’s original medical marijuana initiative (prop 215). In addition to opposing the large tax, Peron also takes aim at what he calls “fatal flaws” of the new law, citing strict mandates on jail time for minors caught with marijuana or those 21 and over that supply minors with marijuana. He also says it unfairly discriminates against parents by banning smoking “in any space while minors are present” while no laws prevent parents from consuming alcohol in the same house as minors.
Read Jack Herer’s California Cannabis Hemp & Health Initiative Here
Source: www.indybay.org
