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Today in their regular meeting the LA City Council "will consider provisions to a proposed medical marijuana ordinance they have struggled with for two years," according to CBS2. In a vote postponed from last week, the Council will discuss how to handle the city's many dispensaries. "Among the possibilities are capping the number of dispensaries and creating a tax that could help boost the city's depleted coffers."The movement to legalize and therefore tax marijuana has been growing at the local and state level, and now it seems it is gaining hold on the national level, as well. A poll released last month shows that in LA County, legalizing marijuana has 54% support, and in May of this year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger indicated publicly he is open to discussion about ways to make revenue for the troubled state from the taxation of marijuana.
Nationwide, the numbers are smaller, but growing: "A Gallup poll in October found 44 percent of Americans favor full legalization of marijuana -- a rise of 13 points since 2000. Gallup said that if public support continues growing at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year, 'the majority of Americans could favor legalization of the drug in as little as four years,'" reports the Washington Post.
The eyes of the country remain fixed on California however:
At last week's International Drug Reform Conference, activists gamed specific proposals for taxing and regulating pot along the lines of cigarettes and alcohol, as a bill pending in the California Legislature would do. The measure is not expected to pass, but in urging its serious debate, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) gave credence to a potential revenue source that the state's tax chief said could raise $1.3 billion in the recession, which advocates describe as a boon.
Meanwhile, today our civic leaders will continue to hash out what they can and plan to do about the hundreds of pot dispensaries that "have opened their doors in Los Angeles over the past couple of years."
