Possession of up to an ounce of the drug could be decriminalised next week, writes Lara Marlowein Los Angeles
BILL CLINTON said he smoked but didn't inhale. In his autobiography, Dreams from my Father, President Barack Obama recounted smoking marijuana during a restless period of his youth at Occidental College in southern California. In a poll last month, 47 per cent of Californian respondents said they tried it at least once.
Police Chief Kim Raney from Covina, California, never touched it. "It was a felony when I was growing up. And I already had the ambition to become a police officer," he says.
Today, Raney is trying to salvage the last shred of illegality attached to smoking cannabis in the state where the hippie movement started. If proposition 19 passes next Tuesday, possession of an ounce or less will be decriminalised, and individuals will be allowed to cultivate their own marijuana gardens of up to 25 square feet.
The measure is opposed by the chambers of commerce, 40 Californian newspapers and all leading gubernatorial and Senate candidates, though none has made it a campaign issue. Polls showed support for proposition 19 at around 50 per cent. But that ebbed to 39 per cent in the most recent poll, in part because US attorney general Eric Holder announced the federal government will sue California to defend the supremacy of the federal ban if the measure passes.
Fourteen other states and the District of Columbia have followed California's example in legalising "medical marijuana" since 1996. The federal government is drawing the line at complete legalisation of the drug.
"I've talked about this on university campuses, and it really resonates with young people," says Kyle Kazan, a retired police officer and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (Leap). "If young voter turnout is high, I think it will pass." Democrats hope proposition 19 will motivate young people to go to the polls - dubbed their "Hail Mary Jane strategy" by Republicans.
Leap supports proposition 19 because, Kazan says, "the war on drugs is a failure. It's just a big circle. You arrest someone. They go to jail and they're out the next day. It's a waste of resources." Raney says only 1,499 of California's 179,000 prisoners - less than one-tenth of 1 per cent - are jailed for marijuana offences.
The legalisation of "medical marijuana" enabled users to obtain a permit to purchase marijuana from dispensaries, for anxiety or insomnia. "Studies show that 98 per cent of medical marijuana recipients use it for recreation," says Raney. "The term 'medical marijuana' has desensitised an entire generation of Californians to the dangers of the drug."
Last month, outgoing governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation making possession of less than one ounce of marijuana an infraction, equivalent to a traffic citation. It had been a misdemeanour.
Marijuana is already California's biggest cash crop, worth an estimated $14 billion (€10 billion) annually - more than grapes harvested for the state's celebrated wine. For a time, there were more than 800 dispensaries in Los Angeles - which is more marijuana outlets than Starbucks coffee shops. The city attorney has racheted their number down to about 100.
In the area around Humboldt, northern California, marijuana has replaced timber as the mainstay of the economy.
"At Oaksterdam University in Oakland, you can study to become a Cannabanista," Raney says scornfully. "For pro-drug people, medical marijuana was the Trojan horse that will lead to the legalisation of all drugs."
Proponents of proposition 19, the "Regulate, Control and Tax Marijuana Initiative" say it would bring in $1.4 billion in annual tax revenue to a state with a $20 billion budget deficit. "The state doesn't get one cent of it. Every city would have to set up their own infrastructure to tax it," says Raney. "The initiative potentially creates 436 different agencies to regulate and control."
Nonsense, says Kazan, Raney's police alter ego and a vocal proponent of proposition 19. Marijuana sales would be regulated much as alcohol sales are. Cash-strapped Californian towns and cities could use the revenue to retain police and firemen whom they would otherwise have to let go.
Before he left the police to run a property investment and management fund, Kazan spent five years as a court-certified expert on drug sales and drug use, as part of a gang enforcement team. "We live in the gang capital of the world," he says of greater Los Angeles.
For a generation, gangs like MS 13, Calle 18, Crips and Bloods have monopolised drug sales. "Let's start trying to cut apart their illegal activities," says Kazan.
Raney says proposition 19 would make California the marijuana distribution centre for the entire US, and the Mexican drug cartels would move in to dominate the business.
"Every day, when you turn on the television, you see the carnage from the drug wars [in Mexico]," he says. "We don't want to see that fight on our streets. We don't want to see that migrate across our border."
On the contrary, says Kazan. Legalisation would drive the price of marijuana down so far that it would become unprofitable to sell it illegally. Since possession would remain a felony elsewhere in the US, there would be a disincentive to transport it across state lines.
"If it's about tax revenue, let's start taxing methamphetamines and child pornography and admit we are a morally bankrupt society," says Raney. "Marijuana is the gateway to other drugs, because it breaks down your acceptance to do things that are prohibited."
"I understand President Obama is against proposition 19," sighs Kazan. "So he himself was a criminal. He smoked it, and he did okay, and it didn't lead him to heroin . . ."