Americans Get Pot From US Government

By NIGEL DUARA, Associated Press
from http://www.aol.com/

EUGENE, Ore. -- Sometime after midnight on a moonlit rural Oregon highway, a state trooper checking a car he had just pulled over found less than an ounce of pot on one passenger: A chatty 72-year-old woman blind in one eye.

She insisted the weed was legal and was approved by the U.S. government.

The trooper and his supervisor were doubtful. But after a series of calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement Agency and her physician, the troopers handed her back the card - and her pot.

For the past three decades, Uncle Sam has been providing a handful of patients with some of the highest grade marijuana around. The program grew out of a 1976 court settlement that created the country's first legal pot smoker.

Advocates for legalizing marijuana or treating it as a medicine say the program is a glaring contradiction in the nation's 40-year war on drugs - maintaining the federal ban on pot while at the same time supplying it.

Government officials say there is no contradiction. The program is no longer accepting new patients, and public health authorities have concluded that there was no scientific value to it, Steven Gust of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse told The Associated Press.

At one point, 14 people were getting government pot. Now, there are four left.

The government has only continued to supply the marijuana "for compassionate reasons," Gust said.
One of the recipients is Elvy Musikka, the chatty Oregon woman. A vocal marijuana advocate, Musikka relies on the pot to keep her glaucoma under control. She entered the program in 1988, and said that her experience with marijuana is proof that it works as a medicine.

They "won't acknowledge the fact that I do not have even one aspirin in this house," she said, leaning back on her couch, glass bong cradled in her hand. "I have no pain."

Marijuana is getting a look from states around the country considering calls to repeal decades-old marijuana prohibition laws. There are 16 states that have medical marijuana programs. In the three West Coast states, advocates are readying tax-and-sell or other legalization programs.

Marijuana was legal for much of U.S. history and was recognized as a medicine in 1850. Opposition to it began to gather and, by 1936, 48 states had passed laws regulating pot, fearing it could lead to addiction.
Anti-marijuana literature and films, like the infamous "Reefer Madness," helped fan those fears. Eventually, pot was classified among the most harmful of drugs, meaning it had no usefulness and a high potential for addiction.

In 1976, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must provide Robert Randall of Washington, D.C. with marijuana because of his glaucoma - no other drug could effectively combat his condition. Randall became the nation's first legal pot smoker since the drug's prohibition.

Eventually, the government created its program as part of a compromise over Randall's care in 1978, long before a single state passed a medical marijuana law. What followed were a series of petitions from people like Musikka to join the program.

President George H.W. Bush's administration, getting tough on crime and drugs, stopped accepting new patients in 1992. Many of the patients who had qualified had AIDS, and they were dying.

The AP asked the agency that administers the program, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, for documents showing how much marijuana has been sent to patients since the first patient in 1976.

The agency supplied full data for 2005-2011, which showed that during that period the federal government distributed more than 100 pounds of high-grade marijuana to patients.

Agency officials said records related to the program before 2005 had been destroyed, but were able to provide scattered records for a couple of years in the early 2000s.

The four patients remaining in the program estimate they have received a total of 584 pounds from the federal government over the years. On the street, that would be worth more than $500,000.

All of the marijuana comes from the University of Mississippi, where it is grown, harvested and stored.
Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who directs the operation, said the marijuana was a small part of the crop the university has been growing since 1968 for all cannabis research in the U.S. Among the studies are the pharmaceutical uses for synthetic mimics of pot's psychoactive ingredient, THC.

ElSohly said the four patients are getting pot with about 3 percent THC. He said 3 percent is about the range patients have preferred in blind tests.

The marijuana is then sent from Mississippi to a tightly controlled North Carolina lab, where they are rolled into cigarettes. And every month, steel tins with white labels are sent to Florida and Iowa. Packed inside each is a half-pound of marijuana rolled into 300 perfectly-wrapped joints.

With Musikka living in Oregon, she is entitled to more legal pot than anyone in the nation because she's also enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program. Neither Iowa nor Florida has approved marijuana as a medicine, so the federal pot is the only legal access to the drug for the other three patients.

The three other people in the program range in ages and doses of marijuana provided to them, but all consider themselves an endangered species that, once extinct, can be brushed aside by a federal government that pretends they don't exist.

All four have become crusaders for the marijuana-legalization movement. They're rock stars at pro-marijuana conferences, sought-after speakers and recognizable celebrities in the movement.

Irv Rosenfeld, a financial adviser in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has been in the program since November 1982. His condition produces painful bone tumors, but he said marijuana has replaced prescription painkillers.

Rosenfeld likes to tell this story: In the mid-1980s, the federal government asked his doctor for an update on how Rosenfeld was doing. It was an update the doctor didn't believe the government was truly interested in. He had earlier tried to get a copy of the previous update, and was told the government couldn't find it, Rosenfeld said.

So instead of filling out the form, the doctor responded with a simple sentence written in large, red letters: "It's working."

New Hampshire House Passes Medical Marijuana Bill

By Steve Elliott
From: http://www.tokeofthetown.com/

Graphic: ReLegalize Indiana

​The New Hampshire House of Representatives, which has a nearly 3:1 Republican supermajority, overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that would allow residents to use marijuana for medical purposes.

H.B. 442, which would create a narrow exception in New Hampshire law for people with certain qualifying conditions to use marijuana to treat their ailments with doctors' recommendations, will now move on to the Senate.

The bill passed 221-96, or by 69.7 percent, doing better than similar medical marijuana bills have done in previous Democrat-controlled sessions, proving that this an issue that both parties can support. The bill was introduced by Rep. Evalyn Merrick (D-Coos), a cancer survivor, and is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jim Forsythe (R-Strafford).

Photo: MPP

Karen O'Keefe, MPP: "This vote shows that compassion is not a partisan issue"

​"This vote shows that compassion is not a partisan issue," said Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project. "Lawmakers can come together despite their political differences when it comes to allowing sick people to use medical marijuana. They owe it to their constituents to do so."

H.B. 442 enjoys strong support among voters. A 2008 Mason-Dixon poll showed that 71 percent of New Hampshire voters are in favor of allowing the use of medical marijuana, with only 21 percent opposed.

The bill now goes to the New Hampshire Senate.

Medical marijuana treatment is currently permitted in 15 other states and the District of Columbia, and is being considered in more than a dozen state legislatures this year.

by ■ Edward Xiao
from: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/303753#ixzz1EK9XH0Kq

Massachusetts bill to legalize marijuana

A bill calling for the legalization, regulation and taxation of recreational marijuana has been introduced into the Massachusetts Legislature. 

According to The 420 Times, "The Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act", which was drafted by attorney Richard M. Evans and introduced by Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst), would legalize the possession, consumption and sale of marijuana. An age limit of 21 and multiple fee-requiring licenses would also be established. The bill includes specific regulations and limits, such as processors of marijuana only being able to process the cannabis into one ounce packages, a $5000 fine for driving while high and specific indoor locations to sell the product. As noted in The Daily Collegian, the bill would also erect a Cannabis Control Authority. Made up of seven part-time directors serving seven-year terms and collecting salaries 20% that of the governor's, the group would oversee the Massachusetts cannabis industry, create regulations and rules, revoke licenses in the case of transgressing any laws pertaining to marijuana and its distribution, approve licenses for cannabis and collect $10 excise taxes per one percent of THC per one ounce of marijuana. While many are glad to see such a bill in the legislature, they still maintain a cautious outlook on the likelihood of the bill actually passing. Although he created it, Evans believes that the bill won't pull through because the legislature "won’t touch the legalization bill with a 10-foot pole.” He further states that supporters of the bill are reluctant to voice their approval because of fear that they will be labeled drug addicts. A ballot initiative, Evans claims, would be a more effective first step towards the legalization of cannabis. However, such an initiative would have to wait until 2014 to be introduced because under the law, highly similar proposals cannot be filed within four years of each other. Nevertheless, Massachusetts is still a focal point in the crusade to legalize marijuana. According to The MetroWest Daily News, since 2000, voters in the state have had a positive reaction to every question pertaining to the easing of restrictions on weed.

Willie Nelson Could Get Two Years In Texas Pot Bust

By Steve Elliott
From http://www.tokeofthetown.com/

Photo: All Access

Willie Nelson could be sentenced to between six months and two years for being busted with six ounces of marijuana on Friday.

​Thanks to our fearless Border Patrol, music legend Willie Nelson, 77, could face up to two years in prison for his marijuana possession arrest, according to a criminal defense attorney in Austin.

The attorney told website TMZ that Willie's arrest for six ounces of weed at a Border Patrol checkpoint could get the singer six months minimum and up to two years in prison.

However, ace L.A. pot attorney Bruce Margolin -- who's also director of the Los Angeles chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws -- said that Willie might dodge prison time if he could convince a jury that he just forgot the pot was on the bus.

Margolin believes Nelson should say the pot was California-grown, with California, of course, being the first of 15 states which have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis.

The bust went down at the Sierra Blanca, Texas checkpoint after Nelson's tour bus pulled in Friday morning and a Border Patrol officer smelled marijuana through the vehicle's open door.

Photo: Riverfront Times

​Nelson, one of three people arrested, said the pot belonged to him. He was briefly held on a $2,500 bond before being released.

"It's kind of surprising, but I mean we treat him like anybody else," said Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West. If by "surprising," Sheriff West means "I'm a fucking moron if I didn't already know Willie smokes weed," then yeah, right. "Surprising."

Two days later, in a statement to website CelebStoner.com, Nelson called on the United States to start a new political party based on the legalization of marijuana.

"There's the Tea Party," Nelson wrote in an email. "How about the Teapot Party? Our motto: We lean a little to the left... Tax it, regulate it and legalize it," Nelson wrote.

When Willie speaks, he makes it so. By Sunday afternoon, a Facebook page for the Teapot Party had already been created. The page already had almost 7,000 followers Monday morning.

"Stop the border wars over drugs," Nelson wrote. "Why should the drug lords make all the money? Thousands of lives will be saved."

Stoner comedian Tommy Chong has already endorsed Willie's Teapot Party. "If Willie gets behind something, you know it's going to be big and in your face," Chong told CelebStoner. "Any pot party is a wonderful idea."

Freedom Rally - Boston Common - 9/18/2010

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Duo Pushes Rhode Island to Decriminalize Pot

By JOEL MILLMAN

From: http://online.wsj.com

Reuters

Officer Chad Vanderklok executes a search warrant for marijuana at a Kalamazoo, Mich., home in November.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A retired police officer and the proprietor of an organic eatery make an odd couple when it comes to trying to overturn marijuana laws in this tiny state, but Jack Cole and Josh Miller are giving it their best shot.

Mr. Cole, 71 years old, is a veteran of decades with the New Jersey State Police, almost all with the drug squad. Mr. Miller, 55, runs Local 121, a restaurant favored among "buy local" diners, and also serves in the state Senate, where he leads a special commission to study marijuana prohibitions. The panel began hearings in January to discuss an overhaul of the state's pot laws, starting with decriminalization of small amounts.

As legislators across the U.S. struggle to rescue state budgets hammered by the recession, decriminalization is one idea gaining traction. Advocates say states could cut costs of policing, prosecuting and incarcerating offenders, and even raise money by taxing users.

"Any respect for this issue lies right now in its impact on the budget," said Mr. Miller.

His committee will hear testimony Wednesday from Mr. Cole, the founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, a national lobby seeking an end to the drug war. LEAP's 10,000 members include many former police officers, corrections workers and federal agents of the Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration.

Decriminalization faces resistance from district attorneys and police departments that have grown used to making arrests and building criminal cases in a longstanding war-on-drugs tradition, and often equate decriminalization with being "soft" on crime.

The first steps state legislatures take tend to be narrow: legalizing marijuana use for cancer or glaucoma patients, or allowing municipalities to impose fines on casual smokers.

In California, one of 14 states that allow marijuana use for medical purposes, legislators are weighing a bill to legalize most marijuana sales and create tax and licensing fees for the industry. The measure was approved by the state Assembly's Public Safety Committee last month, but probably won't advance further this session.

New Hampshire is considering a pair of House bills, one to legalize and tax pot sales, and another to decriminalize possession. A medical-marijuana bill passed last year but was vetoed by the governor.

Decriminalization measures have also been introduced in Vermont, Virginia and Washington, while medical-marijuana bills are being considered in Maryland, Delaware and Wisconsin, among other states.

Mr. Miller said that in Rhode Island, which allows medical-marijuana use, decriminalization was the next step. He noted that last month a bill was introduced in the House to make possession of an ounce or less a civil offense punishable by a fine of $100, rather than a criminal offense.

Rhode Island has run budget deficits of just over $200 million in each of the past two years, and is looking at a $400 million deficit in the next fiscal year on a budget of $7 billion. Savings from decriminalization wouldn't be great, Mr. Miller conceded—say, $2 million to $3 million a year by freeing prison beds occupied by pot offenders. Rhode Island spends about $33,000 a year per inmate.

Not everyone agrees with that math. Matthew Dawson, deputy chief of the criminal division of the state attorney general's office, testified before Mr. Miller's panel last month that the state would achieve "zero savings" from decriminalization. He said police and prosecutors employed criminal charges for possession to plea bargain with suspects, and that suspects might otherwise have to be prosecuted for more serious crimes, at greater cost to the state. Others say possession charges help police cajole witnesses into cooperating in criminal inquiries.

Mr. Miller said such arguments may persuade some of his colleagues, but others would look to the decision two years ago in neighboring Massachusetts to decriminalize pot, which raised hopes among some legislators that a similar measure could pass in Rhode Island. "It's not far-off California, but the big state next door," Mr. Miller said.

Mr. Cole traveled to Providence recently to help Mr. Miller craft a strategy. He often wears a badge that reads: "Cops Say Legalize Drugs. Ask Me Why."

In his standard speech, he describes the epiphany he experienced early in his career as an undercover narcotics investigator. "I learned firsthand of the family-destroying consequences of sending drug users [often mothers and fathers] to jail. I can't think of a better policy for creating the next generation of drug addicts than to remove parents from children," he said. "I also realized that when police arrested a robber or rapist they made the community safer for everyone but when I arrested a drug pusher, I simply created a job opening for someone in a long line of people willing to take his place."

Messrs. Cole and Miller agreed the former cop's presentation must appeal to law-and-order politicians. Mr. Cole said the way to win them over was to show that chasing pot smokers keeps police from fighting other crimes.

"Look at the clearance rates for these crimes," he said. In the 1960s, before federal antidrug funds flowed heavily to states, "91% of all murders in this country were solved. Today, it's 61%." He cited similar drops for arson (60% unsolved) robbery (75% unsolved) and rape (60% unsolved).

Mr. Cole said the national addiction rate has remained unchanged for a century at about 1.3% of the population. He concludes that if drugs are legalized, the addiction rate would stay the same, "but we'll be spending a lot less to manage it."

Write to Joel Millman at joel.millman@wsj.com

First U.S. marijuana cafe opens in Portland

From: http://www.reuters.com/
By Dan Cook

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - The United States' first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration's move to relax policing of medical use of the drug.

The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give certified medical marijuana users a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it -- as long as they are out of public view -- despite a federal ban.

"This club represents personal freedom, finally, for our members," said Madeline Martinez, Oregon's executive director of NORML, a group pushing for marijuana legalization.

"Our plans go beyond serving food and marijuana," said Martinez. "We hope to have classes, seminars, even a Cannabis Community College, based here to help people learn about growing and other uses for cannabis."

The cafe -- in a two-story building which formerly housed a speak-easy and adult erotic club Rumpspankers -- is technically a private club, but is open to any Oregon residents who are NORML members and hold an official medical marijuana card.

Members pay $25 per month to use the 100-person capacity cafe. They don't buy marijuana, but get it free over the counter from "budtenders". Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., it serves food but has no liquor license.

There are about 21,000 patients registered to use marijuana for medical purposes in Oregon. Doctors have prescribed marijuana for a host of illnesses, including Alzheimer's, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and Tourette's syndrome.

On opening day, reporters invited to the cafe could smell, but were not allowed to see, people smoking marijuana.

"I still run a coffee shop and events venue, just like I did before we converted it to the Cannabis Cafe, but now it will be cannabis-themed," said Eric Solomon, the owner of the cafe, who is looking forward to holding marijuana-themed weddings, film festivals and dances in the second-floor ballroom.

NO PROSECUTION

The creation of the cafe comes almost a month after the Obama administration told federal attorneys not to prosecute patients who use marijuana for medical reasons or dispensaries in states which have legalized them.

About a dozen states, including Oregon, followed California's 1996 move to adopt medical marijuana laws, allowing the drug to be cultivated and sold for medical use. A similar number have pending legislation or ballot measures planned.

Pot cafes, known as "coffee shops", are popular in the Dutch city of Amsterdam, where possession of small amounts of marijuana is legal. Portland's Cannabis Cafe is the first of its kind to open in the United States, according to NORML.

Growing, possessing, distributing and smoking marijuana are still illegal under U.S. federal law, which makes no distinction between medical and recreational use.

Federal and local law enforcement agencies did not return phone calls from Reuters on Friday seeking comment on the Portland cafe's operations.

"To have a place that is this open about its activities, where people can come together and smoke -- I say that's pretty amazing." said Tim Pate, a longtime NORML member, at the cafe.

Some locals are hoping it might even be good for business.

"I know some neighbors are pretty negative about this place opening up," said David Bell, who works at a boutique that shares space with the cafe. "But I'm withholding judgment. There's no precedent for it. We don't know what to expect. But it would great if it brought some customers into our store."

(Writing by Bill Rigby; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

State OKs petition drive for pot legalization

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

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(09-22) 15:41 PDT San Francisco -- Two prominent East Bay marijuana advocates got clearance from the state today to try to put a pot-legalization initiative on the November 2010 California ballot.

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Richard Lee, executive director of the medical marijuana dispensary known as Oaksterdam, and Jeff Jones, former director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, are the sponsors of a measure that would allow anyone over 21 to possess or grow marijuana for personal use. It would allow each local government to decide whether to tax and regulate marijuana sales.

The secretary of state's office approved the initiative for circulation along with a similar measure sponsored by John Donohue of Long Beach. Each needs at least 433,971 signatures of registered voters by Feb. 18 to qualify for the November ballot.

The Lee-Jones initiative would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Lee says it would generate billions of dollars in tax revenue.

Marijuana possession, cultivation and sale would remain illegal under federal law, however. After California voters approved the nation's first law legalizing medical use of marijuana in 1996, federal authorities raided local pot clubs, prosecuted growers and sought to punish doctors who recommended the drug to their patients.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/22/BACP19R095.DTL#c#ixzz0S9RumHIh

Chronic City: Revealed -- California Cops Are Trained 'Marijuana Is Not A Medicine'

By Steve Elliott

Artwork courtesy Jim Wheeler

Can't we all just get along?

​A recent court case in San Diego has revealed some California police officers are basing their sworn court testimony in medical marijuana cases on badly outdated, legally inaccurate information.

This goes a long way towards explaining why it is that so many law enforcement officers in the state still seem to harbor such personal animosity toward medical marijuana and those who use it, even after it's been legal in the state for 13 years. Above and beyond the seemingly eternal cop/pot dichotomy, the cops' own "medical marijuana training materials" tell them that -- contrary to the law -- there's no such thing as medical marijuana, and that all marijuana is illegal!

This misinformation has real-life consequences. Californians who legally use and provide medical marijuana are faced with hostile police and judges who have only heard or choose to believe information which is plainly wrong regarding medicinal pot's legal status here, and inaccurate regarding its effectiveness as medicine, as supported by thousands of doctors and hundreds of studies.

Courtesy eugenedavidovich.com

Eugene Davidovich: Victim of the pot culture wars?

​
Eugene Davidovich, a San Diego medical marijuana provider who was arrested last February as part of Operation Green Rx (aka Operation Endless Summer), told me that the chief investigative officer in his case testified on the stand that he bases his expert testimony, as far as "medical marijuana training," on a handout from something called the Narcotic Educational Foundation of America, "Drug Abuse Education Provider of the California Narcotic Officers' Association."

In this toxic little screed, with the title Use of Marijuana As A "Medicine" (the quotes are theirs), we learn right off the bat -- in the first sentence! -- that "Marijuana, a plant from the cannabis family, is illegal and highly psychoactive." No mention of the fact that medical use of marijuana is legal, mind you -- and this in materials used to educate law enforcement officers.

I'll bet you thought that the issue of medical marijuana was settled when Proposition 215 was voted in back in 1996. Not so fast! You're just a civilian. The cops know better; and guess what? It sure looks as if the cops get to pick which laws they like, and which ones they want to ignore. "MARIJUANA IS NOT A MEDICINE," the "educational" pamphlet screams at its gun-toting, badge-wearing readers.

Screen capture: Reality Catcher

Misinformation has consequences: Inaccurate handout used in officers' court testimony

​
More than a decade after California voters spoke loudly and clearly on the topic, these folks just aren't giving up the pot culture wars. You'd think the "medical marijuana training" of law enforcement officers might include the rather pertinent fact of its legality -- you know, seems like that would merit at least a mention. Reading the sordid little hate-filled pamphlet, you keep expecting to eventually encounter some level-headed caveat for these eager officers, some kind of sensitivity training, some sort of warning that since marijuana is, in fact, legal in this state for medical use, that officers must be careful to protect the rights of patients. But it never comes.

"Many well-intentioned leaders and members of the public have been misled by the well-financed and organized pro-drug legalization lobby, into believing there is merit to their argument that smoking marijuana is a safe and effective medicine," the pamphlet informs officers. "There is no justification for using marijuana as a medicine."

Once the officers have been, er, "trained" as to the illegitimacy of medical marijuana, they are dutifully informed that it is just ever so immoral and icky as well. "We have seen first hand the debilitating and often tragic results, both psychologically and physically, of those who choose intoxication as a part of their lifestyle," the pamphlet laments in one particularly purple passage.

The pamphlet then attempts to cloak its (legally incorrect for California) estimation of marijuana's uselessness as medicine and its enormous moral judgments around the weed in some sort of scientific respectability by citing outdated studies, all of which have been since refuted by more modern findings.

"It is actually scary what goes on in court," Davidovich told me. "I really hope that somehow a stop can be put to this. This is one of the reasons I am so public about these hateful people. There are a lot of patients who are needlessly suffering here in San Diego."

Tags: Chronic City

Calif. tax officials: Legal pot would bring $1.4B

Play Video ABC News – Californians Wrestle With Legalizing Marijuana

• Play Video Video:San Diego Now Issuing Medical Marijuana ID Cards News 8 San Diego

By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer Marcus Wohlsen,

SAN FRANCISCO – A bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California like alcohol would generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped state, according to an official analysis released Wednesday by tax officials.

The State Board of Equalization report estimates marijuana retail sales would bring $990 million from a $50-per-ounce fee and $392 million in sales taxes.

The bill introduced by San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano in February would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess, grow and sell marijuana.

Ammiano has promoted the bill as a way to help bridge the state's $26.3 billion budget shortfall.

"It defies reason to propose closing parks and eliminating vital services for the poor while this potential revenue is available," Ammiano said in a statement.

The way the bill is written, the state could not begin collecting taxes until the federal government legalizes marijuana. A spokesman says Ammiano plans to amend the bill to remove that provision.

The legislation requires all revenue generated by the $50-per-ounce fee to be used for drug education and rehabilitation programs. The state's 9 percent sales tax would be applied to retail sales, while the fee would likely be charged at the wholesale level and built into the retail price.

The Equalization Board used law enforcement and academic studies to calculate that about 16 million ounces — or 500 tons — of marijuana are consumed in California each year.

Marijuana use would likely increase by about 30 percent once the law took effect because legalization would lead to falling prices, the board said.

Estimates of marijuana use, cultivation and sales are notoriously difficult to come by because of the drug's status as a black-market substance. Calculations by marijuana advocates and law enforcement officials often differ widely.

"That's one reason why we look at multiple reports from multiple sources — so that no one agenda is considered to be the deciding or determining data," said board spokeswoman Anita Gore.

Advocates and opponents do agree that California is by far the country's top pot-producing state. Last year law enforcement agencies in California seized nearly 5.3 million plants.

If passed, Ammiano's bill could increase the tension between the state and the U.S. government over marijuana, which is banned outright under federal law. The two sides have clashed often since state voters passed a ballot measure in 1996 legalizing marijuana for medical use.

At the same time, some medical marijuana dispensary operators in the state have said they are less fearful of federal raids since U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would defer to state marijuana regulations.

Advocates pounced on the analysis as ammunition for their claim that the ban on marijuana is obsolete.

"We can't borrow or slash our way out of this deficit," said Stephen Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "The legislature must consider innovative sources of new revenue, and marijuana should be at the top of that list."

Ammiano's bill is still in committee. Hearings on the legislation are expected this fall.

Also Wednesday, three Los Angeles City Council members proposed taxing medical marijuana to help close the city's budget gap.

Council members Janice Hahn, Dennis Zine and Bill Rosendahl backed a motion asking city finance officials to explore taxing the drug.

Hahn said that with more than 400 dispensaries operating in the city, the tax could generate significant revenue. The motion pointed out that a proposed tax increase on medical marijuana in Oakland, which has only four dispensaries, was projected to bring in more than $300,000 in 2010.

Meanwhile, marijuana supporters have taken the first official step toward putting the legalization question directly to California voters.

A trio of Northern California criminal defense attorneys on Wednesday submitted a pot legalization measure to the state attorney general's office, which must provide an official summary before supporters can begin gathering signatures.

About 443,000 signatures are necessary to place The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act on the November 2010 ballot. The measure would repeal all state and local laws that criminalize marijuana.