The Battle for Legal Marijuana in California Continues

Proposition 19, the referendum on legal marijuana for recreation in California, was defeated in a state wide general election on November 2, 2010. The vote against the proposition won by 54% - 46% tally. The results hadn't even gone official before the backers and supporters of Proposition 19 vowed that 2010 was just a struggle lost in the ongoing war for legal recreational marijuana in California. A war that they wholeheartedly believe can and will be won in 2012.

A marquee proponent of legal marijuana in California is Richard Lee, the executive director of Oaksterdam University. Oaksterdam U. is just a four campus institution of higher learning with 3000 students and 58 employees, headquartered in the Bay Area. Oaksterdam offers education and training for legal marijuana oriented industries in the United States and Canada. Lee is a legal marijuana for medical purposes user as caused by recreational marijuana a right back injury. Despite these injuries, as well as Oaksterdam University, Lee also runs an effective legal medical marijuana dispensory out of a coffee shop. His legal marijuana businesses have generated a huge selection of tens and thousands of dollars in taxes for the State of California and the Federal Government.

Among the main arguments for the proponents of outright legalization of marijuana in California may be the potential tax windfall. Marijuana, an untaxed $14 billion dollar industry in the state of California, is twice how big is the state's dairy industry. Legal marijuana in California for recreation could be taxed in to a windfall by the state, that includes a staggering 25.4 billion deficit in line with the Los Angeles Times on November 10, 2010. Richard Lee states, "The bad economy has definitely helped us out so far as setting up a lot of people's minds that this is a waste of money."

Their state is not merely passing up on generating income on taxing legal marijuana in California. The Golden State happens to be spending funds and resources at a high price tag of 1 billion dollars per year for what the law states enforcement of cannabis prohibition. The former Los Angeles County Police Chief Stephen Downing is on record for his support of legal marijuana attributing that it would redirect money out of the hands of gangs and cartels and to the State of California's pocket. Downing states, "There's one reason we don't see wine cartels growing grapes in our national parks, and that's because alcohol is legal. We've to go from prohibition and toward controlling and regulating industry for marijuana, just as once we ended alcohol prohibition to put Al Capone's smuggling buddies out of business."

The government has been significantly less than enthusiastic or supportive in the explanation for legalizing marijuana. The Obama administration, as liberal an administration while the nation has noticed in recent memory, was not on board with legal marijuana for recreation on the eve of the Proposition 19 vote. A letter sent from Attorney General Eric Holder to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) made the administration's stance very clear when it said ""We shall vigorously enforce the Controlled Substances Act against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law ".The conflict of state's rights vs. federal government has heated up over the nation during the beginning of the 21st century in America. Could legal recreational marijuana in California be one of many prime battle grounds in the coming days as this war for who'll legislate the united states begins to grow?