Thread: Booker introduces bill to legalize marijuana nationwide

The remainder was put in the state's General Fund.

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OH...SURE IT WILL GO TO THOSE PROGRAMS ... LOL!!!

That is where it will EVENTUALLY all go, the GENERAL FUND! They are liars, cheaters and thieves.

Just like the BILLIONS in lotto that was supposed to go to schools.

I see NO new schools...ANYWHERE!

They will take these millions and squander it! Overhead, big offices, staff, accountants, furniture, you name it!

They're all on the take with Uber.

Originally Posted by Beezer

The remainder was put in the state's General Fund.

----------------------

OH...SURE IT WILL GO TO THOSE PROGRAMS ... LOL!!!

That is where it will EVENTUALLY all go, the GENERAL FUND! They are liars, cheaters and thieves.

Just like the BILLIONS in lotto that was supposed to go to schools.

I see NO new schools...ANYWHERE!

They will take these millions and squander it! Overhead, big offices, staff, accountants, furniture, you name it!

Any organization or group that is supposed to get this tax money but doesn't will notify the media and fill a lawsuit in state court.

Originally Posted by Beezer

. . . Just like the BILLIONS in lotto that was supposed to go to schools.

I see NO new schools...ANYWHERE! . . .

According to the Lottery Act, Lottery contributions can be used only for instructional purposes and it bans use for the acquisition of property, the construction of facilities or the funding of research.

Approximately 80-90% of Lottery funds are used in California's public schools to attract and retain teachers.

Some districts, especially the smaller school districts and higher education, have used funds for computer labs, teacher workshops, science programs, as well as art and music programs.

http://www.calottery.com/sitecore/co...n-to-education
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CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION

Funding a better future for California's students.

The Lottery's mandate in the California State Lottery Act is to provide supplemental funding to California public education on all levels from kindergarten through the University of California plus several specialized schools. And our goal has been to help meet the needs of educational funding by managing sales growth.

All segments of the public schools receive the same per pupil funding level from the Lottery based on the average daily attendance of students in each school district.

Since its inception in October 1985, the Lottery has provided approximately $28 billion to students in California's public schools. Below are the educational institutions that receive Lottery funds along with fund distribution.

Educational Institution	Percent of Overall Lottery Funds
Kindergarten - 12th Grade	80.3%
Community Colleges	13.6%
California State University System	3.7%
University of California	2.2%
Other Educational Entities	0.2%

View Annual Reports of Contributions to Public Education >>

Local education administrators, elected school boards and the administrators of higher education make the decisions regarding how Lottery funds are spent in their schools and we are not involved in this decision-making process. According to the Lottery Act, Lottery contributions can be used only for instructional purposes and it bans use for the acquisition of property, the construction of facilities or the funding of research. Approximately 80-90% of Lottery funds are used in California's public schools to attract and retain teachers. Some districts, especially the smaller school districts and higher education, have used funds for computer labs, teacher workshops, science programs, as well as art and music programs.

http://www.calottery.com/sitecore/content/ARCHIVE/about-us/lottery-performance/contribution-to-education

Statista

Average annual wages for secondary school teachers in 2017

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmc.../#2cd94bcb2eab

Taxed Marijuana Brings $30 Million to Nevada in First Six Months
thesource.com/2018/.../taxed-marijuana-brings-30million-to-nevada-in-first-6-months...
Mar 6, 2018 - There has been a long-standing debate as to how marijuana tax revenue should be spent. Nevada has opted to use the funds for education...

Colorado Marijuana: Weed Revenue Helps Homelessness, Schools ...
time.com › Everyday Money › Marijuana
Jun 1, 2017 - Colorado is using its tax revenue from its legal marijuana industry to help efforts to combat homelessness and addiction and fund schools...

Marijuana devastated Colorado, don’t legalize it nationally

Jeff Hunt, Opinion contributorPublished 7:00 a.m. ET Aug. 7, 2017 | Updated 2:06 p.m. ET Aug. 7, 2017

The proposed Marijuana Justice Act would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act.

Arrests are up. We still have a black market. And people are in danger.



(Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY)

Last week, Senator Cory Booker introduced the Marijuana Justice Act in an effort to legalize marijuana across the nation and penalize local communities that want nothing to do with this dangerous drug. This is the furthest reaching marijuana legalization effort to date and marks another sad moment in our nation’s embrace of a drug that will have generational consequences.

Our country is facing a drug epidemic. Legalizing recreational marijuana will do nothing that Senator Booker expects. We heard many of these same promises in 2012 when Colorado legalized recreational marijuana.

In the years since, Colorado has seen an increase in marijuana related traffic deaths, poison control calls, and emergency room visits. The marijuana black market has increased in Colorado, not decreased. And, numerous Colorado marijuana regulators have been indicted for corruption.

In 2012, we were promised funds from marijuana taxes would benefit our communities, particularly schools. Dr. Harry Bull, the Superintendent of Cherry Creek Schools, one of the largest school districts in the state, said, "So far, the only thing that the legalization of marijuana has brought to our schools has been marijuana."

In fiscal year 2016, marijuana tax revenue resulted in $156,701,018. The total tax revenue for Colorado was $13,327,123,798, making marijuana only 1.18% of the state's total tax revenue. The cost of marijuana legalization in public awareness campaigns, law enforcement, healthcare treatment, addiction recovery, and preventative work is an unknown cost to date.

Senator Booker stated his reasons for legalizing marijuana is to reduce "marijuana arrests happening so much in our country, targeting certain communities - poor communities, minority communities." It's a noble cause to seek to reduce incarceration rates among these communities but legalizing marijuana has had the opposite effect.

According to the Colorado Department of Public Safety, arrests in Colorado of black and Latino youth for marijuana possession have increased 58% and 29% respectively after legalization. This means that Black and Latino youth are being arrested more for marijuana possession after it became legal.

Furthermore, a vast majority of Colorado's marijuana businesses are concentrated in neighborhoods of color. Leaders from these communities, many of whom initially voted to legalize recreational marijuana, often speak out about the negative impacts of these businesses.

Senator Booker released his bill just a few days after the Washington Post reported on a study by the Review of Economic Studies that found "college students with access to recreational cannabis on average earn worse grades and fail classes at a higher rate." Getting off marijuana especially helped lower performing students who were at risk of dropping out. Since legalizing marijuana, Colorado's youth marijuana use rate is the highest in the nation, 74% higher than the national average, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Report. This is having terribly negative effects on the education of our youth.

If Senator Booker is interested in serving poor and minority communities, legalizing marijuana is one of the worst decisions. There is much work to be done to reduce incarceration and recidivism, but flooding communities with drugs will do nothing but exacerbate the problems.

The true impact of marijuana on our communities is just starting to be learned. The negative consequences of legalizing recreational marijuana will be felt for generations. I encourage Senator Booker to spend time with parents, educators, law enforcement, counselors, community leaders, pastors, and legislators before rushing to legalize marijuana nationally. We’ve seen the effects in our neighborhoods in Colorado, and this is nothing we wish upon the nation.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...umn/536010001/

Marijuana Doomsday Didn't Come

Those who thought Colorado's legalization would be a catastrophe were wrong then and are wrong now.

By Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan Dec. 19, 2017, at 2:45 p.m.
U.S. News & World Report

It's been a little more than five years since Colorado's voters approved Constitutional Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana in the state. Sales commenced four years ago this January. Although the amendment passed by a comfortable 10-point margin, the debate in Colorado has continued in the years since prohibition ended, most recently flaring up with an editorial published in the Colorado Springs Gazette. Last month, the Gazette's editorial board referred to what has happened in Colorado as "an embarrassing cautionary tale," before presenting a laundry list of the purported ill-effects of the change in the law.

That list included everything from the smell of burning marijuana, to increased homelessness, to rampant teen drug use, to a doubling of the number of drivers involved in fatal accidents who test positive for marijuana. This last charge is particularly puzzling as there is no reliable DUI test for marijuana, and drug tests can't distinguish between marijuana ingested immediately before driving and marijuana ingested a month or more before driving. Not to be dissuaded by science, the editorial board went so far as to quote Marijuana Accountability Coalition founder Justin Luke Riley, who holds that legal marijuana is "devastating our kids and devastating whole communities."

All of this is doubtlessly music to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' ears, who is presently making noise about increasing the federal government's involvement in the fight against legalization. Sessions is on record as saying that "good people don't smoke marijuana." He has also supported the death penalty for marijuana dealers, lest there be any doubt which way he breaks on matters of drug prohibition. He recently went so far as to refer to marijuana as "a life-wrecking dependency" which is only "slightly less awful" than heroin.

Between Sessions and the Colorado Springs Gazette one could be forgiven for thinking that marijuana legalization is one of the most pernicious political decisions made in the modern era. Except it isn't. And there is a pretty significant body of evidence that indicates as much.

On the most basic level, it should be clear to all that the end of prohibition has not "devastated communities." Colorado is every bit as functional now as it was prior to legalization. Life goes on pretty much as usual. But the breathless assertions that children are somehow being harmed deserves consideration.

As it turns out, teen drug use in Colorado is currently at its lowest level in a decade, this according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. A little more than 9 percent of Coloradans aged 12 to 17 report using marijuana. And while that figure is higher than the national average for that age group, it is also the lowest rate in Colorado since 2007-2008. Meanwhile, alcohol, tobacco and heroin use among Colorado teens are all down as well.

So whatever else one might say about the wisdom of legalization, it is impossible to conclude that legalization has increased teen drug use. In no small part, this is due to the tremendous financial incentive legal cannabis businesses owners have to check IDs. Legal cannabis business owners must invest thousands of dollars in licensing fees, and tens-of-thousands of dollars in their physical shops. A business owner who sells to minors stands to lose all of that investment, in addition to going to jail. The corner dealer, not having an investment at risk and facing the prospect of jail time regardless of whether he sells to a minor or to an adult, is much less worried about selling to minors. Of course, black-market marijuana dealers are a lot harder to find in Colorado now too.

It is more likely that there is a larger trend at work given the declines in the consumption of other drugs. Whatever the answer, marijuana usage most certainly did not increase as a result of the change in the law as was often predicted both before and after legalization.

But what about crime rates? Comparing the three years prior to legalization to the three years since legalization yields a bit of a mixed bag. The homicide rate in Colorado is down, the robbery rate is down and the burglary rate is down. However, these measures have fallen for the country as a whole over the same period. Comparing crime rates in Colorado relative to the U.S. before and after legalization, the homicide rate is down, but other crime rates are up. With only three years' worth of data to draw on, there are no hard conclusions to draw. At worst, the mixed bag leaves the effect of marijuana legalization on crime an open question.

While some have reported that the homelessness problem has increased in Denver, that's only true (and barely so) for chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness is up 2 percent, but chronic homelessness comprises only one-fifth of total homelessness. Total homelessness in Denver is actually down more than 7 percent post- versus pre-legalization.

Marijuana opponents like Sessions are quick to identify all sorts of evils that will befall society in the wake of legalization. What opponents conveniently ignore are the myriad evils that befall society precisely because of prohibition. Today, over half a million Americans are arrested each year for marijuana possession. That's more than are arrested annually for all violent crimes combined. Each one of those half-million annual arrests represents a family that is subjected to financial, psychic and sometimes physical harm from police, prosecutors and courts.

Enough is enough. Evidence from Colorado shows that marijuana legalization does not lead to increased teen usage, does not lead to increased homelessness, and does not lead to societal breakdown. If marijuana does destroy lives, it is only because zealots like Sessions make it so. Saving people from themselves at the cost of their liberty is, generally speaking, a bad idea. When it comes to marijuana it is an especially bad idea. And all the lies and distortions of the truth will not change that.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/econo...me-to-colorado

(click on link above for charts that show rates over time)

San Diego's crime rate dips to near-50-year low. Explore the data ...
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/.../sd-me-g-ucr-crime-data-20180206-story.ht...
Feb 6, 2018 - San Diego's crime rate dips to near-50-year low. ... TheSan Diego Police Department released its latest crime statistics Monday, showing an overall drop of 7 percent from 2016 to 2017 as San Diego is following a national trend of less crime.