NEWSOM BACKS LEGAL POT

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By Miriam Raftery

April 9, 2015 (Sacramento) – California politics have gone to pot.  A ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana use is widely expected to qualify for the ballot next year. Now Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has announced he supports legalization, regulation and taxing of recreational pot-provided the ballot initiative adequately addresses key concerns.

Newsom, a Democrat, is considered a likely candidate for Governor in 2018, after Governor Jerry Brown is termed out. Brown, by contrast, opposes legalizing recreational marijuana. 

Newsom is no stranger to controversy, having authorized gay marriages as mayor of San Francisco before the state’s voters legalized the practice with a ballot initiative. 

California voters previously rejected a recreational pot initiative back in 2010, though medical marijuana has been legal here since 1996. But now that Colorado, Washington state and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use, support has grown.

A poll by the Public Policy Institute published by the Los Angeles Times found that 55% of likely voters support legalizing recreational marijuana, including 63% of Democrats and 61% of young voters ages 18 to 34.

Newsom, who claims he has never smoked pot, framed the issue as a criminal and social justice concern, noting that young African-American and Latino people are more apt to be criminally penalized for using marijuana recreationally than older or white individuals, Associated Press reports.  Newsom chairs a commission of law enforcement and medical experts created by the American Civil Liberties Issue to study the recreational marijuana topic and address issues of concern, such has how to measure whether drivers are under the influence and protecting under-age Californians.

"We have to be accountable and responsible for making sure that we address the intended and unintended consequences of any effort to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana for adults,” Newsom has said.


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