In yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, there is a
report of a new bill introduced to decriminalize personal possession of marijuana (cannabis).
It's the first decriminalization bill to hit the House floor since 1978. The victory here is that they're starting to discuss it again, since it's highly unlikely to pass a House vote - in fact, it'll probably die in some weird terrorism or judiciary committee.
The bill itself is somewhat flawed: decriminalization of up to 100 grams for personal possession, and transfer of up to an ounce or 28.5 grams (plus or minus a half gram, depends on how nice the dealer is) so long as it is not for profit.
The problem? Where's that transferred ounce coming from? Not one mention of the fact that cannabis is a plant that grows. If growing is still illegal, where is the decriminalized cannabis coming from? Is it some find-it-and-it's-kosher approach to drug policy?
Perhaps it's for the best that this bill has a snowball's chance in hell: we need a bill that not only decriminalizes possession and transfer of possession, but cultivation as well.
In the meantime, I'm just not getting my hopes up that our drug policy will become a little more rational in an election year.
Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek