Making progress: Gov. Jerry Brown signed bill to use $24M from background-check fees to boost a program that takes handguns & assault weapons away from those who aren’t legally allowed to have them.
Marshawn Lynch and many other great people joined my sister, Hilary, and I today to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness at the 14th Annual PlumpJack/LINK Golf Classic, in memory of my mom, Tess Newsom.
TIME FOR CALIFORNIA TO DECRIMINALIZE, TAX & REGULATE MARIJUANA
It is time for California to decriminalize, tax and regulate marijuana and decide who sells it, who can buy it legally, and for how much. When California became the first state to approve medical marijuana, we led the nation on progressive drug policies, and now it is time to lead again.
Bolstered by growing public support and building on our initial leadership, Californians must renew our push for common-sense marijuana policy by developing a state level regulatory system and lead the national effort to end draconian laws that favors incarceration over education.
In California, San Francisco has taken the lead in reforming ineffective drug laws and changing the conversation around substance use. Medical marijuana laws, marijuana decriminalization, and the efforts to reduce the state’s prison population make us a strong voice for change. But it is not enough. We stand at a time where science and common sense must trump age-old fear and propaganda.
San Francisco pioneered and advanced innovative programs to reduce the harms of substance misuse by using alternative adjudicative action, using drug and community courts as an alternative to the traditional criminal court system and sentencing. It involved connecting people to treatment and mental health services, housing and resources for education and training. San Francisco has invested significant local tax dollars in providing substance treatment to those who need it, but San Francisco is just one city – and it is not enough.
The U.S. leads the world in the incarceration of its citizens, with less than 5% of the world’s population but almost 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. In 2011, 757, 969 people in the United States were arrested for a marijuana law violation and of those, 87 percent were arrested possession only, according to the Drug Policy Alliance.
I am not advocating for the use of marijuana, but the current laws are stigmatizing and criminalizing millions of Americans young and old. The war on drugs has become a war on society and we can and must do better.
It is time for marijuana to be removed from the federal government’s most restrictive category of drugs, where it currently sits alongside heroin. But in the absence of the federal government acting, California must lead again.
In the November 2012 general election, Colorado and Washington became the first states to decriminalize possession and growth of small amounts of marijuana and create a system for taxing and regulating the product for adults over 21. California needs do the same. Even organizations such as the California Medical Association recognize taxation and regulation as a preferred policy for controlling marijuana.
Marijuana prohibition has caused irreparable harm to millions of people by saddling them with criminal records and the collateral sanctions associated with even marijuana misdemeanors, such as the potential loss of employment, housing, financial aid and child custody. These sanctions and penalties fall disproportionally on African Americans and Latinos, devastating entire communities for generations.
According to the ACLU, African Americans make up 50 percent of the state and local prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes. An African American male is as likely to go to jail or prison, as he is to go to college. African American children are 10 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than white ones – even though white children are 11 percent more likely to abuse drugs than their African American peers. Locking people up for simple drug possession puts them in a virtually inescapable position for the rest of their lives, making every step to success and self-sufficiency more difficult.
Changing marijuana laws is one important part of shifting the drug policy paradigm from a criminal framework to one of public health. But it is not enough. Decriminalizing marijuana alone will not solve America’s problem with mass incarceration.
Forty-two years and $1 trillion later, we recognize the “War on Drugs” has not only failed but also created inter-generational social problems that will likely take as long to solve. There is no reason why California cannot set the example for the nation in responding to drugs in a rational and sensible way. It is time to be bold enough to consider the science and the examples set forth by other states and nations.
The time has come to decriminalize, tax and regulate marijuana – anything less is not enough.
Cowardly vote, shameful day
The President got what he asked for today in his State of the Union Address – a vote. In fact, he got several votes. A handful of shameful, cowardly votes against a safer country for our children.
In a State of the Union address that moved the country, President Obama intoned over and again, “They deserve a vote.” But today the United States Senate voted and let down the victims of gun violence, their families and the American people.
One by one, in a series of votes on the Senate floor, amendments to address gun violence in this country failed. An amendment by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-San Francisco) that would have banned assault weapons as well as another by Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) on background checks failed passage, along with a stream of others.
The most disturbing defeat is that of Toomey-Manchin, a watered down amendment that would have provided for expanded, but not universal, background checks. Senator after senator rose on the floor to oppose the measure spouting the talking points of the National Rifle Association. Talking points that are flat out lies. Even with the authors of the amendment on the floor asking and answering questions for other senators, the lies, half-truths and scare tactics of the NRA won the day by a vote of 54 to 46.
While I respect Republican Senator Toomey for appearing to work in a bipartisan manner with Senator Manchin, I have to question his commitment to real action when, within minutes of his co-authored amendment failing, his statement to the press included the line “the Senate has spoken on the subject, and it’s time to move on.” Was this a thoughtful attempt at real legislation or was this Senator Toomey’s attempt to check a box in his next election so he could claim to the people of Pennsylvania, “I tried.”
While Mr. Toomey moves on, I hope the President and Democratic leaders in Washington understand that the American people have not. It is not acceptable for politicians to claim they have tried and put this issue on the shelf again until another Virginia Tech, Aurora, Newtown, Tucson or Columbine occurs.
The Democratic leadership in Washington, DC must demand more than just a vote; they must demand real and meaningful action. If we cannot muster the 60 votes for a watered down Toomey-Manchin Amendment, we will never achieve meaningful reforms such as universal background checks, banning assault weapons or limiting the capacity of a gun magazine.
We are the majority party. The people of the United States voted to give Democrats control of the Senate and it is time that Senator Harry Reid and his leadership team start acting the part.
In a recent discussion with a senior member of the United States Senate, he waxed nostalgically about how back in the good old days all we needed was 50 votes plus one to get things passed. That democratic principal still applies, so maybe it’s time the leadership in the Senate had some guts and started playing hardball.
If we allow our ideas, rather than our ideology, to carry the day then the voters will have a clear and distinct choice in the voting booth. But to allow a small handful of cowardly Democrats and the likes of Ted Cruz stall what the people are demanding, tells Americans their votes don’t count as much as the NRA’s money.
When it comes to guns, the people of the United States no longer care about political party values. They care about getting results.
For their sake, and that of our party, I hope the President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stay true to their word that today was not the end and the theatre of votes that took place on the Senate floor will not be the last act.
If this is the end of the debate until the next tragedy, hopefully the voters will speak at the ballot box and replace these cowards with U.S. Senators that will do the right thing to protect our children from gun violence and honor the many that have already lost their lives.
Because we all deserve more than just a vote…we deserve action.
Is the bar on bipartisan achievement really this low?
While Washington, DC congratulates itself for today’s bipartisan Toomey-Manchin proposal on background checks, the rest of the country is still waiting for meaningful gun control and mental health reform.
Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced what is supposed to be significant legislation on guns. What we received is yet another show-pony piece of legislation that falls well short of universal background checks and does nothing to address the underlying issues of mental health and gun violence in America.
As Senator Toomey stood in the press conference announcing the so-called bipartisan compromise, he acknowledged that the proposal was not gun control legislation. I couldn’t agree more.
The proposed bill will extend current law to non-federally licensed persons engaged in the business of selling guns and require purchases of their guns be subject to background checks. So the gun show loophole presumably gets closed, but the bill continues to protect non-federally licensed private sales and transfers without background checks.
The most troublesome part of this faux reform is that the proposal does nothing to address the 20 percent of private gun sales that the U.S. Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) estimates are part of trafficking or gun diversion criminal enterprises.
Because this proposal does nothing to require background checks on private sales, where plenty of illegal firearms already change hands, the Senators’ proposal will further drive those that should not own guns into the underground, private sales market.
Is this progress? I guess you can call it that in the same way you can call rolling forward five feet in rush hour traffic on Highway 101 progress too.
If politicians are serious about addressing the symptoms and the disease of gun violence in America this proposal can’t be the end of the line in Washington, DC. The leadership in Congress needs to step up and bring everything forward for a vote, not just the paltry measure sponsored by Senators Toomey and Manchin.
Where is the assault weapons ban? Where is the limitation on high-capacity magazines? Where is the ban on trafficking and straw purchasing? And dammit, where is the real discussion about mental health reform?
The answer to all but the last question above is “nowhere to be found” because the biggest bully on Capitol Hill, the NRA, doesn’t want any of these measures to see the light of day.
The first clue that today’s proposal was weak came within minutes of the bill’s announcement when the NRA released a statement calling the measure “a positive development” because it rejected the universal background check plan that is being supported by President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg and voters nationwide.
So congratulations Senators, today you gave us a proposal that the NRA isn’t opposing, but you’ve ignored what 90 percent of Americans say they want – universal background checks.
When will Washington realize that doing the bare minimum is not enough?
Shame on you.
9 out of 10 Americans support background checks 4 arms sales. Much support 4 @BarackObama to reignite fire & get sensible policy passed
