Steve has provided the text of the version of the "Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act" as approved by the Libertarian Party of California below, and a link to the current wording of the act on the state attorney general's website.
My quick reading of the two measures is that they *do* contain some significant differences, but that the current version is *better* than the older version approved by the LPC (for instance making it a $2500 maximum fine to provide marijuana to those under 21, whereas currently this is reportedly a felony).
However, that's just my quick take on it. Please read and form your own opinions.
Letitia, do you have the current text of the other measure you mentioned, "Repeal Cannabis Prohibition 2012"? I would be interested in seeing how that measure compares. If it is more radical, that would be excellent, and could help make RMLW look "reasonable" to skeptics by comparison, but from what I can see I'd be delighted with even RMLW passing.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Hi Libertarians,
It's late so I'll make this quick -- more later. First, the most recent version (Version 4) of RMLW makes it a $2500 maximum fine not just to provide marijuana to
those under 21, but to be a kid in possession of marijuana.
Add to that $2,500 a 270 percent penalty assessment, and it means kids in possession of pot are looking at a fine and penalty of more than $9,000! Huge fines end up equaling jail time, because when you don't pay them off, you go to jail!
In this economy, I know adults who are happy to go to jail for a month or so to pay off the huge fines and penalties they've accrued. Until you actually know the people who owe sums they'll never ever be able to repay, you don't understand how such punitive fines can be as bad as the jail time they become when you can't pay them.
I am going to forward two e-mails I got from Bill Panzer who, along with Dr. Frank Lucido, Pebbles Trippet, Joe Rogoway, Omar Figueroa and Tom Davenport, are the authors of Repeal Cannabis Prohibition 2012, and i'm copying all of them with this e-mail. I hope that the Libertarian discusion group will pepper them with questions about why decriminalization is better than taxation, regulation and control. They have lots of experience and can do a better job than can I answering your questions. (But I KNOW that decriminalization is better than legalization; if there's no law about something, you can't get in legal trouble. If there's a law about it, you can. It's that simple.)
As requested, one of the forwarded e-mails contains a link to the most current version of Repeal Cannabis Prohibition 2012.
I'm going to TRY to force myself to go through Steve Kubby's responses to your questions, Starchild. I've been ploughing this same field over and over as Kubby et al. have been changing their initiative and then trying to make people think I didn't analyze the "correct" version. Arghhhh . . . . More later!
Please note that the RCP 2012 folks voluntarily sent me the info about the changes they'd made to their initiative and WHY they'd made those changes. In contrast, Steve Kubby, Bill MCPike and Judge Gray have NEVER answered ANY of our questions about WHY they came up with Version 4, nor did they voluntarily alert us that they'd re-filed a new version with the AG. (Nor did they voluntarily alert anyone of Version 2, the one with the Narc Squad provision . . . ) This kind of lack of transparency is a BAD sign . . . .