Future of Legalized Pot Hazy in California

Laytonville, Calif. -- The man in brightly colored tie-dye frowns when he grabs a pruner from his work shed and heads to his garden. James Taylor Jones approaches a bushy marijuana plant, 6 feet tall and almost as wide. The pruner's blade grabs hold of the stalk, and Jones squeezes the handles together. Snap.

He walks to another plant and does the same. "This one is Headband," Jones says, naming the variety. "Don't tell me that as you're cutting it," his wife, Fran Harris, pleads. Thus ends the Peace and Love Medical Marijuana Collective.

Here in Mendocino County — where generations of mom-and-pop outlaws have made a living growing pot and dodging the cops — who could have predicted that legality would be more uncertain than illegality?
For the first time in their lives, Jones and Harris expected to be completely legit pot entrepreneurs this year. But spooked by federal raids of other northern California growers, scared about the risks even though they said they followed state and local laws, they decided to shut the collective down midway through the growing season.
"We don't want to go to jail," Jones says. "It's that simple."
"It's such a huge gray area right now," Harris says. "What appears to be legal now might not be legal next year."
Stories like Jones and Harris' offer a reminder that marijuana legalization — if ever it comes — likely won't be a smooth process. Predictions of what a world of legalized marijuana would look like are based on assumptions that can't be verified and expectations that may prove slippery.
Pundits and some politicians extol the tax money legal marijuana could bring in. But if legalization sends prices plunging, so, too, would the revenue.
Others argue legalizing marijuana would cripple the black market. But if new regulations and taxes encourage growers and users to remain underground, the black market — and the drug cartels that feast on it — would continue to thrive.
Individual states may legalize marijuana first — California voters will decide this year on limited legalization. But if the federal government doesn't go along, does any of it really matter?
In short, all the things that make medical marijuana such a complicated and contentious issue would likely only intensify with full legalization.

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Complete Article: http://denverpost.com/
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Author: John Ingold, The Denver Post
Published: October 10, 2010
Copyright: 2010 The Denver Post Corp
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com