Ammiano pot bill gets support from GOP colleague
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/03/BAUC1JPBG0.DTL#ixzz1OKExWyHo
Saturday, June 4, 2011
They say politics makes strange bedfellows, and that idiom was in full effect on the Assembly floor this week when a bill by über-liberal Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, got a little legislative love from his Libertarian-leaning but technically Republican colleague from Fullerton (Orange County), Chris Norby.
Norby made an impassioned plea for AB1017, which would have allowed California prosecutors to decide whether folks caught cultivating marijuana should be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony. The bill failed - and won't be reconsidered again until next year - but not before Norby ripped his fellow Republicans for their opposition.
Norby noted that the bill could save up to $3.5 million a year by allowing small growers to avoid state prison, while maintaining prosecutors' discretion to charge those involved large-scale operations with felonies.
"A lot of people in my party have said to me that they agree with making laws more rational but don't want to take the political heat," he said before listing a long line of pro-pot measures he supported as an elected official in conservative Orange County - and never was punished for politically.
"If you really believe that someone growing a pot plant deserves three years in state prison, and that is adequate punishment, and that taxpayers should be paying $150,000 (in prison costs) for growing a plant, then oppose this. But if you are just thinking about the political aspect - it should be our issue if we are freedom-loving conservatives," Norby said. "What bigger nanny-state can there be? ... Sending somebody away for growing a plant? That's a nanny-state on steroids."
Of course, Ammiano couldn't let Norby have the only quips. He followed up with this note about last year's election, in which voters rejected a ballot measure to legalize marijuana, and also defeated GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.
"This is not about marijuana, this is about marijuana policy," Ammiano said. "It might make some people uncomfortable, but Mr. Norby is right. Prop. 19 got more votes than Meg Whitman last year."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/03/BAUC1JPBG0.DTL#ixzz1OKExWyHo
Saturday, June 4, 2011
They say politics makes strange bedfellows, and that idiom was in full effect on the Assembly floor this week when a bill by über-liberal Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, got a little legislative love from his Libertarian-leaning but technically Republican colleague from Fullerton (Orange County), Chris Norby.
Norby made an impassioned plea for AB1017, which would have allowed California prosecutors to decide whether folks caught cultivating marijuana should be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony. The bill failed - and won't be reconsidered again until next year - but not before Norby ripped his fellow Republicans for their opposition.
Norby noted that the bill could save up to $3.5 million a year by allowing small growers to avoid state prison, while maintaining prosecutors' discretion to charge those involved large-scale operations with felonies.
"A lot of people in my party have said to me that they agree with making laws more rational but don't want to take the political heat," he said before listing a long line of pro-pot measures he supported as an elected official in conservative Orange County - and never was punished for politically.
"If you really believe that someone growing a pot plant deserves three years in state prison, and that is adequate punishment, and that taxpayers should be paying $150,000 (in prison costs) for growing a plant, then oppose this. But if you are just thinking about the political aspect - it should be our issue if we are freedom-loving conservatives," Norby said. "What bigger nanny-state can there be? ... Sending somebody away for growing a plant? That's a nanny-state on steroids."
Of course, Ammiano couldn't let Norby have the only quips. He followed up with this note about last year's election, in which voters rejected a ballot measure to legalize marijuana, and also defeated GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.
"This is not about marijuana, this is about marijuana policy," Ammiano said. "It might make some people uncomfortable, but Mr. Norby is right. Prop. 19 got more votes than Meg Whitman last year."
