The first of three initiatives to fully legalize marijuana use in California went up in smoke on Jan. 15, 2010. Written by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Assembly Bill 390 would have legalized marijuana use and sales for adults 21 years or older and imposed a $50 per ounce tax for drug education and rehabilitation.Opponents of AB 390 cheered the failure as a victory for the safety of our state’s children, but proponents of the bill still intend to bring the issue to the November election ballot. I honestly could not be any happier that AB 390 has failed for now. This would not be an unusual thing to say if I didn’t ever smoke pot, but that isn’t the case. I enjoy pot; it’s one of life’s simple pleasures. So why, am I happy to see AB 390 fail?Because we don’t need it. Pot already is legal in California, albeit thinly veiled courtesy of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, also known as Proposition 215. I fail to see why anyone would want to pay an extra $50 per ounce toward a system that will likely squander it under the guise of drug education and rehabilitation programs, instead of going into the state’s general fund where it might actually be put toward for something useful. The medical marijuana system has already been assaulted by the imposition of sales taxes.Dennis Peron, one of the co-authors of Prop 215, drafted it with the intention of making marijuana accessible to basically anyone. Anyone that is 18 years or older can go see a doctor and get a medical marijuana recommendation for pretty much anything.Peron said the war on marijuana should have already ended when Prop 215 was passed by voters and shares my belief that Ammiano, who is also a longtime friend of Peron, needs to refocus his efforts. “It makes a great headline but doesn’t give any real substantial change to California,” Peron said. “I think it’s a bad idea because you have to pay taxes. It’s feeding the beast.”Aaron Smith, state policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project, said AB 390 would protect the general public and medical marijuana patients even more than existing laws.”People who use marijuana and are healthy shouldn’t have to go to the doctor and come up with a bogus excuse to use it legally,” Smith said. “Most reasonable people would rather pay taxes than worry about going to jail or losing their job.”But are we the people of California really so naive to believe the federal government would respect the voters’ choice legalizing marijuana for recreational use when we have been endlessly fighting the same battle for 13 years?Despite the Obama administration’s promise to not raid dispensaries that are in full compliance with state and federal laws, that does not mean the DEA’s marijuana tolerance will extend into the realm of recreation. A state appeals court is deliberating whether or not dispensaries may be prohibited from operating by the cities in which they seek to operate.We should not bother creating new marijuana laws when we can not even get our government to respect the ones that already exist &- and we certainly should not be rewarding our government with more money to waste when it can’t even pass a budget on time. Until we can make our government respect the laws we voted for, AB 390 will only create a new set of controversial laws that are just as likely to be challenged or ignored.But Peron did have a suggestion for Ammiano.”Tom would do better if he smoked pot,” Peron said. “He’s for us, but he’s not “us,’ and I’ve never minded telling him that to his face … Tom, smoke a joint, y’know so you get it.”

Julia Baum can be reached at [email protected]