California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an admitted steroid user and Hollywood film star, a man who has a stadium in Vienna named after him and one of the few legitimate candidates for the title “most interesting man in the world,” made minor history Oct. 1 when he signed California Senate Bill 1449 into law.
The bill redefines the crime of a possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from being a misdemeanor to a civil infraction. As a civil infraction, violators must pay a maximum $100 fine without any possibility of court appearances or criminal record.
Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican opposed to the legalization of marijuana, should be applauded for having made such a rational decision but criticized based on his logic for doing so.
In a letter to the members of the California Senate, Mr. Schwarzenegger makes clear that the change from misdemeanor to infraction was done because “courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket.”
Because there are about 60,000 marijuana possession citations in California every year, this effort reflects a rare instance of successful government deregulation from the populace.
Unfortunately, Mr. Schwarzenegger uses the rest of his letter not to champion further government deregulation but also to denounce California Proposition 19. Proposition 19 is the measure on California's November ballot that would make it legal to use, tax and regulate marijuana.
Mr. Schwarzenegger's opposition to Proposition 19 stems from his opinion that it, according to his letter, “will adversely impact California's businesses without bringing in the tax revenues to the state promised by its proponents” in spite of the State Board of Equalization, a public agency, estimating that a $50 per ounce tax would result in $1.4 billion annually.
While Mr. Schwarzenegger's analysis failed to consider any non-business fiscal benefits, such as relieving overcrowded prisons, it ultimately misses the point because it also fails to consider any non-fiscal benefits of marijuana legalization.
Even if the state of California did not gain a cent in tax revenue from the legalization of marijuana, the act would make a dent in the powerful drug cartels, which make 60 percent of their profits from marijuana trafficking, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Since Mexico's President Felipe Calderon began a civil war with the drug cartels in 2006, more than 28,000 people have died, almost five times the number of Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
Given these numbers, Mr. Schwarzenegger's opposition is based on dubious fiscal arithmetic and is completely shallow to ignore the real human costs and reflect the growing its-only-business attitude of the our political and economic scene.
Mr. Schwarzenegger should have signed S.B. 1449 because doing so was best for Californians and not because it would be more affordable for the mismanaged and heavily indebted state government.
In the same way, his opposition to Proposition 19 is based on a fiscally driven, government-first mentality opposed to the best actions for not just Californians, but all Americans and Mexicans.
One can only hope the voters and political servants in other states, like Arizona, follow California’s in crafting legislation that focuses on human, not economic, benefit.
Reach Dan at djgarry@asu.edu
