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“The state of California is in a very, very precipitous economic plight. It’s in the toilet,” says Ammiano. “It looks very, very bleak, with layoffs and foreclosures, and schools closing or trying to operate four days a week. We have one of the highest rates of unemployment we’ve ever had. With any revenue ideas, people say you have to think outside the box, you have to be creative, and I feel that the issue of the decriminalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana fits that bill. It’s not new, the idea has been around, and the political will may in fact be there to make something happen.” (See pictures of stoner cinema.)

Ammiano may be right. A few days after he introduced the bill, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that states should be able to make their own rules for medical marijuana and that federal raids on pot dispensaries in California would cease. The move signaled a softening of the hard-line approach to medicinal pot use previous Administrations have taken. The nomination of Gil Kerlikowske as the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy may also signal a softer federal line on marijuana. If he is confirmed as the so-called drug czar, Kerlikowske will take with him experience as police chief of Seattle, where he made it clear that going after people for possessing marijuana was not a priority for his force. (See a story about the grass-roots marijuana war in California.)

In 1996 California became one of the first states in the nation to legalize medical marijuana. Currently, $200 million in medical-marijuana sales are subject to sales tax. If passed, the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act (AB 390) would give California control of pot in a manner similar to that of alcohol while prohibiting its purchase by citizens under age 21. (The bill has been referred to the California state assembly’s public-safety and health committees; Ammiano says it could take up to a year before it comes to a vote for passage.) State revenues would be derived from a $50-per-oz. levy on retail sales of marijuana and sales taxes. By adopting the law, California could become a model for other states. As Ammiano put it, “How California goes, the country goes.”

Despite the need for the projected revenue, opponents say legalizing pot would only add to social woes. “The last thing we need is yet another mind-altering substance to be legalized,” says John Lovell, lobbyist for the California Peace Officers’ Association. “We have enough problems with alcohol and abuse of pharmaceutical products. Do we really need to add yet another mind-altering substance to the array?” Lovell says the easy availability of the drug would lead to a surge in its use, much as happened when alcohol was allowed to be sold in venues other than liquor stores in some states. (Read why Dr. Sanjay Gupta is against decriminalizing pot.)

Joel W. Hay, professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC, also foresees harm if the bill passes. “Marijuana is a drug that clouds people’s judgment. It affects their ability to concentrate and react, and it certainly has impacts on third parties,” says Hay, who has written on the societal costs of drug abuse. “It’s one more drug that will add to the toll on society. All we have to do is look at the two legalized drugs, tobacco and alcohol, and look at the carnage that they’ve caused. [Marijuana] is a dangerous drug, and it causes bad outcomes for both the people who use it and for the people who are in their way at work or other activities.” He adds, “There are probably some responsible people who can handle marijuana, but there are lots of people who can’t, and it has an enormous negative impact on them, their family and loved ones.” (See pictures of Mexico’s drug wars.)

In response, retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray, a longtime proponent of legalization, estimates that legalizing pot and thus ceasing to arrest, prosecute and imprison nonviolent offenders could save the state $1 billion a year. “We couldn’t make this drug any more available if we tried,” he says. “Not only do we have those problems, along with glamorizing it by making it illegal, but we also have the crime and corruption that go along with it.” He adds, “Unfortunately, every society in the history of mankind has had some form of mind-altering, sometimes addictive substances to use, to misuse, abuse or get addicted to. Get used to it. They’re here to stay. So let’s try to reduce those harms, and right now we couldn’t do it worse if we tried.”

Millions of iPhone users worldwide now have the ability to make cheap or even free wireless calls using Internet calling service Skype – unless, of course, they live in Canada.

The Internet telephone unit of eBay Inc. released a new iPhone application yesterday that allows users to call and message other Skype users free, providing they are in a Wi-Fi hot spot. However, a fee will be charged if the service is used to call land lines or cellphones.

But, in what has become a familiar refrain to Canadian ears, there was no word on when the service would be available to users in the Great White North. “The Skype for iPhone application is not available for download in Canada at this time,” Chaim Haas, a spokesperson for Skype, said in an email. “There is a vague restriction in one of the standards-based technology licences and Skype is looking into it.

“The issue is not related to Apple, nor is it specific to Skype.”

The prospect of an indefinitely delayed launch of the Skype service here comes on the heels of other letdowns for tech-savvy Canadians, including the 12-month wait for the iPhone and the ongoing territorial licensing restrictions that prevent the streaming of television shows from U.S. network websites.

For users of rival Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry devices, Haas said a “lite” version of the Skype service would be made available in May.

While the BlackBerry service will technically be available in Canada, Haas said Canadian users would be limited to sending and receiving instant messages and making status updates. By contrast, users in other countries – Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom – will be able to place Skype-to-Skype calls or SkypeOut calls on their BlackBerrys.

“We are restricted from offering the full-feature set in more countries due to regulatory reasons,” said Haas. “However, we hope to add support for the full-feature set in additional markets over time.”

Some have speculated that the holdup is due to resistance from Canada’s wireless carriers, which rely heavily on revenue from conventional voice calling.

But Elizabeth Hamilton, a spokesperson for Rogers Communications Inc., the only Canadian iPhone carrier, said the cable giant has made no effort to prevent iPhone users from using the service, providing they can find somewhere to download it.

Similarly, Julie Smithers, a spokesperson for Bell Canada Inc., said a version of Skype has been available to Bell customers using Windows Mobile devices for some time, but noted a lack of customer interest.

Kevin Restivo, an analyst at IDC Canada, said Skype’s move from desktop computers to the fast-growing wireless market is unlikely to threaten dominant wireless carriers any time soon.

“There’s always a small percentage of the population that will look for non-traditional ways of doing things when it comes to wireless,” he said.

“How quickly (the wider population) takes to it is another issue.”

With files from the Star’s wire services

-Obama
I have never heared anything about a civilian security force? What is this all about? I wish I had more time to write right now. I will be researching what Obama means by this. When I do I will post any information. If you know anything please tell me in a comment.

NorthernAvenger

I found it funny so I figured it couldn’t hurt to post it. 

“Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = pregnancy
Dumb man + smart woman = affair
Dumb man + dumb woman = marriage

Smart boss + smart employee = profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = production
Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need.

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love  him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot & not try to understand her at all.

Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

Any married man should forget his mistakes, there’s no use in two people remembering the same thing.

Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, and she does.

A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

There are 2 times when a man doesn’t understand a woman – before marriage and after marriage.”

Want more funny stuff? Check out my comedy video collection. 

Enjoy and post here if you watch all the way through

NorthernAvenger