California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom says it's time for the state to get serious about legalizing marijuana. He says he is willing to put his political reputation on the line to make it happen.
Newson and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California announced Thursday that he is leading a blue-ribbon panel of medical, legal, and law enforcement experts who plan to spend the next 18-24 months studying how California can tax and regulate legal marijuana in an effective way.
Newsom says the goal is to make recommendations that could be written into a ballot initiative in time for the November 2016 election.
Allen Hooper of the ACLU says the committee will draw heavily from the experiences of Colorado and Washington state, which legalized adult use of marijuana last year.[