No talk with Loretta Sanchez

The Obama event last week did not offer the opportunity to talk with Rep. Loretta Sanchez, as I had hoped it might. I'll try to call her office this week and see if we can't set up a meeting to talk seriously about her comment on CNN that it might be time for California to give marijuana legalization a try.

Hoping to talk to Loretta Sanchez

Santa Ana Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez will, of course, be in the arena for President Obama's visit to Costa Mesa tomorrow, and I hope to get a chance to talk with her about her recent CNN appearance where she suggested that California might do well to take the lead on legalizing marijuana. How did she arrive at this position? Has she trolled for support for the idea? Does she think it would help to reduce the current violence in Mexico that is spilling over into the U.S.? What kind of response has she gotten? Has she talked to key legislators in California (Ammiano for one)?
I hope to be able get answers to those and more questions if possible.

At a tipping point on marijuana?

I've seen wild anticipation in the drug reform community before, but maybe, just maybe, it's getting close to the time when the tide will turn. Loretta Sanchez, Congresswoman from Santa Ana, last week came right out and said it's time to experiment and California is probably the place to test the legalization of marijuana in some form or another. Of course as a federal legislator she has no control over California law. But she is chair of a subcommittee on border security of the Homeland Security Committee. Perhaps she has looked at all the violence in Mexico, spilling over into the United States, and determined, as Steve Greenhut, I and at least a few others have, that the best way to neutralize and defuse the violent cartels there is to legalize and reduce the profit margins exponentially.

Some months ago Kathy Smith and a few others of us (I think Judge Jim Gray was along) visited Loretta's district office and urged her administrative assistant to urge her to get out front on marijuana reform. We were mainly talking about halting federal raids on California medical marijuana dispensaries, but the conversation was pretty wide-ranging. I have no idea whether this visit played a role in her decision to go out front on this issue, but one can hope. At least we made the effort.