How would Jesus vote? Apparently these groups agree that he would VOTE YES ON PROP. 19. It is great to see organizations like this joining the fight to make cannabis freedom a reality. We can no longer continue to imprison our community and make criminals out of our neighbors. Hopefully this courageous endorsement will encourage other groups to come forward and also call for an end to the madness. Thank you California Council of Churches and California Church Impact group. It is great that there are still well rounded and realistic organizations that understand the many issues that arise from criminalizing what should be a public health issue. My hats off for to your courage and vision.
California Council of Churches IMPACT Endorses Proposition 19
Representing 21 denominations and 1.5 million members, Council of Churches calls initiative to control and tax cannabis “the moral choice”
(Sacramento, California) — Today, the California Council of Churches IMPACT, which represents 21 different denominations and over 1.5 million members within the mainstream and progressive Protestant communities of faith, endorsed Proposition 19, the initiative to control and tax cannabis in California.
“Proposition 19 is the moral choice for California,” said Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser, Executive Director of the California Council of Churches IMPACT. “The prohibition of marijuana has failed. It’s created a culture of criminality around a substance that is less harmful than both alcohol and tobacco, which are both legal, controlled, and taxed. Let’s control marijuana like alcohol by passing Proposition 19 in November.”
The initiative has also gained support from law enforcement, doctors, Latino community leaders, labor, business leaders, elected officials, political parties, and more. Click here for a full list of endorsements.
Since 1913 the California Council of Churches (CCC) and California Church IMPACT (CCI) have labored to create a world that cares for all of its citizens regardless of economic class, ages, gender, race and ethnicity, religious belief, or sexual orientation. Together CCC and CCI operate a Sacramento-based public policy office representing 21 different denominations and over 1.5 million members within the mainstream and progressive Protestant communities of faith.
Similar to current alcohol and tobacco laws, Proposition 19 will give state and local governments the ability to control and tax the sale of small amounts of cannabis to adults age 21 and older. As the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), which provides non-partisan fiscal and policy advice, confirms, Prop 19 includes significant safeguards and controls: It maintains strict criminal penalties for driving under the influence of marijuana, increases the penalty for providing marijuana to a minor, expressly prohibits the consumption of marijuana in public, forbids smoking marijuana while minors are present, and bans possession on school grounds. [1][2]
California’s tax collector, the Board of Equalization (BOE), which currently collects alcohol and tobacco taxes, estimates that marijuana taxes could generate $1.4 billion in revenue each year, available to fund law enforcement, healthcare, and other critical needs.
The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) also says Prop 19 would enable California to put our police priorities where they belong, in that it “could result in savings to the state and local governments by reducing the number of marijuana offenders incarcerated in state prisons and county jails, as well as the number placed under county probation or state parole supervision. These savings could reach several tens of millions of dollars annually. The county jail savings would be offset to the extent that jail beds no longer needed for marijuana offenders were used for other criminals who are now being released early because of a lack of jail space.”
Multiple polls show that a majority of California voters support Proposition 19.