SEE RESULTS OF COMMITTEE VOTE HERE

In a move proponents are billing the “first formal consideration of marijuana legalization in American history,” the public safety committee of the state assembly will today vote on Tom Ammiano’s ganja bill.

The San Francisco assemblyman last year earned his place in the pot pantheon by authoring “AB 390,” a bill that proposed for the regulation and taxation of marijuana in a manner similar to what is already the case with alcohol. This, he claimed, would reap the state more than $1 billion a year.

At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, AB 390 will come up for a yea or nay committee vote. Ammiano himself is chairman of the public safety committee — and, purportedly, his colleagues like him. The assemblyman’s staff and allies predict the bill will receive the four votes needed to pass. Continue reading