Will the California Legislature Lead on Pot? Or will they again show they aren't worth their pay?

It is April 2016, and almost everyone in California seems to believe that recreational marijuana will be “legalized” through a November ballot initiative.  According to LA Times, at least one of the 20 propositions will make it onto the ballot.  It is pretty clear from the results in Colorado that the drug armageddon that the right-wingers threatened would happen, has not occurred there, or on other states where pot has been legalized.  Polls in California seem to show that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing pot, and local governments are trying to position themselves to maximize the possible increased revenue.

One of the problems with ballot initiatives is that they are not always written well.  They are written in order to gain public support, but are not always well reviewed.  Opponents don’t always want to correct flaws, because they hope to exploit those flaws in advertising against the initiatives.  After a ballot initiative is passed, it is very difficult to amend.  The legislature is bound by the initiative and can’t easily change parts of it to “tune” it or make necessary changes after it becomes law.   Proposition 13, for example, was a cumbersome law that could have been made unnecessary with corrective legislation passed months or years prior to its passage.  After it was passed, it took years of legislative wrangling, and additional propositions to correct some of its obvious flaws. The same thing happened with Proposition 184 in 1994, the three strikes law and the anti gay marriage Proposition 8. The state legislature could have easily passed laws that would have accomplished what the propositions did, and then later could have passed changes to that law that would have corrected any flaws discovered after enactment.  I wondered why the legislature failed to act on those issues, but in all fairness, it was not clear from polls in advance of those initiatives that they would, in fact, pass.  However in this case it is different!  According to Orange County Register, polls are clearly pointing toward legalization.  

Our legislators are our elected representatives, and should be passing laws that the people of the state want.  That is their job!  Why do they refuse to take the important steps necessary to do that?  They now have an opportunity to pass legislation to legalize marijuana before the ballot initiatives are finalized.  They could look at what works in other states, and quickly draft and pass the new law.  Democrats have control of the legislature and the governor, so legislation should not be held up by political infighting. In general Democrats seem to be in favor of personal freedoms, while Republicans generally try to restrict our freedoms, and try to protect the jobs of their higher paid constituents that include prosecutors, judges, and higher ranking police. Even so,  I believe many Republicans would also be willing to vote for legalization to show they are in sync with their constituents, and also interested in getting the new revenue source without raising taxes.

This is our legislature’s opportunity to show their leadership.  Will they do it?     .