Bill Quirk, Hayward Assemblyman, “Fully in Support of Marijuana Legalization”

Marijuana legalization has at least one good friend in the Legislature.

Assemblymember Bill Quirk of Hayward is "fully in support of legalization," he recently told the East Bay Express.

Quirk, an astrophysicist by trade, attended the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform's 2014 elections "post mortem seminar," in which the lessons from last year -- when Oregon and Alaska joined Colorado and Washington as the states to allow legalized cannabis sales -- were digested by a roomful of marijuana supporters from California.

And count Quirk among them.

"I am fully in support of legalization," he told the newspaper.

The coalition is one of the groups working on putting together a legalization initiative that stands a chance of being approved by voters in California in 2016.

"They have to write a good initiative that polls well," he told the paper.

Lawmakers in California have had the chance to try and legalize before, but "the Assembly is very conservative, at least on this issue," he said. "I'd love to think we could pass it as legislation. I'd love to see that happen."

Efforts to regulate medical marijuana, already a billion-dollar industry, have also met with failure in the capital.

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