California Marijuana: Up In Smoke Or Grow Your Own
By Julie Smith on April 1, 2010, 7:35 am“This is a watershed moment in the decades-long struggle to end failed marijuana prohibition in this country,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We really can’t overstate the significance of Californians being the first to have the opportunity to end this public policy disaster.”
November Elections
Due to make history again in November of 2010, California voters could very well pass the “Tax Cannabis Act” initiative. This would allow persons 21 years of age and older to legally buy pot for recreational use. However, federal law will wag its finger of dismay because marijuana is an illegal drug. Back in 1996 California first made history by passing a medical marijuana use, allowing doctors to prescribe pot for individuals with cancer, migranes and even glaucoma. Since then 14 states have adopted marijuana for medical use laws.
Similar rules of use would mirror those of alcohol. It will be legal to possess an ounce of marijuana, which is enough to roll dozens of marijuana cigarettes. Those intereseted in using will not be allowed to do so on school grounds, in their cars, in public, and around children. Individuals will be allowed to grow their own crops covering 25 square feet.
Economic Woes
But is legalizing this class one narcotic the answer to California’s economic woes? There are many who oppose this initiative which could potentially endanger the lives of many by simply going about your business in a mind altered state because now it would be legal. “We are quite concerned that by legalizing marijuana, it will definitely lower the perception of risk, and we will see youth use go through the roof,” said Aimee Hendle, a spokeswoman for Californians for Drug Free Youth.
Related posts:
- Will Legalizing Marijuana Help The Economy?
- Is Marijuana Legalization Possible In California?
- LA Government Reducing Number Of Medicinal Marajuana Shops
- What Could Be So Bad About Taking Medical Marijuana For Pain Relief
- California Election 2010 Results: Gluttons For More Liberal Punishment
Sanity is, at last, returning to ‘the land that once was free’!
Prohibition is a sickening horror and the ocean of incompetence, corruption and human wreckage it has left in its wake is almost endless.
Prohibition has decimated generations and criminalized millions for a behavior which is entwined in human existence, and for what other purpose than to uphold the defunct and corrupt thinking of a minority of misguided, self-righteous Neo-Puritans and degenerate demagogues who wish nothing but unadulterated destruction on the rest of us.
Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation.
By its very nature prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model – the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous, ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved.
Many of us have now finally wised up to the fact that the best avenue towards realistically dealing with drug use and addiction is through proper regulation, which is what we already do with alcohol & tobacco –two of our most dangerous mood altering substances. But for those of you whose ignorant and irrational minds traverse a fantasy plane of existence, you will no doubt remain sorely upset with any type of solution that does not seem to lead to the absurd and unattainable utopia of a drug free society.
There is an irrefutable connection between drug prohibition and the crime, corruption, disease and death it causes. If you are not capable of understanding this connection, then maybe you’re using something far stronger than the rest of us. Anybody ‘halfway bright’ and who’s not psychologically challenged, should be capable of understanding, that it is not simply the demand for drugs that creates the mayhem; it is our refusal to allow legal businesses to meet that demand.
No amount of money, police powers, weaponry, diminution of rights and liberties, wishful thinking or pseudo-science will make our streets safer; only an end to prohibition can do that. How much longer are you willing to foolishly risk your own survival by continuing to ignore the obvious, historically confirmed solution?
If you still support the kool aid mass suicide cult of prohibition, and erroneously believe that you can win a war without logic and practical solutions, then prepare yourself for even more death, corruption, terrorism, sickness, imprisonment, unemployment, foreclosed homes, and the complete loss of the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.
“A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”
Abraham Lincoln
The only thing prohibition successfully does is prohibit regulation & taxation while turning even our schools and prisons into black markets for drugs. Regulation would mean the opposite!
The concern is people would be high all the time? Look around, everyone is high all the time even when pot is illegal. I’m a twenty year old male and almost everyone I know smoke marijuana; my aunt, next door neighbors, friends, uncles, you name it. The war on drugs in America has completely failed, especially the war on marijuana, ultimately putting individuals in jail for years because of the governments false accusation of pot. When I was younger and learned in school about marijuana, they made it seem that I was gonna die and live an awful life if I ever smoked. Well low and behold they were wrong, making marijuana one of my favorite daily rituals. President Obama’s slogan was “Change”, Well lets make a change and stop letting millions of young men waste their lives away in prison because of the distribution of pot. Lets make a “Change” and let marijuana be legal. More will be happy than not, and in a democratic society, majority rules.
“we will see youth use go through the roof”? Miss. Hendle needs to get her facts straight. It’s easier for youths to get pot than alcohol. When I was in high school a few years ago, I was offered weed at school on a weekly basis. Marijuana is available in abundance at any school in the nation from numerous competing drug-dealers who will sell to anyone of any age. It is much harder for a student to get a hold of alcohol. Sellers of alcohol check IDs and are NEVER located in a school. Prohibition has not accomplished its purpose: it has not reduced supply or demand, nor has it made the drug harder to get a hold of. On the contrary, it has created a lawless, unregulated, out-of-control black market. This isn’t working. We need to legalize pot so that we can control its distribution, put the drug dealers out of business and get marijuana out of schools!
Our current system is not working, I am happy to see that many folks in California are able to except reality. I hope the initiative passes; God knows we need change like this.
Hopefully Californians will be prepared for the “October Surprise” that the prohibitionists will pull out of the hat as November approaches. They will no doubt put forward some scary sounding “study”, and continue to overlook the harm caused by prison, loss of tax money, cost of enforcement, and all of the other evils of prohibition.
Parents, let’s watch out for the “October Surprise” and let’s stop putting our own kids in jail!
The lies are coming, watch out for the law enforcement group who is out to protect their funding and nothing else. They will say “its bad for the kids” Its “a gateway drug” it “sends the wrong message” but if these were really their true concerns then why are they not saying anything about the more deadly items that are advertised and sold to our people which kill hundreds of thousand every year while marijuana kills ZERO people each year? EXACTLY, their out for them selves and don’t care how much we all suffer financially as long as they don’t!
VOTE YES ON LEGALIZATION / FREEDOM / CIVIL RIGHTS
DOH!!! its only a class one narcotic as its decision was based on lies, misinformation, and special interests (read big pharm, petrochem, paper, and many others).
um youth use is already through the roof and has always been so. Another propagandist