Well said.....
The biggest problems with the med laws are that they are still fueling corruption. Caregivers and patients are growing far more than they need and selling it. Was that the point of 215? So that somebody with a trick knee can grow pounds, smoke ounces and sell the rest? Money mongering is rampant with a lot of the dispensaries and they pay very little for product when you can get more on the street. So a guy with a perfectly legal garden is now able to grow enough to sell and this is not helping the crime problem. Many states, including mine, look at the crime problems and the CA cities struggling with out of control dispensaries as a reason to deny medical in states where bills come up. Many states are considering MMJ laws without allowing patients or caregivers to grow or allowing dispensaries because of how CA has taken advantage of the system. CA led the way and we are all thankful for that but it has now become an unregulated free-for-all and the current system isn't best for CA. Sure patients need medicine and some need a lot of it but most who are involved in MMJ are not in dire need of meds.
Certainly nobody wants to pay taxes, but in many ways we are paying them now every time we buy a sack. Between the growers and dealers who are a drain on or don't kick into the system, and the profit structure of illegal enterprise, we are paying overhead that could otherwise go to benefit the entire state. If they charge a $300 per ounce tax nobody will buy legally, I doubt they are so stupid as to inflate prices over and above current market... that would just be bad business!
As for your decrim laws, those are great but it isn't legality. If a cop wants to hassle you for smoking a joint he can. Sometimes they use the little things to try to find the big stuff, and prop 19 takes away all that power. prop 19 also wont allow the local guys to join in the DEA's little battles so as long as you follow the rules you will be fine. Prop 19 also prevents your employer from using the same tactics to fire your ass. As it is now, an employer can do a random drug test on and individual at any time and if you smoked last night or last weekend he can fire you. With prop 19 he would have to prove intoxication at the workplace. I know people who were let go from their jobs when the boss man didn't want them around for some reason and pulled a random on them hoping that they could fire them without paying any benefits or whatever. These are HUGE points in the prop 19 wording and are far better protection than decrim. Decrim still gives you a misdemeanor for your record. Those sneak up to bite you a lot harder than the $100 fine. People get denied jobs, business loans, and many other things because they have misdemeanors on their records!
The worst part is, regardless of your reasons for voting no, and even if you truly are championing the cause for a better prop, everyone will see your no vote as just a NO. All this nit picking just to prove to the world that California doesn't really want MJ legal. The point score will go to the people who want to kill the plant and not to the people who just want some wording changed!
Trike