Legalize Marijuana-California Initiatives

[BiG H3rB Tr3E]

Its one thing for them to bust MMJ shops because tehy can bullshit and tell people that its not medical,, or that its abused,, or people are patients or whatever load of horse shit they can force to the ignorant masses.

but the fact is if california passes legislature that will remove mj laws from the books, then the feds are going to have a hell of a time trying to justify any action that they take.

and if we get legalization bills in washington, oregon, california, colorado (( i think there is another state,, but i cant remember now)) then it will make it impossible for them.

it started just like alcohol. a few states legalized sales ++ production and then soon they had to remove it from the laws federally and let the states deal with it. and thats what a pro-pot president will do. no body is going to say I LEGALIZE POT,,, so what they would rather happend is tell peopl they will let the states decide, so that they dont look like a "doper" and it makes them look like they are pro states right...

i dont know. even with all the misinformation out there about mj,, everyday we are seeing new studies that proves its not the big bad giant that its made out to be.

but than again alot of americans are fucking stupid, so im not holding my breath for any legalization any time soon....

 

[Tr33]

FACT!!! Allot of Americans are Fucking Stupid..so fucking true!!!

People are Cowards and will not take to the streets.

give me a fucking break, all you ever hear is a bunch of stoners talk moan and whine.
You exclaim..."The People will take it to the street" Revolt Revolution...etc..."

This BS has been said since the late 50's when the Beatniks wanted tostart the so called Red-volution.

Get a clue

The Sheeple do not care and won't rise up.
Your Fantasy 420 Nug Uprising will never happen.

them def funny rants
keep em up they make great reads

 

[RollmeoneKenobi]

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. We probably won't see legalization under a Democratic President because the hardline Conservatives will smear him for it. More than likely it will be a Republican pulling an 'October Surprise' before the November elections to swing votes. Although this is highly unlikely since most Republicans receive so much money from private prison lobbyists, and that will directly impact their bottom lines. Heck, even if Ron Paul could actually get elected he would probably have to fight Congressman of his own party!

 

[igrowone]

FACT!!! Allot of Americans are Fucking Stupid..so fucking true!!!

People are Cowards and will not take to the streets.

give me a fucking break, all you ever hear is a bunch of stoners talk moan and whine.
You exclaim..."The People will take it to the street" Revolt Revolution...etc..."

This BS has been said since the late 50's when the Beatniks wanted tostart the so called Red-volution.

Get a clue

The Sheeple do not care and won't rise up.
Your Fantasy 420 Nug Uprising will never happen.

them def funny rants
keep em up they make great reads

i don't disagree with your theme here
but the context of 'taking it to the streets' started with a response if DEA tried to bump up its enforcement if Cali did legalize
if Cali legalizes IMHO it's game over, no one need go to the streets(but the show of support would be a good thing)

 

[Midnight Rudy]

Wasn't there something in prop 19 that was specific to LEO not being able to help the Feds? Seems to me there was a section on that but I can't remember it. Herb and KM I know you guys were heavy in that thread and I was too but that was under a deleted handle, so I can't look back at my own posts about it. Maybe you guys remember?

KM, I think you are right about division... I hope there aren't 2 on the ballot. Herb, I agree with you about how multiple states legalizing it at the same time would be epic. That would make short work of prohibition if all 4 states that are collecting signatures now could pull it off... 4 is likely a pipe dream of course! Even just one is a huge step though and will signify the beginning of the end of prohibition.

 

[vta]

Not a bad write-up at all from the conservative outlet...

MJ Street Fair Fuels Debate Over Legalization


By Daniel B. Wood, Staff Writer
Source: Christian Science Monitor

cannabis Los Angeles -- Standing outside a medical marijuana dispensary in southern California, Lucy Baldwin muses on one of the great social and political debates here.

“I thought the threat of marijuana acceptance in California was over with the defeat of Prop. 19, but now it seems to be back,” says the single mother of two teens. “I think it’s a bad idea for grownups to be modeling behavior that is ultimately very detrimental to youth. It leads them in the wrong direction.”

Morgan Fox, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, holds an opposite opinion.

“When we stop blowing it out of proportion as a society and learn to deal with this commonly used substance in a calm and reasonable manner, we see that the sky does not fall and life goes on as before,” he says.

The two comments frame a debate that is being fueled by the International Cannabis & Hemp Expo outside Oakland City Hall this weekend – a five-block street fair including music, booths, hundreds of vendors, and a designated area where medical marijuana cardholders can light up weed.

Once projected to win by a large margin, California’s Proposition 19 – which would have allowed local governments to regulate and tax the legal sale of marijuana – was narrowly defeated last November (54-47 percent).

But proponents say public attitudes have been changing for several years and that the expo is the latest evidence.

Although some local residents are against the idea, marijuana advocates say the event is no big deal because it was held at Oakland’s Cow Palace two years in a row and is moving to the street simply because of a state moratorium on drug use inside state facilities.

“Events such as this are not new in California and elsewhere. This seems like it is simply the first one to be held in the street,” says Fox. “Providing medical marijuana patients with a place to use their medicine privately and away from minors, while still enjoying a public festival or other event, is a considerate and rational course of action.”

Pro-marijuana forces are seizing the opportunity to repeat their selling points from the initiative battle – that far from leading kids astray, legalization would improve the quality and safety of the product while providing income for law enforcement.

“The fact that Oakland officials seem eager to hold this event on city property shows just how much legalizing and regulating the cannabis industry has benefited the city,” says Tom Angell, media relations director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a Massachusetts organization that describes itself as “made up of current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who are speaking out about the failures of our existing drug policies.”

“Bringing the marijuana trade above-ground not only allows the city to take in much-needed tax revenue it otherwise wouldn't have,” Angell says, “but it reduces crime and violence by putting the street gangs who would otherwise sell marijuana to people who want it out of business.”

To Lucy Baldwin, those arguments are simply the nose of a nice-looking camel nudging its way into her tent.

First came California’s Prop. 215, the 1996 ballot initiative that legalized personal use of medical marijuana for those who had doctor’s prescriptions. That was followed by the proliferation of dispensaries which, she says, legitimized people who were only thinly-veiled drug dealers and who sold drugs too close to schools, playgrounds, and churches.

Oakland’s Oaksterdam University opened in November 2007 to offer training for the cannabis industry with a stated mission to “legitimize the business and work to change the law to make cannabis legal.” It has graduated over 8,000 students. Campuses have since opened in Los Angeles, Sebastopol, and Michigan.

Since expo organizers are selling the $20 tickets to adults only and limiting entry points, they expect only about 20,000 people to attend. But Baldwin says the speakers, vendors, booths – and pot smell – will be in everybody’s face.

“Kids will look over and see what’s going on and will wonder why it’s so exclusive and that will make it cool to them,” she says. “We don’t need this.”

But marijuana advocates point to several polls over the past 10 years that show public resistance to marijuana is dying out in several parts of the country. That has come with the high financial cost of fighting the drug war and the high social cost of locking up thousands of people when regulating it could provide revenues to economically-strapped law enforcement agencies.

“Events such as this reflect the reality that despite 70-plus years of federal prohibition, cannabis culture is not only surviving but thriving,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), also on the faculty of Oaksterdam, in an email.

“Oakland voters and city officials have consistently voiced their support for marijuana legalization and regulation, as is evident by their willingness to embrace this event,” he says. “It makes no sense for the federal government to continue to cling to a policy that improperly classifies the tens of thousands of people attending this weekend’s event as criminals who deserve to be arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for their use of a substance that is objectively safer than either alcohol or tobacco.”

 

[Anti]

“I thought the threat of marijuana acceptance in California was over with the defeat of Prop. 19, but now it seems to be back,” says the single mother of two teens. “I think it’s a bad idea for grownups to be modeling behavior that is ultimately very detrimental to youth. It leads them in the wrong direction.”

Yeah, it's definitely bad for grownups to be modeling behavior that is detrimental to youth. Like in every single beer commercial that plays on your television in prime time.

You have two teens. They've already seen their friends smoking it and have had it offered to them. Whether they accepted it or not has more to do with your teens and their respect for your ideas than it does with them seeing (or hearing about) strangers doing it.

I mean, when I was a kid, I heard about people doing all sorts of things that I never tried. I was offered alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, paint fumes, tobacco, nitrous, lsd, mushrooms and heroin before I was 18.

I had been raised not to mess with that stuff, so I didn't. No amount of peer pressure or heckling made me do any of those things, and I would go to parties every week where I was pretty much the only sober person in the house.

I started smoking herb ocassionally in college. I still rarely drink and I have no desire to start. Hell, I've been out of herb for more than a month and I have a bottle of expensive tequila that someone got me as a gift about 3 years ago that I have yet to open.

If you raise your kids well and you teach them to be reasonable people who think for themselves, you'll have a lot less to worry about.

And if you're gonna worry, cannabis should be the least of those worries.

 

[ijim]

When Cannabis is legalized most consumer products will reach the markets in concentrates, food, drinks and pills. Corporations depend on others to supply raw product for their final production. Thus the farmer pays a share of the taxes and transportation cost. It saves corporations overhead and increases their stock worth. There will be a huge demand for Cannabis. Since the Cannabis will be processed quality of the product will not be of great importance. Thus the farmer can grow in large fields and mechanically harvest their product. This said their will always be a demand for top shelf cannabis just the same as their is for wine from small orchards, corn liqueur from moonshiners and produce from small organic gardens. Everyone can grow vegetables and herbs but it is much easier for the masses just to buy them at grocery stores. That is why we pay more for better quality from home and small producers. Price will fall for top shelf but production cost will fall also. But the demand will still be there.

 

[appiccicoso]

It's incredible that in the vote californians decided that was better the actual situation instead a controlled regularization. I watched a lot of documentaries about, and at the end I have a question: why they voted against? the current law is a state law, but if DEA wants, it can use the federal law that consider marijuana illegal.
I'm from Italy, here all is illegal, also if you want use medical marijuana, you can't. You have to grow by yourself and if the police catch you, you'll be arrested.

 

[BiG H3rB Tr3E]

54-47 percent? im no math wizard but that seems like too much percent...

 

[Douche_Bigalow]

54-47 percent? im no math wizard but that seems like too much percent...

This is how GW won. Counting machines are rigged...Also there is a
+/-5 points variance inmost cases.

 

[mpd]

The reality is that the federal government (may I remind you the federal government is run by the extremely LIBERAL Obama Administration?) is cracking down on all forms of marijuana usage and liberal Democratic voters had a chance for legalization last year and liberal Democratic voters - not conservatives - must take responsibility for what has happened and hold those to account who display values that are inconsistent with the goals of the movement.

I would remind you that, conservative Libertarians (formerly the Republican Party of the 19th century), believe that the government has no right to tell you what you can put in your body and you have no right to ask anyone else to accept the consequences of your conduct.

In the end, your liberation is not going to come from the Democratic Party and demonizing the Republicans is not going to change it.

 

[onegreenday]

with the cali initiative 'regulate like wine' when it passes the feds will not be able 2 control it since anybody can grow without any permit and no doctor required. it will de facto end the war on marijuana....sionara.........

The reality is that the federal government (may I remind you the federal government is run by the extremely LIBERAL Obama Administration?) is cracking down on all forms of marijuana usage and liberal Democratic voters had a chance for legalization last year and liberal Democratic voters - not conservatives - must take responsibility for what has happened and hold those to account who display values that are inconsistent with the goals of the movement.

I would remind you that, conservative Libertarians (formerly the Republican Party of the 19th century), believe that the government has no right to tell you what you can put in your body and you have no right to ask anyone else to accept the consequences of your conduct.

In the end, your liberation is not going to come from the Democratic Party and demonizing the Republicans is not going to change it.

 

[igrowone]

going to be a very interesting election year in 2012
wondering how long the current federal 'crack down' will go on
mostly threats at the moment, with some action here and there
if nothing else, i imagine some who took 215 for granted will turn out in 2012, who didn't for prop 19

 

[Scottish Research]

It's an election year so Obama has to appear tough. I also think that the Fed is getting tired of dealing with national marijuana distribution originating from Cali.

 

[BiG H3rB Tr3E]

The reality is that the federal government (may I remind you the federal government is run by the extremely LIBERAL Obama Administration?) is cracking down on all forms of marijuana usage and liberal Democratic voters had a chance for legalization last year and liberal Democratic voters - not conservatives - must take responsibility for what has happened and hold those to account who display values that are inconsistent with the goals of the movement.

I would remind you that, conservative Libertarians (formerly the Republican Party of the 19th century), believe that the government has no right to tell you what you can put in your body and you have no right to ask anyone else to accept the consequences of your conduct.

In the end, your liberation is not going to come from the Democratic Party and demonizing the Republicans is not going to change it.

and it was the tea party assholes and all the republicans who came out in 2010 in numbers to blindly vote for republican candidates so they could "get their country back" and being able to vote against mj was just icing on the cake...

 

[skull and roses]

i will most likely vote for it, but with the way the Feds are coming down on Medical marijuana as we speak here in Ca. they will probably shoot it down before it even gets started. I can't seen the Feds letting this happen. Also living in Ca. i think the tide has turned somewhat in as far as people that have no problem with marijuana are starting to not like the backyard grows that are everywhere. There seems to be almost constant medical marijuana press coverage with most of it being unfavorable. Unless things are changed at the federal level, I can't see a whole lot of change coming.

 

[jescowhite]

California...Here we go again...

California...Here we go again...

Hey guys newsflash ... It ain't gonna happen. It was never going to happen. The system is corrupt, if you don't see that the game is rigged, sober up for a week for a little perspective.

 

[Duplicate]

^ nah, that's OK. You can keep your defeatist attitude. Thanks anyways though!

 

[BiG H3rB Tr3E]

Hey guys newsflash ... It ain't gonna happen. It was never going to happen. The system is corrupt, if you don't see that the game is rigged, sober up for a week for a little perspective.

"Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Alva Edison