cooley may become AG?
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Vote YES or NO on Prop 19
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cooley may become AG?
Prop. 19: Legalization will improve public safety
By Norm Stamper, Stephen Downing & Joseph McNamara,
Let’s face facts: Our laws criminalizing marijuana have been a huge failure. Proposition 19 on November’s ballot is the perfect opportunity for California to get things right.
As law enforcement veterans who policed the beat in California and elsewhere for a combined total of 89 years, the three of us have witnessed firsthand the harm our marijuana laws are doing to our communities, and we know how badly reform is needed.
Every year California spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and thousands of police hours on the war against marijuana. What has this accomplished? Has it made our communities any safer? Has it done anything to control marijuana and keep it away from kids?
The answer is no.
Ask any teen today and they will tell you illegal marijuana is easier for them to get than legal and age-regulated alcohol. That’s because illegal dealers on the street don’t require ID like liquor stores do.
At the same time, every police hour spent targeting nonviolent adult marijuana offenders is an hour that could have gone toward protecting our communities from the real threat of violent crime. In 2008 almost 60,000 violent crimes went unsolved in California. That same year, more than 61,000 Californians were arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession. Our public safety priorities are all wrong.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, vicious drug cartels are flush with cash from the illegal U.S. marijuana market. According to the White House, the cartels generate more than 60 percent of their revenue from illegal marijuana sales. These criminals use this funding to carry out their bloody agenda. This year alone, the cartels have so far murdered more than 7,700 people in Mexico. That’s more than the total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined since 2003.
When it comes to our marijuana laws, the status quo just isn’t working.
Proposition 19 is the sensible solution to all these problems. The initiative will protect our kids, make our communities safer and end the senseless and wasteful practice of arresting and incarcerating nonviolent adults for small-time marijuana offenses.
By taking marijuana out of the shadows and placing it under the control of safe, regulated, taxed businesses that only sell to those 21 and over, Proposition 19 will cut off a huge portion of the funding to the drug cartels, so they will have less resources for mayhem and murder.
After Proposition 19 passes, if any adult attempts to provide marijuana to a minor, they will be hit with increased criminal penalties. The initiative was carefully written to protect our kids and improve public safety.
Proposition 19 also bans smoking marijuana in public, on school grounds and while minors are present. This sensible measure also maintains strict criminal penalties for driving under the influence and preserves the rights of employers to ban drug use in the workplace.
And by putting a stop to tens of thousands of marijuana arrests each year, Proposition 19 will enable our law enforcement to cast aside the mountains of paperwork they currently must process on low-level offenses, and finally spend their precious time, and our precious tax dollars, doing what we signed up for: taking violent criminals off the streets and keeping them locked up.
But enacting meaningful reform is never easy. There are always those who will vigorously defend the status quo.
Those who oppose Proposition 19, it seems, would rather we sit back and keep doing what we are doing: continuing to arrest more marijuana consumers while thousands of violent crimes go unsolved; continuing to provide funding to the drug cartels; continuing to make it easier for kids to get marijuana than alcohol and continuing to deny California the billions in revenue that would come from taxing marijuana.
It’s crazy to continue doing the same thing over and over, decade after decade, and expect different results.
That’s why law enforcement leaders throughout California and the nation are joining us in backing Proposition 19, including the National Black Police Association and dozens of individual California police officers, judges and prosecutors who recently released a joint letter of endorsement.
Please join us in voting yes on Proposition 19 this November. Law enforcement is counting on California to make the sensible choice.
Stamper served as chief of police in Seattle and previously was executive assistant chief of police in San Diego. Downing was deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. McNamara served as chief of police in San Jose and in Kansas City.
i aint hiding behind shit id tell you all this right to your fuckin face>>> i dont understand you at all krunch. you say you dont want legalization. why you fuckin with 215?? why aint you pushin weight under the table and gettin little street niggahs to be slangin that shit on corners?? i mean fuck taxes right? fuck laws ?? we is some straight OG gangsta asss niggahs right?
LET'S MAKE POT BORING
It is time for us to be realistic and manage the trade and usage of marijuana instead of simply moralizing about it. The honest facts are that today marijuana is the largest cash crop in California ( No. 2 is grapes ); with illegal dealers there are no controls whatsoever on quality, quantity, age restrictions, price or place of sale; and most of the big money goes to groups like the Mexican drug cartels, juvenile gangs and other thugs, and they don't pay taxes on any of it.
It is also a fact that the voters are ahead of the politicians on these issues. Yes, most of the vocal politicians and current law enforcement officials have taken a position against Proposition 19, but many retired law enforcement officials, who are much less subject to political considerations, are speaking out in its support.
For example, I belong to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com ). My fellow members are people like former Los Angeles Police Department Chief Deputy Steve Downing, former San Jose Police Chief Joe McNamara, former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, and thousands of other former narcotics officers, prison guards, prosecutors and others, all of whom are stating the obvious that our nation's policy of marijuana prohibition is not working.
Holland's and Portugal's experience will shed light on what will happen when Proposition 19 passes. Holland decriminalized marijuana possession and use for those 16 and older in the early 1970s, and several years ago, the minister of health was quoted as saying that they have only half the marijuana usage, per capita, as we do in our country -- both for adults and teenagers! "We have succeeded in making pot boring," he said.
Of course, our country glamorizes marijuana by making it illegal, and also by having such obscene profit motives in getting others to sell it to you, your neighbors and your children. And you will also note that today young adults are not selling Jim Beam bourbon or Marlboro cigarettes to each other on their high school campuses. But they are selling marijuana to each other all the time.
Proposition 19 will reduce those problems, just like it did in Portugal when they decriminalized all drugs in 2001. What were the results? The CATO Institute found that even though the drugs were legal in Portugal, usage of them did not increase. In fact it actually went down about half a percentage point. And problem drug usage was reduced by half! Why? The problem users were no longer afraid of their own government because now if they came forward, they would receive drug treatment instead of being punished.
Those findings make the alarmists in our country who say we would become a "nation of marijuana zombies" look pretty silly. In fact just ask yourself, if Proposition 19 were to pass, would you use marijuana? From my standpoint, you could give it away on street corners and bless it by every religious leader in town, and I am still not going to use marijuana ( unless my medical doctor recommends it to me for some illness or disease ). And most everyone else feels the same way. In fact as a practical matter, anyone who would use marijuana if Proposition 19 were to pass is probably using it already!
What do the other opponents of Proposition 19 say? Some say that we would still have an illicit market for selling marijuana to young adults if Proposition 19 were to pass, and that would be true. But when alcohol prohibition was repealed, it was no longer moonshine alcohol that was being sold to minors by people like Al Capone, it was alcohol that was mostly bought legally and then illegally transferred. The same would be true with marijuana. So that would still undercut the illegal dealers.
There are basically three other groups of opponents. The first is people who say that the cities would not be able to handle the administrative responsibilities of setting up programs for the sale of marijuana, the second is some employers who are concerned that marijuana users would be able to run rampant over the workplace, and the third is some of those who make money at medical marijuana dispensaries.
Regarding the cities not being able to set up their own systems, that really is a non-issue -- they do it all of the time. And besides, one of the beauties of Proposition 19 is that it will still be illegal to sell marijuana within a city's borders ( except under Proposition 215 for medical marijuana ) unless that particular city expressly opts into the program. In reality what will happen is that the cities will learn from each other. So if one city tries something that is successful, others will tend to use that system, and the opposite is also true.
As to the workplace issues, Proposition 19 expressly states that it would not affect any of the current regulations of the workplace. Employers still can require drug testing as a condition of being hired, and still, just like alcohol, can test employees if they have some cause to believe the employees are impaired in the workplace.
Finally, it is true that people supplying marijuana within Proposition 19 will probably be more organized. That will very likely reduce the price of the marijuana, even after the payment of applicable taxes, which will, in turn, take the market away from both illegal sellers and also some of the medical marijuana dispensaries. That is an understandable reason for people presently operating dispensaries, but it is not a reason for the rest of us to oppose Proposition 19.
On Nov. 2 you can help us repeal the failed policy of marijuana prohibition, and bring our state's largest cash crop back under the law. This is probably one of the most important elections of my lifetime, and I hope you will further look into and support Proposition 19.
Source: Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, CA)
Author: James P. Gray
Note: James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior
Court, the author of "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed" (Temple
University Press).
It is time for us to be realistic and manage the trade and usage of marijuana instead of simply moralizing about it. The honest facts are that today marijuana is the largest cash crop in California ( No. 2 is grapes ); with illegal dealers there are no controls whatsoever on quality, quantity, age restrictions, price or place of sale; and most of the big money goes to groups like the Mexican drug cartels, juvenile gangs and other thugs, and they don't pay taxes on any of it.
It is also a fact that the voters are ahead of the politicians on these issues. Yes, most of the vocal politicians and current law enforcement officials have taken a position against Proposition 19, but many retired law enforcement officials, who are much less subject to political considerations, are speaking out in its support.
For example, I belong to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com ). My fellow members are people like former Los Angeles Police Department Chief Deputy Steve Downing, former San Jose Police Chief Joe McNamara, former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, and thousands of other former narcotics officers, prison guards, prosecutors and others, all of whom are stating the obvious that our nation's policy of marijuana prohibition is not working.
Holland's and Portugal's experience will shed light on what will happen when Proposition 19 passes. Holland decriminalized marijuana possession and use for those 16 and older in the early 1970s, and several years ago, the minister of health was quoted as saying that they have only half the marijuana usage, per capita, as we do in our country -- both for adults and teenagers! "We have succeeded in making pot boring," he said.
Of course, our country glamorizes marijuana by making it illegal, and also by having such obscene profit motives in getting others to sell it to you, your neighbors and your children. And you will also note that today young adults are not selling Jim Beam bourbon or Marlboro cigarettes to each other on their high school campuses. But they are selling marijuana to each other all the time.
Proposition 19 will reduce those problems, just like it did in Portugal when they decriminalized all drugs in 2001. What were the results? The CATO Institute found that even though the drugs were legal in Portugal, usage of them did not increase. In fact it actually went down about half a percentage point. And problem drug usage was reduced by half! Why? The problem users were no longer afraid of their own government because now if they came forward, they would receive drug treatment instead of being punished.
Those findings make the alarmists in our country who say we would become a "nation of marijuana zombies" look pretty silly. In fact just ask yourself, if Proposition 19 were to pass, would you use marijuana? From my standpoint, you could give it away on street corners and bless it by every religious leader in town, and I am still not going to use marijuana ( unless my medical doctor recommends it to me for some illness or disease ). And most everyone else feels the same way. In fact as a practical matter, anyone who would use marijuana if Proposition 19 were to pass is probably using it already!
What do the other opponents of Proposition 19 say? Some say that we would still have an illicit market for selling marijuana to young adults if Proposition 19 were to pass, and that would be true. But when alcohol prohibition was repealed, it was no longer moonshine alcohol that was being sold to minors by people like Al Capone, it was alcohol that was mostly bought legally and then illegally transferred. The same would be true with marijuana. So that would still undercut the illegal dealers.
There are basically three other groups of opponents. The first is people who say that the cities would not be able to handle the administrative responsibilities of setting up programs for the sale of marijuana, the second is some employers who are concerned that marijuana users would be able to run rampant over the workplace, and the third is some of those who make money at medical marijuana dispensaries.
Regarding the cities not being able to set up their own systems, that really is a non-issue -- they do it all of the time. And besides, one of the beauties of Proposition 19 is that it will still be illegal to sell marijuana within a city's borders ( except under Proposition 215 for medical marijuana ) unless that particular city expressly opts into the program. In reality what will happen is that the cities will learn from each other. So if one city tries something that is successful, others will tend to use that system, and the opposite is also true.
As to the workplace issues, Proposition 19 expressly states that it would not affect any of the current regulations of the workplace. Employers still can require drug testing as a condition of being hired, and still, just like alcohol, can test employees if they have some cause to believe the employees are impaired in the workplace.
Finally, it is true that people supplying marijuana within Proposition 19 will probably be more organized. That will very likely reduce the price of the marijuana, even after the payment of applicable taxes, which will, in turn, take the market away from both illegal sellers and also some of the medical marijuana dispensaries. That is an understandable reason for people presently operating dispensaries, but it is not a reason for the rest of us to oppose Proposition 19.
On Nov. 2 you can help us repeal the failed policy of marijuana prohibition, and bring our state's largest cash crop back under the law. This is probably one of the most important elections of my lifetime, and I hope you will further look into and support Proposition 19.
Source: Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, CA)
Author: James P. Gray
Note: James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior
Court, the author of "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed" (Temple
University Press).
even if what YOU think is true (which myself and many respected laweyers disagree with) you think that shit will hold up in court??? they want big money fish. they aint gona give a fuck about no personal consumption sardines...
you think someone will get busted growing a 5x5 and hey will say. "but judge this guy was dryi his plants OUTSIDE of a 5x5" and you think the judge wont interpret the intention of 19??? do you know how fuckin ridiculous that would look to take to trial??? i guarantee my lawyer would spin cirlces around any prosecutor trying that shit. not to mention,,, how the fuck you going to get busted for drying plants outside the 5x5. i been doing this shit for YEARS without 215 without sb420 and aint nobody the fucking wiser. and if 19 does pass sooner or later cops are going to have to quit fucking with people. just like CHP had to once they got there asses handed to them in court.
we need to quit arguing stupid fucking details. i agree 19 is a total piece of shit....BUT ITS BETTER THAN CURRENT LAW. so i have a hard time understanding why ANYONE who is against it that isnt just a grower / dealer who is afraid of change ((which is a total legitimate fear))....
the NAME of this prop is way the fuck more important than the LANGUAGE of it.... aint nobody out of state reading 19. all they going to hear is LEGALIZATION:: PASS OR FAIL ???
we need to PASS this shit. and if people are working on something if 19 fails. how come we aint heard about it. if I was writing something that was better than 19 id make that shit public knowledge. because as I see it...growers dont give a fuck about legalization. dealers dont give a fuck abut legalization and the average smoker,,, they aint got the time or money to be doing a damned thing about legalization.
so whos going to pony up them millions after watchin lee just piss away 7 figures with a failed prop????
n
funny guy, funny guy, i cant say anything more about us meeting because i got an infraction for apparently attacking you yesterday......
wrote that in my sig before prop 19, when i knew a legalization prop was coming up, i should change it to FUCK PROP 19.....
fucking with prop215 because i gathered 1470 signatures and volunteered hundreds of hours signing up voters and collecting signatures. was part of prop 215's weekly meeting at Dennis Peron's club and debbie goldsburg place, went to every rally, march and function...... also helped open the first ever club after prop 215 was voted in......
what did you do and how did you help for prop 215?
pushing weight under the table, having people slang on the corners, fuck taxes? if thats how you conduct your business, by all means, feel free, im not one to say your wrong....
i pay my taxes and do everything by the book......
I'm not sure where BHT spun off to in his reply, but yes, Cooley may become the AG.
June 09, 2010|By Jack Leonard and Shane Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley convincingly won the GOP primary for attorney general on Tuesday, giving Republicans a strong chance at capturing the state's top law enforcement job in the November contest.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/09/local/la-me-california-attorney-general-20100610
MARIJUANA DOCTOR WILL VOTE TO PUT HIMSELF OUT OF BUSINESS
You have to love hypocrisy.
It's not one of the seven deadlies, but the parading of fake virtue is surely the funniest of all political sins.
A recent example of the genre comes courtesy of the California Cannabis Association, a coalition of medical marijuana advocates.
In coming out in opposition to Proposition 19, the Cannabis Coalition, which includes owners of pot dispensaries, expressed its fear that some patients would be unable to obtain marijuana under the proposed law.
The association's stated reasoning goes like this: Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot, allows local governments to maintain the status quo if they so desire. That is, they can forbid sales and purchase of marijuana within their borders.
In the association's worried view, a local prohibition might be broadened to include the currently allowed legal medical marijuana, leaving patients with two options -- travel to pot-friendly jurisdictions or grow the weed in the back yard.
This concern does sound noble. But the less noble reality is that Proposition 19, if it ever were to become accepted law, would likely run current medical pot dispensaries out of their often shady business. Who would bother with prescriptions when you can buy the drug over the counter?.
Hypocritic Rule #1: When you imply it's not about the money, it's about the money.
Under Proposition 19, the blurry line between the medical and the recreational marijuana user disappears overnight. Legitimate business interests would move in, displacing the ragtag troupe of entrepreneurs who supply marijuana to thousands, if not millions, of Californians, a large number of whom are faking afflictions to money-hungry doctors.
Instead of the Hippocratic oath, this medical marijuana group is taking the Hypocritic Oath.
What do I know about the medical marijuana demimonde?
Not much, to be honest.
For guidance, I turned to someone who does.
Dr. Bob Blake, a former chief of staff at Pomerado Hospital, heads Medical Marijuana of San Diego with offices in Mira Mesa and Orange County.
A year or so ago, I wrote a column about Blake, a respected E.R. doctor who doesn't fit the stereotype of the slime-bucket doc who writes a script for anyone with a tale of woe and a hundred bucks.
Blake has lost prospective patients, he says, because he insists upon reviewing medical records. He examines his patients, he said, relying on his 30-year experience in the E.R. to recommend a controversial form of pain relief.
In the strange world of medical pot, I'd guess the Leucadia resident is one of the good guys. ( I sure hope so. A prominent link to my column is on his website. )
If anyone should be concerned about truly sick patients' access to marijuana, I figure, it's Blake.
So I called him up and asked him how he intended to vote on Proposition 19.
"I'm voting yes," he said. "Marijuana prohibition has not worked."
He launched into a lecture, starting with the history of marijuana criminalization. He brought up the ginned-up anti-marijuana legislation in the 1935 Congress, the Capitol version of the lurid film "Reefer Madness."
Blake asserted that marijuana, unlike alcohol and tobacco, has not been proven harmful to major organs like the heart, brain and liver.
The physician scoffed at the widely repeated fear that legalization would make the roads dramatically less safe.
The drug's effects wear off several hours after smoking or eating it, Blake said. A driver is either impaired or not. Standard sobriety tests, not irrelevant urine or blood tests, reflect a person's fitness to drive, he said.
The difference between cannabis and alcohol users is that drinkers often don't believe they're impaired, he said. If anything, marijuana users are over-aware, a state of mind that promotes caution, not the risk-taking that leads to accidents that wind up in the E.R.
Finally, Blake dropped down to the crucial bottom line: The billions of dollars in sales tax that could be claimed by the state.
Hold on, I said. You've worked hard to build up your practice. What if marijuana is legally available to anyone over 21? What will that do to your bottom line?
"It will end my business," he predicted. "But I think it's the right thing to do."
Even if it passes, Proposition 19 may never go into effect, Blake warned.
The U.S. Attorney General's Office is winking at medical marijuana, but who's to say the feds will prove so pliable when it comes to California morphing into Amsterdam?
Medical marijuana has been difficult enough to implement. Decriminalization for adults? It could be a nightmare to nowhere.
But like it or not, Blake argued, marijuana is as deep in the American grain as moonshine.
No matter how messy 19 may prove to be in the courts, millions of Californians appear ready to vote for their personal freedom.
And if Proposition 19, currently neck-and-neck in the polls, falls short?
The medical pot industry -- and criminal drug dealers -- can breathe a sigh of relief.
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Author: Logan Jenkins
You have to love hypocrisy.
It's not one of the seven deadlies, but the parading of fake virtue is surely the funniest of all political sins.
A recent example of the genre comes courtesy of the California Cannabis Association, a coalition of medical marijuana advocates.
In coming out in opposition to Proposition 19, the Cannabis Coalition, which includes owners of pot dispensaries, expressed its fear that some patients would be unable to obtain marijuana under the proposed law.
The association's stated reasoning goes like this: Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot, allows local governments to maintain the status quo if they so desire. That is, they can forbid sales and purchase of marijuana within their borders.
In the association's worried view, a local prohibition might be broadened to include the currently allowed legal medical marijuana, leaving patients with two options -- travel to pot-friendly jurisdictions or grow the weed in the back yard.
This concern does sound noble. But the less noble reality is that Proposition 19, if it ever were to become accepted law, would likely run current medical pot dispensaries out of their often shady business. Who would bother with prescriptions when you can buy the drug over the counter?.
Hypocritic Rule #1: When you imply it's not about the money, it's about the money.
Under Proposition 19, the blurry line between the medical and the recreational marijuana user disappears overnight. Legitimate business interests would move in, displacing the ragtag troupe of entrepreneurs who supply marijuana to thousands, if not millions, of Californians, a large number of whom are faking afflictions to money-hungry doctors.
Instead of the Hippocratic oath, this medical marijuana group is taking the Hypocritic Oath.
What do I know about the medical marijuana demimonde?
Not much, to be honest.
For guidance, I turned to someone who does.
Dr. Bob Blake, a former chief of staff at Pomerado Hospital, heads Medical Marijuana of San Diego with offices in Mira Mesa and Orange County.
A year or so ago, I wrote a column about Blake, a respected E.R. doctor who doesn't fit the stereotype of the slime-bucket doc who writes a script for anyone with a tale of woe and a hundred bucks.
Blake has lost prospective patients, he says, because he insists upon reviewing medical records. He examines his patients, he said, relying on his 30-year experience in the E.R. to recommend a controversial form of pain relief.
In the strange world of medical pot, I'd guess the Leucadia resident is one of the good guys. ( I sure hope so. A prominent link to my column is on his website. )
If anyone should be concerned about truly sick patients' access to marijuana, I figure, it's Blake.
So I called him up and asked him how he intended to vote on Proposition 19.
"I'm voting yes," he said. "Marijuana prohibition has not worked."
He launched into a lecture, starting with the history of marijuana criminalization. He brought up the ginned-up anti-marijuana legislation in the 1935 Congress, the Capitol version of the lurid film "Reefer Madness."
Blake asserted that marijuana, unlike alcohol and tobacco, has not been proven harmful to major organs like the heart, brain and liver.
The physician scoffed at the widely repeated fear that legalization would make the roads dramatically less safe.
The drug's effects wear off several hours after smoking or eating it, Blake said. A driver is either impaired or not. Standard sobriety tests, not irrelevant urine or blood tests, reflect a person's fitness to drive, he said.
The difference between cannabis and alcohol users is that drinkers often don't believe they're impaired, he said. If anything, marijuana users are over-aware, a state of mind that promotes caution, not the risk-taking that leads to accidents that wind up in the E.R.
Finally, Blake dropped down to the crucial bottom line: The billions of dollars in sales tax that could be claimed by the state.
Hold on, I said. You've worked hard to build up your practice. What if marijuana is legally available to anyone over 21? What will that do to your bottom line?
"It will end my business," he predicted. "But I think it's the right thing to do."
Even if it passes, Proposition 19 may never go into effect, Blake warned.
The U.S. Attorney General's Office is winking at medical marijuana, but who's to say the feds will prove so pliable when it comes to California morphing into Amsterdam?
Medical marijuana has been difficult enough to implement. Decriminalization for adults? It could be a nightmare to nowhere.
But like it or not, Blake argued, marijuana is as deep in the American grain as moonshine.
No matter how messy 19 may prove to be in the courts, millions of Californians appear ready to vote for their personal freedom.
And if Proposition 19, currently neck-and-neck in the polls, falls short?
The medical pot industry -- and criminal drug dealers -- can breathe a sigh of relief.
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Author: Logan Jenkins
PROP. 19: VOTE YES FOR PUBLIC SAFETY
Let me start by saying that I am not a lifelong marijuana activist. In fact, I spent many years as a police officer arresting drug users, and I've witnessed firsthand the harms that drugs cause our society.
But it was my experience policing the streets that showed me how much our current prohibition of marijuana harms society and puts our children at risk.
Prop. 19, the marijuana legalization initiative on California's ballot this November, will actually reduce the easy access to marijuana our children currently have. Drug dealers don't check ID. They don't care if your child is 13 years old or 30 years old. It's all about money.
These criminals also hire children to sell marijuana in our schools. Do you know what is not sold in our schools? Age-regulated alcohol. But don't just take my word for it. Ask any cop you know how often they come across alcohol being sold on school grounds compared to marijuana.
A recent study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has some startling results about teens and drugs.
In their study, they found that 40 percent of teens could get marijuana within a day; another quarter said they could get it within an hour. In another portion of the survey, teens between the ages of 12 and 17 say it's easier to get marijuana than buy cigarettes, beer or prescription drugs.
In contrast, look at Holland, where retail marijuana sales have been tolerated since 1976. They have 50 percent less use among their youth and adults than we do here in America.
"Legalization" took the mystique away from the drug. The Dutch minister of health said it was because they have succeeded in making pot "boring." And that's something the U.S. won't be able to do as long as we keep marijuana "illegal."
And, if we choose to regulate marijuana like alcohol, we will have the opportunity to take control away from the violent criminals who control the illegal market, just like we did when we ended alcohol prohibition 77 years ago and took control of the alcohol market away from mobsters and thugs.
Does this mean I want everyone and their mother getting high? Of course not. As a law enforcement veteran, I am very concerned about the current levels of drug abuse in our state.
To reduce drug use, I believe we should take the same approach for cannabis that we did for tobacco. According to the State Board of Equalization, in 2009 the number of cigarette packs sold in the state fell to 972 million down from 2.8 billion in 1980.
That is a 66 percent reduction in tobacco consumption without having to arrest, prosecute or jail one adult for possessing cigarettes.
We accomplished this by strict taxing and regulation coupled with a massive anti-smoking ad campaign. Right now legislation is being written at the state capitol to regulate and tax marijuana at the state level should Prop. 19 pass.
Under legalized regulation, we can finally educate people on the real harms of smoking marijuana instead of parroting the propaganda that has so obviously failed in the past.
When you go to the polls in November, remember that a No vote on Prop. 19 will leave the current dangerously failed system in place and maintain the status quo. Our children will still have easy access to marijuana and the drug dealers that currently profit by selling marijuana to our children will continue to control the market.
I would encourage every parent who reads this to vote Yes on Prop. 19 because a system where we regulate and control marijuana is much safer than the chaos and crime we have now under marijuana prohibition.
Author: Nate Bradley
Note: Nate Bradley, a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
(www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com), is a former police officer with the
City of Wheatland.
A group who could make A.) more money to invest in it and B.) a better bill that more people would have less problems with.
The interesting thing about item A to me is that is probably much more likely without the passing of 19 hindering that progress.
Item B is something we should have been putting effort to instead of chasing tails in this thread.
The group could be us if we could get our shit straight. IC has a pretty good base that pales in comparison to Lee's imo.
Why not cover all the bases then, vote in 19...and if in 2 years there is a better Prop...then we can vote that one in-- No skin off anyone's ass then--
Off to an Oktober Fest thingy-- Lotsa beer and food-- I should be in good form tonight!! lol
If the prop states that it's one of two things that can change it, voting or legislature, which do you think they would decide to do?
what are they going to do? raid every home in california? dont think so. when they start seeing a profit. they will let it go. thats all they care about.
Raiding homes is profit.
They keep everything they can't auction off.
They keep everything they can't auction off.
The Voting part is us bro-- By doing exactly what you have been saying is going to happen....somebody writing a Prop, getting signatures, and submitting it for Vote--
But this way, we have 2 years of what 19 is now (If it doesn't get Amended before then) and we will have a more clear picture of what may need changing, and how LEO and the Courts are going to treat this--
Right now, a more liberal Prop would not have a chance of passing-- We would pic up a few Growers...and lose the support of non-users--
Well, whats law is law. I have no idea what law the courts/LEO will actually enforce. I can only assume they will enforce it to some degree. We have all read those articles on RIDICULOUS cases that are in fact legal.
And please show me a link where lawyers have disproved my point about plants needing to be dried within the square footage. I have seen other "debunkings" by lawyers on other points but not this one.
Its not really interpretable, it says right there in plain English; harvested plants WILL be assessed by square footage.
And its only slightly better then current law in a few ways. Like allowing extracts, and it being clear cut law; as opposed to charges being dropped when you get pulled in for a grow. I know a better one will be on the next ballot. We Just won Kelly, and got >1oz decriminalized; 2 years for a better prop is fine by me since virtually no one is suffering in California.
I'm wondering if nonusers are really as oblivious as you insinuate.
I see the baby steps technique... I understand it's necessary to a point.
California has had some time to adjust to a somewhat relaxed casual attitude towards cannabis. It seems likely that many nonusers appreciate the freedom that users enjoy.
I would think that those voters would find more disgust in the instant commercialization of it all. They have been used to small growers being able to contribute. Californians don't like WalMart do they?
I see the baby steps technique... I understand it's necessary to a point.
California has had some time to adjust to a somewhat relaxed casual attitude towards cannabis. It seems likely that many nonusers appreciate the freedom that users enjoy.
I would think that those voters would find more disgust in the instant commercialization of it all. They have been used to small growers being able to contribute. Californians don't like WalMart do they?
Once again, even if you are right, so what? How does that compare to now for non-215 people?
- Status
