California Governor Signs mar1juana Decriminalization Bill

Believe you can smoke it in your house, but can have it in your posession. Don't think its quite open to smoking in the public yet. Those will be the days. Get high and talk to cops. Oh yes.

 

cities such as West Hollywood and Oakland already have "Lowest Priority" measures in place to protect users in the privacy of their own homes and "pose no danger to the community"

it is good to see the State pass measures to follow suit.

for the record, it has already been stated that users (who are not protected under the Prop 215 Medical mar1juana Bill) STILL have to obtain their personal stash illegally. I have said this before, why beat around the proverbial bush? why have a medical mar1juana industry that thrives on regular potheads getting a doctors note and access to a safe dispensary?

why not just operate the dispensaries as is, under protection from the State to operate legally?


I have been a long proponent of de-criminalizing for personal use, but also for the component of teaching responsibility and awareness...

as Davis Cross put it, it is sometimes embarrassing to be a part of pot culture the way you see some hippies protesting for the legalization of mar1juana so they can openly smoke it on the streets or in the parks.

I am for the legalization of these things, I just don't need to see unemployed slackers making my cause look bad.

Defending the personal use is one thing, but bragging that it makes you smarter or more aware, or more athletically tuned in, or a better driver, is just bogus.

Don't let pot define who you are.

 

driving after being baked is fun

 

Agreed, I'm just saying pot is way safer than alcohol. When you smoke on a regular basis, driving is the same as being sober except you want to be a little extra cautious. I would have no problem with decriminalization of weed. Legalization is another thing. I would rather everyone be high and not smoking cancer sticks.

 

i disagree with you about driving while impaired under the influence of mar1juana. Driving High on Weed is not the same as sober and it is dangerous to do it. This is just common sense.

 

I agree with you that everyone cannot handle the task of driving while under the influence of weed, but I'm just saying some of us can handle it.

 

It's irresponsible people like you who hurt the cause.

 

I agree. I'm about regulation. Taxation!

Question: Why stop at Weed? Why not cocaine, crack, etc?


Rocket River

 

so you should be allowed to do it because you think you are one of the responsible ones?

there is a certain level of maturity that goes along with the education and awareness component.

you might be approximately 18-25 years old, you might think you are an advanced mar1juana user, but you simply aren't invincible.

you can't tell me in a serious debate that mar1juana helps anyone focus and drive better.

 

you subject yourself to a $100 ticket - the real question is whether or not the pigs snake your stash or if you get to keep it.

i was in san fran last month and i saw people openly smoking in the city - at parks and even on streets. as someone already said, the stuff out there is very potent - i live in austin so i know good doobie and it still got me pretty high.

speaking of austin, its pretty much the same here - cops have 'discretion' as to whether or not to arrest or write a ticket. in fact, i was down at the barton springs spillway w/ my dog about a month ago and the cops were searching two hippies - i saw them pull out a baggie - not sure if they confiscated it, but the cops did not arrest them.

Rocket River

 

OK, I thought about starting a new thread, and thought about posting this in the thread Where Do You Diverge from the Party-line?, where it might have fit, but I'm puttin' it here. This really pisses me off. This is a perfect example of what is wrong with President Obama and how incredibly out of touch he is with his own supporters, and/or how cynical he is about making his political (and wrong, in this case) calculations. Supporting the kind of initiative in California is just the sort of issue that millions expected Obama to support. Dream on, chumps... this chump included.

Read it and weep:


U.S. Will Enforce mar1juana Laws, State Vote Aside

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

LOS ANGELES — The Department of Justice says it intends to prosecute mar1juana laws in California aggressively even if state voters approve an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize the drug.

The announcement by Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, was the latest reminder of how much of the establishment has lined up against the popular initiative: Dozens of editorial boards, candidates for office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other public officials.

Still, despite this opposition — or perhaps, to some extent, because of it — the measure, Proposition 19, appears to have at least a decent chance of winning, so far drawing considerable support in polls from a coalition of Democrats, independents, younger voters and men as Election Day nears. Should that happen, it could cement a cultural shift in California, where medical mar1juana has been legal since 1996 and where the drug has been celebrated in popular culture at least since the 1960s.

But it could also plunge the nation’s most populous state into a murky and unsettling conflict with the federal government that opponents of the proposition said should make California voters wary of supporting it.

Washington has generally looked the other way as a growing medical mar1juana industry has prospered here and in 14 other states and the District of Columbia, but Mr. Holder’s position — revealed in a letter this week to nine former chiefs of the Drug Enforcement Administration that was made public on Friday — made explicit that legalizing mar1juana for recreational use would bring a whole new level of scrutiny from Washington.

Mr. Holder did not fully spell out the reasons for the decision, but he did allude to the reluctance of the federal government to enforce drug laws differently in different states. “If passed, this legislation will greatly complicate federal drug enforcement efforts to the detriment of our citizens,” he wrote.

The Los Angeles County sheriff, Lee Baca, who has been one of the leading opponents of the measure, quickly embraced the Justice Department’s stance. He said that the initiative was unconstitutional and vowed to continue enforcing mar1juana laws, no matter what voters do in November.

Supporters of the initiative have portrayed support for it as another example in an anti-incumbent year of voters rejecting authority.

“Bring on the establishment,” said Chris Lehane, a senior consultant to the campaign pushing for passage of the initiative. “This campaign, and the energy driving it, is predicated on the common understanding that the establishment’s prohibition approach has been a complete and utter failure, as proven by the point that today it is easier for a kid to get access to pot than it is to buy a beer or a cigarette.”

But Roger Salazar, a political consultant who has been directing the effort to defeat the proposal, said that Mr. Holder’s statement should reinforce deep concerns about the initiative, including the way it was drafted and what he called inflated claims by its backers of what legalization might do.

“This is sort of a shot across the bow from the federal government: They’re saying that, ‘If this thing moves the way we think it is, we’re going to come after you guys,’ ” he said. “That gives California voters one more reason to take a deep breath.”

California’s becoming the first state to legalize mar1juana for recreational use would provide a real-life test of theories that proponents of legalization have long pressed: That it would provide a new stream of revenues for government, cut down on drug-related violence and end a modern-day prohibition that effectively turns many citizens into lawbreakers.

As it is, no matter what voters or Mr. Holder do, mar1juana use in California these days appears, for all practical purposes, all but legal.

Mr. Schwarzenegger signed legislation last month that made possession of an ounce of mar1juana an infraction — it had previously been a misdemeanor — punishable by a $100 fine. Medical mar1juana dispensaries are common in many parts of the state, and getting a prescription is hardly challenging. Baby boomers who had not smoked mar1juana since college now speak openly at dinner parties of their “medical” experimentation with the drug. The smell of mar1juana is hardly unusual at outdoor concerts at places like the Hollywood Bowl.

A Field Poll last month found that 50 percent of respondents said that mar1juana should be legalized; that is up from 13 percent when the organization first asked the question in 1969. And 47 percent said they had smoked mar1juana at least once, compared with 28 percent when the question was asked in 1975.

“This is the first generation of high school students where a majority of their parents have smoked mar1juana,” said Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which has been pushing for passage of the initiative.

The presence of the initiative on the ballot has encouraged Democrats, who argue it will lead to increased turnout among younger voters.

Notably, none of the major statewide candidates have endorsed the measure. But perhaps just as notably, none have made the proposition a campaign issue.

The state Republican Party has officially come out against Proposition 13 and plans to urge people to vote no, said Ron Nehring, the party chairman. He called repeal a “big mistake” and mocked the notion that placing the proposition on the ballot would help Democrats.

“We call that their Hail Mary Jane strategy,” he said.

John Burton, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, said his party had decided to stay neutral on this issue. Asked if he supported it, Mr. Burton responded: “I already voted for it. Why not? Brings some money into the state. Helps the deficit. Better than selling off state buildings to some developer.”

Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, noted that polls showed the measure breaking 50 percent, but said that given the history of initiatives in the state, that meant its passage was far from assured.

Opposition has come from a number of fronts, ranging from Mr. Baca and other law enforcement officials to the Chamber of Commerce, which has warned that it would create workplace health issues.

Still, the breadth of supporters of the proposition — including law enforcement officials and major unions, like the Service Employees International Union — signal how mainstream this movement is becoming.

“I think we consume far more dangerous drugs that are legal: cigarette smoking, nicotine and alcohol,” said Joycelyn Elders, the former surgeon general and a supporter of the measure. “I feel they cause much more devastating effects physically. We need to lift the prohibition on mar1juana.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/us/16pot.html?hp




So Obama, through his man in the Justice Department, sides with the very same Chamber of Commerce that he's been attacking for accepting foreign money. He's siding with the establishment, and the establishment, Mister President, did not get you elected. What an incredibly stupid thing for this administration to do.

 

FBI bustin reefer?

Federal Prosecuter working a pot case.

not bloody likely, those folks are too busy with turrist.

 

Well Dubious, it's a hell of a note when one is supposed to accept that notion on "faith," or one is supposed to assume that Holder, and by extension, Obama, are simply saying what is essentially a lie, if what you just implied were to be true. That's not who I voted for.

 

Politics, you have to say you are going to uphold federal law when it is your sworn constitutional duty.

Same as with DADT. Gotta go through the motions.

 

OK, so I'm waiting for the President to say exactly that.

 

So in California . . . .the Fed is Overriding the State Authority on mar1juana
In Arizona . . . the State is overriding the Fed Authority on the immigration

Rocket River

 

Quite a dichotomy, RR.

 

Legalize and regulate all drugs. It eliminates the criminal element. It will create additional tax revenues, reduces court costs which will save taxpayers millions. The drug war is a joke, especially when our very own elected officials are in cahoots with the Mexican government and drug cartels. The reason drugs are still illegal is not because our government is being vigilant, it's because our high up officials stand to lose a lot of money if this were to happen, very simple, again, it's all about money.

 

I have never heard of somebody dying from smoking a joint. I have heard of people dying from one use of cocaine (Len Bias) or heroin.

To me...this is the difference.

 

I doubt we are going to see DEA agents roaming the streets of Cali busting pot smokers.