Is California in love with Mary Jane?

from the San Francisco Chronicle:



Pot legalization headed for Nov. ballot
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

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(03-24) 12:37 PDT Sacramento --

The California Secretary of State is expected today to certify a measure that would ask voters this November whether marijuana should be legalized and regulated for adult recreational use.

The ballot measure would mark the second time in nearly 40 years that people in the Golden State would decide the issue of legalization, though the legal framework and cultural attitudes surrounding marijuana have changed significantly the past four decades.

If Californians were to pass the measure, it would be the first in the nation to do so as similar efforts in other states all have failed. California would also have the most comprehensive laws on legal marijuana in the entire world, marijuana reform advocates say. Opponents are confident they will easily defeat the measure.

Backers needed to collect at least 433,971 valid signatures of registered voters. They submitted nearly 700,000 signatures. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/24/BADI1CHAMR.DTL&tsp=1

k/r

One of the best things on the planet, IMO.

and has large areas of RWers, retired and active military, and just plain desert rats and rednecks. It is a big and diverse place - it ain't all the Bay area.


mark

I live in OC and I think it's about a 50/50 split...many cons are just fiscal cons and into Ron Paul etc and are very much for legalization. On the other hand, social, religious conservatives (many of these in the Democratic party also btw) are very against it.

....but I sure as fuck am voting YES on this one.

but am so square that the first thing I thought of was:

And I am from RIO!

"The overarching issue is given all the social problems caused by alcohol abuse, all the social and public safety problems caused by pharmaceutical abuse and the fact that tobacco kills - given all those realities, what on Earth is the social good that's going to be served by adding another mind-altering substance to the array," said John Lovell, a lobbyist for a number of statewide police and public safety associations."

This is the kind of rhetoric I hate, because pot use is not even CLOSE to alcohol, pharmaceutical or tobacco use, so to lump it in with them is completely disingenuous.

I really don't know what these people are afraid of.

Local governments can start to reduce their bloated budgets if they don't need overstaffed police departments just to bust pot smokers.

Every cop I know is opposed to legalization, even the ones who use the shit themselves.