what happened to the marijuana law in cali

[elite7]

i prefer colorado over california but thought it sucked the law did not pass.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

Simple.
It didn't pass out of ignorance and fear.

 

[(JJ)]

its easier to get weed there now than it is to vote to legalize it.

 

[Rogue]

Legalizing medical use of marijuana enjoys substantial majority support by the general public, but recreational use of marijuana has never received majority support by the general population in nationwide polls, insofar as the history of modern polls is concerned.

Graph One
Graph Two

California's Proposition 19 garnered 45% of the vote which matches the nationwide polls of 45%. Although I was rooting for the measure, it's premature ejaculation to organize a ballot initiative when you only have 45% support of the population.

Now, if you look at those graphs, you will see the very big good news. If current trends hold, which there are good reasons to believe, support for marijuana should surpass 50% within the next five years. Victory is inevitable. (Support for recreational use of marijuana has gained ten percentage points in just the past five years.) Unfortunately for California, 2014 would be another midterm election and it's sketchy if the numbers could improve enough in four years, so 2016 may be the golden year for legalization. Why do I say there are good reasons to believe current polling trends will hold? According to NORML (which I won't directly link), "More important to the policy debate, however, may be the fraction of adults who have used marijuana at any point in their lifetimes. This is a dual-peaked distribution, with one peak occurring among adults who are roughly age 50 now, and would have come of age in the 1970s, and another among adults in their early 20s. Generation X, meanwhile, in spite of its reputation for slackertude, were somewhat less eager consumers of pot than the generations either immediately preceding or proceeding them.… polls have generally found a fairly strong generation gap when it comes to pot legalization. As members of the Silent Generation are replaced in the electorate by younger voters, who are more likely to have either smoked marijuana themselves or been around those that have, support for legalization is likely to continue to gain momentum."

 

[Quiksilver]

Yeah it's only a matter of time.

Reminds me of alcohol prohibition. Jacks up the price, creates a market for criminals and thugs, and gives the BTAF/DEA something to do.

I occasionally smoke, not nearly as much as I did in HS. I don't know why people think they should control what their neighbors and strangers do on their free time.

 

[Maxtro H & F]

I don't know why people think they should control what their neighbors and strangers do on their free time.

Because it doesn't affect just them.

I HATE the smell of marijuana.

If it were to be legal people would be smoking it out in public. I can't imagine how bad it would be on my college campus.

The number of cases of people driving under the influence (high) would go up which would increase the number of people hurt and killed in accidents.

Frankly I can't see any way that legalizing MJ can benefit society.

Rather than legalizing it, I'd actually push to keep it illegal and make cigarettes illegal as well.

 

[Ease]

I have yet to see a convincing pro-argument for legalizing by a non-user.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Studies in the UK regarding high drivers could find no detriment to their driving skills, believe it or not.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1068625.stm The only difference found was that stoned drivers drive more slowly. In that case, it should actually decrease accidents, at least fatal ones. Alcohol makes you think your driving mistakes are small, but pot does the opposite, amplifying concern over driving mistakes (paranoia). If everyone drove stoned, we might have more fender-benders, but I think the number of highway deaths would drop substantially. It would be annoyingly slow to get anywhere, but much less dangerous than road rage or drunk driving.

ABC "news" with Diane Sawyer had a piece about Prop 19, where a radio dj supposedly got high and then took a driving test administered by the California Highway Patrol. They showed him hitting some cones and laughed about how impaired he was. The "research" published no quantified results, had no control, a population of one guy, and was administered by the CHP, who was an outspoken advocate against Prop 19. This was about the time that Prop 19 started to go downhill in the polls. I have read newspaper articles from the 1930's demanding marijuana prohibition because the Mexicans were going wild with reefer madness and insulting the white women. Same bvllsh!t, different day.

 

[Rogue]

I have yet to see a convincing pro-argument for legalizing by a non-user.

I have yet to see a convincing anti-marijuana argument which withstands detailed nuanced dissection. As for your statement, 45% of the general population support legalization of casual recreational use but less than or about 10% of the population are stoners, so obviously there is a wide discrepancy.

 

[highconscienceness]

Legalizing weed does not bring state money, even if they put a large tax on it, nothing will compare to the amount of money they making now on prisons and other punitive measures.


They might as well try to legalize Coke. After all it's a known fact CIA is shipping in the Coke. (ask me and I'll stick your nose into official court documents) But it's much more profitable to make money on it illegally and in addition to get funding for prosecuting it and stopping it, not to mention prisons[=slave labor]. As well there is a racial motivation, black neighborhoods are dying from crack. It's killing generations.



Weed my friend makes your head work better, left and right side work together more naturally. You don't get dumber from weed, you get wiser. They are afraid people will wise up. Though I'm afraid it's already too late. :wave:



Here is an excellent movie, How Weed Won The West.

Here is another great movie, The American Drug War: The Last White Hope.

Here is Marylin Manson, I don't like the drugs!

 

[Julius_Seizeher]

As a Libertarian, I think all drugs should be legalized, for the simple fact that no government of free men has the right to tell them what they can and cannot put in their body. Drug laws are big brother telling you how to live, and it is bullsh!t.

Of course, legalizing hardcore drugs like coke, meth, and opiates seems like a recipe for destruction. But I say, why do people even try drugs in the first place? Because they want to be rebels, drugs are more of a petty narcissistic pursuit than a physical one. But if you legalize drugs, suddenly it isn't cool and rebellious anymore, and you're just a loser snorting powder up your nose. I believe that for this fact, drug use in this country would abate dramatically if drugs were legalized.

 

[bigjohnson]

I have yet to see a convincing pro-argument for legalizing by a non-user.

I've never used MJ, and further, I've never been part of a social circle where use was common. I'm for legalizing just about everything including this on basic moral grounds so now you can't ever say this again, right?

As a Libertarian, I think all drugs should be outlawed, for the simple fact that no government of free men has the right to tell them what they can and cannot put in their body. Drug laws are big brother telling you how to live, and it is bullsh!t.

Of course, legalizing hardcore drugs like coke, meth, and opiates seems like a recipe for destruction. But I say, why do people even try drugs in the first place? Because they want to be rebels, drugs are more of a petty narcissistic pursuit than a physical one. But if you legalize drugs, suddenly it isn't cool and rebellious anymore, and you're just a loser snorting powder up your nose. I believe that for this fact, drug use in this country would abate dramatically if drugs were legalized.

Spot on.

 

[user43770]

Weed my friend makes your head work better, left and right side work together more naturally. You don't get dumber from weed, you get wiser.

Pot makes normal things seem miraculous. How is that wisdom?

 

[TheBucketOfTruth]

The only thing cannabis makes me better at is sex, but besides that I haven't found any other beneficial side effects. It's just a fun and relatively harmless drug that shouldn't be demonized so. I think if Prop 19 was on the ballot in 2012 when much more young people vote for president that it would have passed. The problem is that young voter turnout in mid-term elections is usually awful.

It's true that it's not really a matter of if but when it is legalized. Again, everything should be in moderation. Some stoners get high every day of their lives which I look down upon just as I would look at someone who drinks every day as probably having a problem.

 

[Rogue]

Ease:
I have yet to see a convincing pro-argument for legalizing by a non-user.

San Jose California:
Haha, same here. Edit: Oops I thought you said a convincing pro argument by a USER, I would totally agree with that. The drug makes you UNPRODUCTIVE, no matter WHAT, as long as you take it. The only people it's actually useful for is old ladies whose husband just died and they need to think about something else.

Really? How is that a valid argument to criminalize possession and usage of a substance? There needs to be an element of moral turpitude, "conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals;" an "act of baseness, vileness or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man." Marijuana doesn't.

Marijuana is very useful to musicians, artists, and anyone else who benefits from mildly heightened senses of taste, touch, smell, and hearing. There's no coincidence why artistic communities are liberal hot spots for weed: it heightens your sense of creativity. Life is good without weed, weed isn't 'the cake' of life, but life with a little weed is fun. Why shouldn't people be allowed to have some fun which doesn't harm others? Drinking red wine in moderation is fun and good for your heart, but where are the morality police when someone drinks wine? Marijuana may affect productivity at the very moment of being high, but there's no convincing evidence of long-term personality changes; there are many, many, many people who lead socially highly productive lives while enjoying a little green on the weekends--you know them but you don't know they smoke weed; and effects on productivity are inadequate justification of criminalization. Your personal disagreement with a behavior isn't rational justification to criminalize behavior. Really.

 

[Dust 2 Dust]

It won't pass because pot heads don't vote.

 

[Rogue]

"If you don't think drugs have done good things for us then do me a favor. Go home tonight and take all of your records, tapes and all your CD's and burn them. Because, you know all those musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreal fücking high on drugs, man." - Bill Hicks

(And what gives about the grievance of speaking philosophical things? Must language be so dry?)

 

[Quiksilver]

Because it doesn't affect just them.

I HATE the smell of marijuana.

I dislike the smell of car exhaust and freshly paved road. Lets ban cars and roads!

If it were to be legal people would be smoking it out in public. I can't imagine how bad it would be on my college campus.

No worse than it is now with cigarettes. Cigarettes are more harmful than marijuana and they are legal. I do not like the smell, however I respect personal liberties so I put up with it.

The number of cases of people driving under the influence (high) would go up which would increase the number of people hurt and killed in accidents.

As evidenced above, this is incorrect.

Frankly I can't see any way that legalizing MJ can benefit society.

I can't see any way that television, online forums, or free time benefits society. So lets ban them, okay?

Rather than legalizing it, I'd actually push to keep it illegal and make cigarettes illegal as well.

Great idea. Let's ban free speech while we're at it. In fact, let's ban all forms of creativity and give tax deductions to those who conform to your will. Let's ban all forms of recreation to make people more productive, to benefit society.

Newsflash:

Republics are formed to protect the rights, freedoms, and liberties of every individual. There is an enormous difference between society and every individual.

Society: Everyone except yourself.

Individual: You, and every other individual.

--

Wait until "society" starts banning things you enjoy, we surely won't speak out in your defense.

I do not smoke MJ anymore, however as a citizen of a relatively free country in which the highest value is still supposed to be individual rights and liberties, I speak out against all controlling legislation.

--

A good compromise for MJ would be to selectively ban the smoking of it in crowded public places and near buildings you do not own. Fully legalize it in personal residences and on private property.

In that scenario, the consensus of the public (who do not like to smell weed all day) would get their way in busy public places, and those who like weed could enjoy it in parks and on private property.

Using this method, the majority get their way but the minority are protected.

 

[Rogue]

San Jose California:
I'm saying that all the wise things anyone has said, because of weed, are philosophical.

I still await your response to post #16.

 

[Maxtro H & F]

Great idea. Let's ban free speech while we're at it. In fact, let's ban all forms of creativity and give tax deductions to those who conform to your will. Let's ban all forms of recreation to make people more productive, to benefit society.

Wait until "society" starts banning things you enjoy, we surely won't speak out in your defense.

Help! I'm falling down a slope! It's too slippery for me to get my balance!