If the shifting moral consensus of Americans was ever in doubt, look no further than Proposition 19. This proposition represents the single most groundbreaking stride in the legalization of marijuana, while it simultaneously represents a full out cultural shift of mindsets in Americans.
The long-standing taboo against the evils of marijuana is slowly breaking. The glorification of marijuana is ever more prevalent in today’s society, as shown heavily in Prop 19. California voters young and old are anxious to try and pass the proposition during the state’s midterm elections.
The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 would allow any person over the age of 21 to possess, cultivate and transport up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use, as well as permit local governments to regulate and tax commercial production.
Years ago, a similar proposition would have been out of the question. The ending of the prohibition on marijuana is seemingly in the grasp of Americans, which has come much faster than many have anticipated.
Proposition 19 represents the hard work of many Americans who wonder why these steps toward legalization haven’t come sooner — and leaves many other Americans asking what has happened to degrade our society to a level that tolerates legal pot.
Californians are chomping at the bits to vote on Proposition 19, with early polls and surveys showing a pretty even split between voters. However, the federal government has recently stated their stance on the proposition and has said they would continue to come down hard on marijuana users despite state law if the proposition is passed.
It’s growing increasingly more obvious that Proposition 19 will not pass in California. With federal law enforcement agencies already stating they will continue to abide by the Controlled Substances Act, legalization is almost useless — doing nothing more than adding confusion to California state marijuana laws.
The aftermath of Proposition 19 would result in DEA raids on citizens who believe they’re abiding by the law and a flood in the courts of each county in California to set up regulation requirements.
The national government is not ready to accept the desires of many US residents who support the legalization of marijuana. Los Angeles Country Sherriff Lee Baca and US Attorney General Eric Holder are remaining steadfast in the current approach of drug enforcement.
President Barack Obama himself has stated he is against the legalization of marijuana, and for good reason. The citizens of the United States are not responsible enough to handle legal pot at this time.
The evidence can be seen in the way the media overreacts and portrays marijuana. Another example is the irresponsible way in which many recreational marijuana users react to and handle the drug.
The future for weed smokers does not hinge on passing of Proposition 19. People will continue to smoke pot, no matter what. However, adjustments must be made to the way our government chooses to deal with marijuana — and they can be made without the full-out legalization of the drug.
The Drug Enforcement Administration lists marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which means weed is considered as harmful and dangerous as heroin and PCP. Taking marijuana off the DEA’s Schedule Drug listing would be a step in the right direction.
As of now, the US federal government does not recognize any of marijuana’s medicinal uses. The recognition and decriminalization of medical marijuana would end much of the legal gray area-surrounding weed.
The prohibition on marijuana will one day end, but not until we as a society take marijuana off the pedestal we’ve placed it on. Both sides arguing over Proposition 19 make marijuana out to be something it’s not.
Weed is not a misunderstood revolutionary cash crop super-drug that will make Americans think clearer and single-handedly fix the economy, nor is it a demonic gateway drug that will lead to the downfall of our society.
Yes, the legalization of marijuana will aid the economy through taxation of the drug. Legalization will also make the DEA focus its energy on cracking down on more threatening and harmful drugs.
Decriminalization would also aid the DEA and local police departments in depopulating overcrowded jails by not filling them with pot dealers, which would make room for more violent and dangerous offenders at the same time.
Despite any benefits, marijuana’s impact on our culture alone is disheartening. Its stereotypes, urban legends and glorification among the youth of our country must all diminish before pot becomes legal.
Proposition 19 means well, and one day marijuana will change our country for the better — but not anytime soon.
As of now, Proposition 19 is nothing more than a symbol for the changing times of our country. The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 represents the innovative, liberal and promising hope for the future of America.
Zeke Barrera is a communications sophomore and may be reached at [email protected].
A safe view of a tired story.
This country is crazy. A state cant even pass its own laws without the feds overriding it? C'mon people. What happened to my constitutional rights? Marijuana has done nothing to harm society. They were wrong to lie to America like that. Smoking a joint will make you kill your brother? What a hell of a thing to say about pot. The most I wanted to do after smoking a joint was make myself dinner. Who picked alcohol to be the legal drug anyway?
"The aftermath of Proposition 19 would result in DEA raids on citizens who believe they’re abiding by the law and a flood in the courts of each county in California to set up regulation requirements."
The above is way off base. Everything the feds do will have to be done through federal resources; The DEA and federal courts. County/state courts will NOT be flooded as cannabis will no longer be against state law; everything will have to go through the federal court system. Being the feds spend way more than they make, what country will we be borrowing money from now to stop the Devil's weed? The feds rely on state and local agencies to enforce drug laws, if prop 19 passes the feds will be on an island so to speak. Good luck with that.
If Prop 19 fails it's only because of the lack of young people getting out to vote period.
haha it failed cause the people that didnt vote were to high to remember to vote
Yo Zeke,
You stayed up too late drinking before you wrote your story bro.
You should have had a blunt instead.
If you support prohibition you've helped to prevent the sick and dying from obtaining safe and effective medication.
If you support prohibition you've helped create the prison-for-profit synergy with drug lords.
If you support prohibition you've helped remove many important civil liberties from those citizens you falsely claim to represent.
If you support prohibition you've helped put previously unknown and contaminated drugs on the streets.
If you support prohibition you've helped to escalate Murder, Theft, Muggings and Burglaries.
If you support prohibition you've helped escalate the number of people on welfare who can't find employment due to their felony status.
If you support prohibition you've helped evolve local gangs into transnational enterprises with intricate power structures that reach into every corner of society, controlling vast swaths of territory with significant social and military resources at their disposal.
Neurotics build castles in the sky, psychotics live in them; the concept of a "Drug-Free Society" is a neurotic fantasy and Prohibition's ills are a product of this psychotic delusion.
Prohibition is nothing less than a grotesque dystopian nightmare; if you support it you must be either ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt.
"Prohibition is nothing less than a grotesque dystopian nightmare; if you support it you must be either ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt." — Love it!
Very well said. all of this is true and a direct cause of prohibition.
One of the things that kills me is these conservatives join this tea party and preach about state rights, like emigration laws. But when this issue pops up they are on the federal side of the fence? Talk out both sides of your face sheeples. For those that are not educated about our constitution there isn't grounds for the Feds to stick there nose in, since Prop 19 doesn't concern interstate commerce only its constituents. The Fed is overstepping its constitutional bounds, but Law enforcement doesn't want to give up this power to pursue due to the money they make. Don't believe for one minute they do this for any noble reason, the evidence is there that this isn't dangerous. Take a minute and listen to a Retired Federal Court Judge Gray on why these laws stay.
Most Tea Partiers aren't of a Paulian pedigree, so they typically keep the whole "drugs are bad, m'kay?" mantra. Forgive them they know not of their logical fallacies. I.e. we need to cut all spending but let's support Obama and bomb/occupy brown people's lands for another century. Yay! Paganism!!
I am against making drugs a legal issue. I say make all laws null and void with regards to all things from nature. As Bill hIcks once noted, "Banning nature is unnatural." But the issue is gonna be it's contradiction with international law. That's the original purpose of our prohibition. So we are still thinking in a democratic we get what we want sense. I doesn't matter what a judge says. We live in a oligarchy. So it's prolly not happening unless the folks in big pharma get a massive stake in marijuana production.
I smoked pot for 7 years! So has 46% of the USA population. I can speak from experience when I say that our government has LIED to the American people about the evil effects of pot! Legalize It! I can only dream of the day when a Prop. 19 type bill is on my NC ballot!
Prohibition is anarchy! Ignorance is ignorant. And hemp products at one point accounted for 80% of the ecconomy. Can this save the ecconomy in one swoop? No it can’t. Can it reduce the term that we pay off national debt? Absolutely, while benefiting the environment in huge ways. Do the people care what our politicians think? Not that much… Go ask people these three questions; Do you trust the banks?, Do you trust your government?, How’s the drinking water? The answer you get will show you how very broken our everything is. Good luck to the feds trying to control anything when there’s no longer a border to cross. Maybe Obama can borrow another 1 trillion to accomplish no real control.w
In the early 70's when I was still in college (graduated with a GPA of 3.9 with a major in earth sciences and mathematics) – and I smoked almost every day. I honestly believed the insane marijuana laws would be gone by the 1990's when my generation was old enough to really change the insane prohibition laws that were enacted in the first place back in 1937 due to extreme racial hatred. (Check the history books – no revisionist versions needed). Alas, I was wrong – though the current environment is better than I expected. just 10 yrs. I stopped smoking in the ealy 80's (without any problem – from every day, to nothing at all – no form of 'addiction'). But due to medical problems (pain) from a back inujury – I recently began smoking it again – a small amount, once per day. The pain relief is surprisingly significant…better than vicodin which I have stopped taking because it IS addictive. The incredible waste of taxpayer money and resources to 'fight the war' on this relatively benign substance is truly the definition of insane.
I am sure that our government will find a way to manipulate the vote in the favor of NO WAY. I think it is going to take every marijuana consumer to march to the white house lawn and have a big smoke out for a month. And demand that the federal laws be change today. IF you are a consumer and do not vote you are part of the road block. GO VOTE Yes on Prop 19
"GO MJ GO"
Zeke, you may want to do more research before writing a story on marijuana prohibition, again. There are so many things you left out and seem to not even be aware of – like the history of Marijuana prohibition, which everyone should know about. I have no doubt that Education will be the be-all, end-all of marijuana prohibition.
For instance, you said, "It’s growing increasingly more obvious that Proposition 19 will not pass in California. With federal law enforcement agencies already stating they will continue to abide by the Controlled Substances Act, legalization is almost useless — doing nothing more than adding confusion to California state marijuana laws."
This statement is purely speculation as even the latest polls show Prop 19 passing or in a very close race. These polls in NO way suggest that Prop 19 will fail to pass. It will all come down to voter turn out, particularly the vote of the younger generations, and mothers who want to truly protect their children.
Also, you said, "Weed is not a misunderstood revolutionary cash crop super-drug that will make Americans think clearer and single-handedly fix the economy, nor is it a demonic gateway drug that will lead to the downfall of our society."
To this I say, Weed is extremely misunderstood due to more than 70 years of Government mind control, through propaganda, of a country of citizens who unfortunately (seemingly) ceased to question their government. In addition, nobody ever said weed would make people "think clearer" nor that it would single-handedly fix the economy, although it certainly would be a huge boost.
The truth here is that the Federal government has been using propaganda to spread contradictory lies about the plant for over 70 years. Prior to the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914, drug users and addicts were free to purchase their drugs legally through registered suppliers or with physicians' prescriptions. "Drug" in this instance doesn't even pertain just to marijuana, in fact, did you know that as late as the turn of the 19th century into the 20th, syringes, cocaine, opium and heroine could all be purchased from the Sears & Roebuck company – the catalog even – as well as through a number of other distributors? Did you know that the FDA was created in the 1920s/30s due to the public calling for regulation because people were dying from unregulated products they didn't know were dangerous? In fact, all the way up to the 1920s, the word "marijuana" didn't even exist, rather it was a term coined by media mogul William Randolf Hearst to re-associate the common Hemp (Cannabis in scientific communities) plant and launch a major propaganda campaign which associated the plant's psychoactive effects as causing "murder, insanity, death" (oh yeah, and rape) by those who smoked it, and was mainly publicized as a racial tool targeting blacks and Mexicans.
William Randolf Hearst's papers have been behind the majority of media-enhanced propaganda throughout America over the last 150 years or so. (They even helped start the unnecessary Spanish-American War – another issue all together.)
Up until the 1930s, the plant was known strictly as hemp – no matter its use – and it grew throughout the country on the sides of roads and in fields for many production uses. Before the plant ever became truly illegal, the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was passed by congress, controlled through the treasury dept., and required all marijuana to have a tax stamp – problem was, they never issued even a SINGLE tax stamp for it.
Also, a fun fact, the federal government has consistently changed its position on marijuana/hemp throughout the history of its prohibition. During WWII, the feds ran a nationwide campaign where they rewarded people for growing hemp. They called it "Hemp for Victory" and used hemp production to make materials needed for the war. When the war ended, all of the sudden, Hemp and marijuana were both "evil" again. Go figure.
Just as was the case with America's brief history of Alcohol prohibition, more violence and killings have taken place since the inception of drug prohibition than ever took place when drugs were legal.
In addition, if you look into the founding of the DEA, originally the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (under the Dept. of Treasury), you'll find that it's all business – literally. Harry S. Anslinger, the first head of the Bureau, was the nephew-in-law of Andrew Mellon, who owned the Mellon National Bank of Pittsburgh and was the financier for the DuPont Company, which had an interest in prohibition as the company had patented a process for making plastics from coal and oil and a new way of making paper from wood pulp. The materials necessary for manufacturing rayon, paper, and plastic could have come from the hemp plant, thereby saving our forests and keeping our rivers from being polluted with toxic chemicals. – Obviously hemp posed a major threat to the DuPont Company's profit margins.
President JFK, in 1962, forced Anslinger to resign after he tried to censor publications and used such outrageous references as "ginger-colored niggers," on Federal Bureau of Narcotics stationery. (I just kind of like this fact, although it really has little to do with prohibition other than a solid view into Anglinger's views.) Also a fun Anslinger hypocrisy and corruption ordeal is that Anslinger had been supplying morphine illegally for years to his friend – wait for it, this one's good – Senator Joseph McCarthy – that's right, the same McCarthy who put 3/4 of Hollywood professionals and others under surveillance and on black-lists for their own personal views because he was AFRAID of Communism. Anglinger's reason: "So the communists would not be able to blackmail this great American Senator for his drug-dependency weakness."
Even more interestingly, it wasn't until 1984 that a federal law passed, giving authorities the right to seize property and assets of drug dealers without criminal charges. Of course you can imagine how profitable this has been for local and federal law enforcement agencies. And at what expense, when they could legalize and give actual profits to the entire state and local communities? Doesn't this seem like a better option, especially considering that we could regulate the drug as was the original intention of the FDA?
There is so much more to this fight that I could discuss, and I'd be more than happy to, should you decide to contact me. But I'll leave you with this:
In December of 1840 Abraham Lincoln said: "Prohibition … goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crime out of things that are not crimes. … A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
given that texas' heavy-handed cops pretty much chop off your hands for smoking weed, ending prohibition nationwide would be a welcome change.
also, this is one of the very few times when the "state's rights" argument is being used for Good.
Zeke you are either ignorant or stupid. In either case you clearly shouldnt be allowed to publish articles without factual information or references to back it. The commenters on your dumbass opinion have more right to be publishing articles than your sorry ass considering how much of what they retort with is backed behind factual information. Its a good thing this is listed under the assholes..er opinions column. If it had been listed as 'news' it would have been 10 times more bullsh*t than it is. Your opinion is one sided slander at its finest. Do us all a favor and just keep your mouth shut about things which you are clearly not educated or get educated on them before you speak.
Thanks and have a nice day you ignorant douche,
Chris
What crysyal ball did the author of this article look into that predicted a definite failure of prop 19? I think there are a lot of supporters that are not willing to state their position in a poll that will vote yes in the privacy of the voting booth.
It's worth noting that 19 allows private cultivation of up to 25 sq ft and allows growers to keep the harvests from any and all marijuana grown in their legal garden. One articel I read said that could be converted into 31 five gallon buckets. 31 plants every 3-4 months could certainly keep most private growers happy.
aaahhhh it's refer madness!!! what year is this again…1932??? Thanks America for telling me what to do and how to live…
How much longer are the citizens going to allow Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs”, which is really a violent war on nonviolent citizens? Whether you use marijuana or not you are being harmed by the drug war. You’re paying taxes that are wasted on the drug war, $70 Billion per year according to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
The drug war is being used as an excuse to trash your Constitutional rights and freedoms. The Constitutional right to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and others have been unjustly denied to tens of millions of Americans in the name of the drug war. Someone is arrested every 17 seconds in the US on a drug charge. Any policy that arrests that many citizens is seriously flawed!
Drug prohibition is one the largest causes of violent crime. Criminals are funded with hundreds of billions of tax free dollars every year BECAUSE drugs are prohibited instead of rationally regulated like alcohol and tobacco. Ending alcohol prohibition is exactly why you don’t see shootouts over that drug trade any more. The year alcohol prohibition ended, violent crime fell by 65%!
Marijuana accounts for roughly 60-70% of the total illegal drug money that is funding criminals, gangsters and terrorists BECAUSE marijuana is prohibited. Legalizing and rationally regulating marijuana would eliminate 60-70% of the total funding from all illegal drugs that is now going to criminals from the entire illegal drug trade. The latest government estimates say $113 Billion worth of marijuana is consumed in the US every year. That’s $113 billion that should be going into the pockets of legitimate tax paying business people and that DOESN'T include the billions in legitimate trade that should be made every year from the hemp industry. Hemp is useless as a drug but the government still prohibits it.
Learn the truth about marijuana and you’ll discover that it’s far safer than both alcohol and tobacco. No one, of any age, in all of recorded history, anywhere on planet earth, has ever died from the ingredients in marijuana and they never will, marijuana is nontoxic. Many have died from marijuana prohibition and tens of millions have been jailed or otherwise harmed. In the US we arrest someone on marijuana charges every 38 seconds. Marijuana charges account for over 50% of all drug arrests.
Hundreds of thousands of marijuana and hemp related jobs will be created right here in FL once the citizens wise up and demand legalizing and rationally regulating marijuana instead of prohibiting it. Add in the billions that are wasted on arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating non violent marijuana consumers and you start to get an idea just of how harmful, wasteful and unnecessary marijuana prohibition really is.
All major authorities agree that the vast majority of so called “drug-related” violent crime is caused by the prohibition of drugs, rather than the drugs themselves. This was the same during alcohol prohibition. Alcohol prohibition created violent criminal organizations just like every other drug prohibition has. These violent crimes should be labeled prohibition related, not drug related. Stop funding criminals, gangsters and terrorists with hundreds of billions of tax free $ every year, LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND RATIONALLY REGULATE IT LIKE ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO!
Many government studies have cited the relative safety of marijuana but rather than base rational marijuana policy in science and facts, our government ignores science and facts and promotes lies and fear mongering. On March 22, 1972 the Richard Nixon-appointed, 13-member National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended the decriminalization of marijuana, concluding, “[Marijuana's] relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it.” Richard Nixon chose to ignore the advice of this well qualified commission and start the modern escalation of criminalizing marijuana consumers. The lies he promoted have done much harm but they served his selfish motives and got him re-elected based largely on him starting the “war on drugs”, which is actually a violent unconstitutional war against nonviolent citizens, which are no threat to their selves or society and a war on everyone’s Constitutional rights. Google: Drug War Victims.
In 1988, after reviewing all evidence brought forth in a lawsuit against the government’s prohibition of medical marijuana, the DEA’s own administrative law judge (Judge Francis Young) wrote: “MARIJUANA, IN ITS NATURAL FORM, IS ONE OF THE SAFEST THERAPEUTICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES KNOWN. IN STRICT MEDICAL TERMS, MARIJUANA IS SAFER THAN MANY FOODS WE COMMONLY CONSUME.” Judge Young recommended that the DEA allow marijuana to be used as medicine, but the DEA has refused. Often when the government is approached about medical marijuana they cite the need for more studies. There have been over 15000 documented marijuana studies and marijuana has been used as medicine for several thousand years without a single fatality.
IT’S FAR PAST TIME FOR THE VOTERS IN THIS COUNTRY TO DEMAND RATIONAL MARIJUANA POLICY BASED IN SCIENCE AND FACTS RATHER THAN REEFER MADNESS AND UNSUBSTANTIATED RIDICULOUS UNTRUTHFUL DRUG WAR PROPAGANDA AND SCARE TACTICS.
The World Health Organization Documents Failure of U.S. Drug Policies http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/90295/
Watch this FL man that gets his marijuana from the Federal government destroy all the lies about marijuana consumers being lazy and unproductive. Watch him destroy all the lies about long term heavy marijuana use being harmful. Learn the truth about marijuana:
Watch this documentary about marijuana curing cancer! There are 7 parts, watch them all!
Listen to these high ranking narcotics officers expose the harms and waste of the drug war. Learn the truth about the drug war. It is a FAILED HARMFUL UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNLAWFUL VIOLENT WAR AGAINST NONVIOLENT CITIZENS:
WELL WORTH READING! Free online book: The Emperor Wears No Clothes http://www.jackherer.com/chapter01.html
The more voters that learn the truth the better! After they learn the truth about marijuana and the drug war 80% support rationally regulating marijuana like alcohol and tobacco instead of prohibiting it. Virtually all the drug war propaganda is nothing but pure lies. Marijuana does not cause aggressive behavior. Marijuana does not cause dangerous driving, Google: MARIJUANA DRIVING STUDY. Marijuana does not cause cancer, brain damage or any serious health problems. Marijuana prohibition does not keep kids away from marijuana, illegal dealers don’t ask for ID.
Anyone that wants marijuana is already getting it. Legalizing and rationally regulating marijuana is not adding another harmful intoxicant to society, legalizing gives people the legal opportunity to make the SAFER CHOICE! Alcohol and tobacco are both deadly, marijuana is not: http://www.saferchoice.org/content/view/24/53/
The laws prohibiting marijuana are NOT a result of any harm from marijuana. They are the result of racism, lies and greed. Read the well documented proof of that and a lot more marijuana TRUTH in these two articles, Google: “WHY IS MARIJUANA ILLEGAL, Pete Guither” and “MARIJUANA AND HEMP THE UNTOLD STORY, Thomas J. Bouril”, or click the links to those articles on the webpage below:
Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
hahaha you think stoners are going to vote?
Marijuana laws are established by international law. Hence why I believe the feds will disregard whatever happens in Cali. Holder and Obama will both continue to be 10X's worse than the Bush administration with regards to humanitarian abuses of our own people and abroad. We aren't supposed to be fit to take care of ourselves. Plan and simple. That's DC's job.
Smoking weed and any other moral based social law comes from Victorian/bentham based utilitarianistic/early legal postivist thought. Back when people started to think that it was the government's job to control people away from their own behavior. Until individuals realize that it doesn't matter who's in office, it's who's in power that matters, we will never progress as society. Taxing nature just to garner a little freedom is not going to change anything. In fact it'll probably open up Big Pharma taking over the industry, if the feds don't invade northern cali.
The problem that everyone in this damned country has is that they feel that everything has to be associated with the law because they fear that "rights" will be taken away or without authorization we don't have those rights. Since when? We have a right to smoke whatever the hell we want or do as we please as long it doesn't harm anyone. Screw the law if they say otherwise because it's against the RULE OF LAW and NATURAL LAW for them to prohibit unharmful behavior. Homosexuals have every right to get married. It's a social and religious construct, not a legal one. But because we have made it a legal construct due to the obscene amount of taxes just to "ensure" inherent social rights, we keep it that way.
Thank you neo-conservatives and progressives for DP'ing our country. It's a nice feeling.
Judging from the comments here, marijuana reformers never thought reform might need to take place by popular vote from citizens.
I didn't either.
It is a little late to launch an educational campaign with the election right around the corners.
But there is always next time.
Plan ahead and move the debate and facts off the opinion section and into the news section.
::
GP
Wow, there's a lot of potheads. Who knew???
The Federal government is going after Arizona for enforcing Federal laws. How can they go after California for not enforcing them?
The only cloud is the hypocrisy within the Federal government itself.
I think of an increase of inebreated drivers coming over the line and doing a headon crash with me.
Why doesn’t the government just legalize weed. Even when it is illegal people will still smoke no matter what. when I’m high all I want to do is eat. so all I have to say is, is this really that bad for the government to go and make it illegal? So Just legalize it already