Posted on 07/16/2010 1:06:03 PM PDT by Smogger
IN 1971 a group of teenagers in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, started meeting after school, at 4:20PM, to get high. The habit spread, and 420 became code for fun time among potheads worldwide. Ever since, California has remained in the vanguard of global cannabis culture. Oaksterdam University in Oakland is today unique in the world as a sort of Aristotelian lyceum for the study of all aspects—horticultural, scientific, historical—of the weed.
Legally, California has also been a pioneer, at least within America. In 1996 it was the first state to allow marijuana to be grown and consumed for medicinal purposes. Since then, 13 states and the District of Columbia have followed, and others are considering it. But this year California may set a more fundamental, and global, precedent. It may become the first jurisdiction in the world to legalise, regulate and tax the consumption, production and distribution of marijuana.
--snip--
The more visible effort is a measure, Proposition 19, which will be put directly to voters on the November ballot. This so-called Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, sponsored by the founder of Oaksterdam University, would also legalise the growing, selling and smoking of marijuana for those older than 21, within certain limits. But it would leave the regulation and taxation entirely up to counties and cities. These could choose to ban the business or to tax it at whatever rate they pleased.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Fun until the effects of varying degrees of permanent memory impairment, loss of joyful motivation, and psychosis set in.
Not fun after that - just sad.
Stoned constituents would be less riotous after the state is unable to pay it's power bill soon, and the electricity producing states move fore ward with their plan to cut California off.
California, birth place of many (if not all) of the worst fads, habits, and ideas that plague the USA.
Prohibitions whether they be against alcohol guns or drugs are destined to failure. Should we really be putting these people in jail?
A good reason for legalization is that most of the people smoking that shit will be Democrats.
No great loss!
Yea, just like alcohol causes everyone to turn into a raging, racist lunatic like Mel Gibson.
The fact that a few idiots abuse and use alcohol even though it does bad things to them doesn’t mean everyone should be put in jail for holding a bottle of whiskey.
Alcohol is a far more dangerous drug when used irresponsibly and people realized during prohibition that the violence from those few irresponsible idiots was tiny in comparison to the violence created by criminals to supply the (mostly) responsible drinkers.
It is a State where many of the population are vice addicts of one type or another.
If it were just for adults it wouldn’t be so bad. But they’ve shown they will let kids get it by allowing it to be prescribed to kids under the “medical pot” law. Nothing medicinal about it, btw.
How is it that the state would be unable to pay its power bill?
One one hand, if Prop 19 passes, a lot of money would either come in to California or stay in California instead of ending up in Mexico.
On the other hand, yes, power consumption would go up if Prop 19 passes, as people would use electricity to power lights for legal indoor grows.
Of course. We should continue to restrict and sabotage any research on one type of plant because soooo many people think this is so. It doesn’t matter that the body has natural cannabinoids and receptors similar to the 400+ (unstudied) compounds in this plant. All that matters is dumb hippies like it. /s
But seriously, before the MJ stamp act of 1936 Bayer and Merck had dozens of patented medications that were hemp based.
See the Pharmaceutical drug “Marinol”. It is a synthetic form of THC that is still prescribed in nearly every hospital. Even though it is the most effective drug of this type, many patients complain that synthetic THC is not as effective as the one extracted from nature.
If you read Dr. Alex Shulgin’s research on THC pharmacology, he has proven than synthetic THC is substantially different from the natural type. There is currently no known way to synthesize THC exactly as mother nature does it.
The only reason people claim it has no medical value is because they have political blinders on.
So give it away in grade school along with the condoms huh?
Because it has less money coming in than it has going out.
I know of people who just recently became unemployed there who have recieved notice their unemployment is being cut off. Not people out of work for a year and a half, people jusr laid off a few months ago.
Texas and Oklahoma aint floating Kali no loans.
Ok, I got it. California is an economic mess right now. They really, really need money.
Prop 19 limits marijuana to 21+.
Currently in the US, it’s easier for U21s to get marijuana than alcohol. Most believe that if Prop 19 passes it will become harder for U21s to get marijuana.
Dealers don’t card, stores will.
LMAO. So typical. Did you even read my post or look up anything I described?
If it should be given away to anyone, let it be researchers. Currently research is only allowed by a few selected(token) researchers on government produced hemp. It is so unpreserved/processed that it contains almost no chemicals.
I believe in unrestricted medical research of all cannabinoids. Our body already contains cannabinoids and associated receptors that are used in our daily lives. Hemp contains hundreds of stable compounds that are symbiotic with the human body. Not to mention the unstable compounds and their possibly infinite synthetic derivatives.
A researcher colleague of mine once heard that Merck researchers in the 1930s isolated a pain reliever from hemp that was far more effective than Opiates but non-addictive and non-toxic.
It's time to give hemp back to the People that were free to use it since the beginning of time.
oh please
Well, it’s not quite as clear as all that.
Alcohol is, after all, physically much larger than marijuana.
The size issue is definitely a factor.
But street level dealers are currently engaging in illegal conduct. If they sell to someone 21+, it’s illegal, if they sell to U21, it’s illegal.
If Prop 19 passes, people will grow it themselves, which will be legal. Or, they’ll buy it from licenced stores, which will be legal. Much of what is currently illegal will become legal. People will not want to engage in risk just for old times sake.
But it certainly is more complicated than that. Yes, there will be more marijuana around. And if there’s more of it around, it could find its way into the hands of U21s.
Marijuana is currently extremely easy for U21s to get. I don’t think it’s reasonable to say that if Prop 19 passes, marijuana will become hard for U21s to get. It won’t become easier for U21s to get, that’s for sure.
The most telling stat there is the breakdown by age. Even if it doesn’t pass this year it’s only a matter of time before it does. Unless the reefer madness generation finds out how to live forever.
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