Posted on 01/05/2010 7:20:11 AM PST by markomalley
With Californians likely to vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana, some key swing voters - Democratic and independent women - are expressing a surprising reason why they would support the initiative.
The suburban "soccer moms" who are likely voters have told pollsters that the measure, which would give local governments the authority to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis to adults 21 or older, would provide a safer way for their adult children to buy pot.
"One of the scary things to some people is that their kids may be buying it from someone dangerous," said Ruth Bernstein, a pollster with EMC Research, an Oakland firm that has been doing polling and focus groups on behalf of the measure's proponents.
California already boasts some of the nation's most pot-friendly laws. Possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor, and those who obtain approval from a physician can grow or possess cannabis under the state's voter-approved 1996 medical marijuana law.
In 2001, state voters approved a law allowing first- or second-time possession-only offenders caught with larger amounts of pot to avoid jail by requesting a treatment program instead.
The initiative, known as the Tax and Regulate Initiative, would expand those laws by allowing local governments to tax and regulate marijuana sales, increase penalties for providing marijuana to a minor, and prohibit consumption of marijuana in public, smoking marijuana while minors are present and possession of pot on school grounds.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Because governments will always and forever only have the very best interests of the people in mind.
Dumb
"Denver now appears to have more marijuana dispensaries than liquor stores, Starbucks coffee shops or public schools, according to city and corporate records."
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14112792
Legalization...do not support
Decriminalization...wholeheartedly support
Can you explain the difference? I don’t get it.
“One of the scary things to some people is that their kids may be buying it from someone dangerous,” said Ruth Bernstein
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What an idiot. These surrender on the WOD types are all concerned about how little Missy can use her dope while not having to interact with some thug of a pusher who sells it to her.
Do these morons think the Drug Cartels will just go away if marijuana is legalized?
Drug warriors use the most convoluted logic to deny basic freedom. Y'all sound like liberals explaining how spending money will help you save money....
I will try.....with an example..first off, I do not use it nor do I condone it’s use...a person I know was busted with less than 1 gram in possession...served jail time, tens of thousands in both fines and probation fees, was subject to 2 years of drug testing( that also was paid for ) and probation....and a permanent conviction on a criminal record...the penalty caused far more damage to this person than the drug itself....decriminalization means that it is still illegal, but is reduced to a traffic ticket type infraction, with a fine, no jail time or criminal record..I do not support this type of action for all drugs, just pot..
My conservative beliefs make me want the gummit to leave me alone. It makes me hate any nanny state laws and any laws put forth “for my own good”
I cannot selectively apply these beliefs because I like or dislike pot. So therefore I believe it should be legal for adults like alcohol.
My conservative beliefs make me want the gummit to leave me alone. It makes me hate any nanny state laws and any laws put forth “for my own good”
I cannot selectively apply these beliefs because I like or dislike pot. So therefore I believe it should be legal for adults like alcohol.
What about legal like tobacco?
I look at it from a NannyState point of view. I don’t like nanny laws.
bflr
I look at it from a NannyState point of view. I don’t like nanny laws.
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Nanny-Staters are seldom conservative. Often Liberaltarian.
Legalize it.
Conservatives would win a huge group of voters... if they would actively advocate legalization of marijuana (and other soft drugs) and immediately release all non-violent drug law offenders from prisons.
The Reason for the Cannabis Treason in 2010 in 243 Words
by James Michael Preston January 4, 2010
Part 1:
Why marijuana is illegal in 55 words
1- Fewocracy
2- Pill profits
3- We are enslaved.
4- We have failed citizenship.
5- The cost-benefit analysis is missing.
6- We cannot get our words together.
7- You don’t miss what you never had.
8- We have not learned cannabis prohibition’s grand lessons.
9- Criminalization is the cornerstone of the War For Prohibition.
10- The victors of the Opium Wars turned to invading governments.
Part 2:
Why cannabis is illegal in 55 words
1- Thoughtherding
2- Big Lies
3- The fluoride works.
4- The reason is treason.
5- Leashed minds and help tongues.
6- Our fiction hasn’t met their fiction.
7- We call cannabis everything but merry joy.
8- Criminalization of gpotp is part of our enslavement.
9- Efforts are spent on transforming our smallnesses into greatnesses.
10- We don’t understand or say “Free Cannabis and Free Everyone.”
Part 3:
Why cannabis is criminalized in 55 Words
1- Treason
2- Wrecked reckoning
3- Vast Treasonous Conspiracy
4- The Pope says so.
5- Criminalization instills fear and silence.
6- Trivial conversation dominates over the critical.
7- Controversy is a distraction to our implosion.
8- Malfeasance of office is still called public service.
9- Our enslavement is so complete we don’t recognize it.
10- The Globalists want us sick, tired, broke, conflicted, bewildered, and atomized.
Part 4:
Why the cannabis treason in 78 words
1- Democracy-believers
2- Corpocratic media
3- The Oligarchy Rules
4- This land is Mythland.
5- We are ruled by treason.
6- We don’t know how to talk.
7- Stonewall zealotry projects sincerity, certitude, and consensus.
8- Evil Overlords and Evil Overseers enforce matrix slaveries.
9- We are all retarded because we are all retarded.
10- The criminalizers are the criminals and treason fills the air.
11- The hardest thing to say in life is “I am wrong.”
12- We are slaves to the corporations and the government is the overseer.
Of course not, because there are plenty of other illegal drugs they trade in. But they'll take a big profit hit in California if this passes. It's going to hurt them. The smarter ones will branch out into other consensual crimes. But if we were to eliminate the illegalization of consensual crimes, we'd pretty much wipe out organized crime as an effective force by cutting off most of their income. They have a high overhead due to the illegal nature of their business, so they probably wouldn't be able to undercut legal, reasonably-taxed product.
Instead of butting heads against them, creating a war that's deprived all of us of our rights, we just fix policy so that the laws of economics work for us to destroy them, instead of against us to enrich them as they do now.
Of course in doing this we'd also wipe out a huge chunk of the law enforcement and incarceration industries, so it's not going to happen.
When you go to the corner store to buy it, yes, you don't have to get into the "drug culture" to find it. I have no idea where to get moonshine either.
Whenever I encounter a pro-drug liberal here on FR, I always ask how they think legalizing pot so as to tax it so as to grow the size of big gubmint even more is a CONSERVATIVE ideal.
What requires bigger, more intrusive government?
1) Taxing and regulating a legal product.
2) Banning that product, and to enforce the ban creating multi-billion dollar bureaucracies that direct paramilitary jackboot squads to bust down doors and shoot people. Spending billions more to incarcerate those who were caught. Ignoring the Constitution on several fronts, including searches and seizures. Stretching the Commerce Clause to idiotic lengths in order to expand the power of the federal government over internal state matters, violating state sovereignty.
I don't know about you, but I vote #1 as the less-intrusive government.
There was research a while back concluding that, on average, the greatest danger to the quality of life of a drug user is in getting caught and being run through the legal wringer.
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