Posted on 03/25/2010 3:21:41 PM PDT by Zakeet
Supporters of the initiative collected well more than the 433,971 signatures needed for it to go before voters in the fall, again putting the state at the forefront of the nation's drug debate.
An initiative to legalize marijuana and allow it to be sold and taxed will appear on the November ballot, state election officials announced Wednesday, triggering what will probably be a much-watched campaign that once again puts California on the forefront of the nation's debate over whether to soften drug laws.
[Snip]
With polls showing that a slim majority of voters support legalization, the legalization campaign will be trying to appeal to a slice of undecided voters who are mostly mothers. "It's always easier for people to say no than to say yes for an initiative," said Mark Baldassare, the pollster for the Public Policy Institute of California.
[Oakland marijuana entrepreneur] Lee hopes to raise as much as $20 million. He will probably be able to tap a handful of wealthy advocates who have supported efforts to relax drug laws, including multibillionaire investor George Soros and George Zimmer, founder of the Men's Wearhouse. Zimmer has donated at least $20,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The reason illegal drugs is a multi-Billion dollar business is, there is a lot of demand.
The reason alcohol is a multi-Billion dollar business is, there is a lot of demand.
So, what is the difference between alcohol and drugs?
1. It is possible to have a small to medium amount of alcohol and not get altered. It is not possible to just have a little weed and not get altered.
2. Marijuana has been proven, statistically, to be a gateway drug. That is, is has been proven that those who regularly use (not just try) marijuana go on to harder drugs far more often than those who regularly use (not just try) alcohol.
3. Moderate, consistent use of alcohol does not induce psychosis. Moderate, consistent us of marijuana frequently does.
If we all lived on our separate islands, I would not have as much of a stake in it. We don’t, though. Our society depends on a majority of sane, sober, rational adults.
I can certainly believe that last part!
The idea that the Bible plays no part in a discussion of freedom & human rights is ignorant, un-American, & straight out of the Liberal/Marxist play book. Thank God that our founding fathers were wiser than you.
Save the gibberish for someone else! GOOD NIGHT!
If it is legalized, the consequences will be so disastrous that it won't be long before marijuana is criminalized. That is precisely what happened when marijuana was decriminalized in California in the mid-1970s.
Just like with socialism, idiotic ideas have been implemented every few decades to expose how foolish they are.
In the meantime, I hope those high on marijuana are driving the opposite side of the road from you when your on the highway. It's people like you that deserve to have your life endangered.
And, you sound like Barney Frank and Joycelyn Elders.
There isn't any question marijuana is a gateway drug:
http://www.marijuanaaddictiontreatment.org/statistics-facts.html
Cocaine: 62 percent of adults who had used marijuana before the age of 15 have used cocaine at some point during their lives. For those who had never used marijuana, that number is 0.6 percent.
Heroin: Those who use marijuana in youth are more likely to use heroin. That number is 9 percent as compared to 0.1 percent for those who had never used marijuana.
Psychotherapeutic drugs: 53.9 percent of those who used marijuana before the age of 15 report that they have also tried to use psychotherapeutic drugs for non-medical uses. The rate for those who have not used marijuana is 5.1 percent.
California does have the right to legalize marijuana unless an Constitutional amendment is passed banning marijuana use.
That doesn't mean it is a good idea. Only state with as many liberal idiots in it as California would do such a thing.
The same arguments were made during alcohol prohibition.
When drugs were legal, we never had the same problems that we have today. The war on drugs is big government on steroids.
No, it does this:
ONE in four people carries genes that increases vulnerability to psychotic illnesses if he or she smokes cannabis as a teenager, scientists have found.
The study, led by Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt, of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London, offers the best explanation yet for the way that cannabis has a devastating psychiatric impact on some users but leaves most unharmed. Scientists had suspected that genetic factors were responsible for this divide, but a gene had not been pinpointed.
Um, I favor the government stopping negligent behavior that endangers other people's lives. That includes losers that like to get high.
That is proper function of government. Liberaltarian can't grasp that, though.
Except the study also says, “This study could not establish whether adolescent cannabis use was a consequence of pre-existing psychotic symptoms rather than a cause”
In the Netherlands:
http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/bevolking/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2005/2005-1666-wm.htm<
Between 1911 and 1930 the number of victims of murder or manslaughter was on average nearly 20 a year. Between 1940 and 1970 it was around 40 a year. It rose subsequently to around 200 a year at the end of the nineties.
Marijuana legalization and lax drug laws were primary reason for increase.
Are you one of those people?
Getting high on drugs in negligent behavior and a danger to other people. That is a crime, not a right.
The country was founded by potheads and on right to get on drugs.
You can't see difference legalizing something that has been illegal and criminalizing something that was legal?
And, more citizens have died due to drunk driving than due to murder over the past 30 years. So, why do we need more legal ways for citizens become intoxicated? How many more lives are you willing to see lost per year so losers can smoke pot?
Young adults who reported a longer duration since first exposure to marijuana had a two- to fourfold greater prevalence of three different psychosis-related outcomes, John McGrath, MD, PhD, of the Queensland Center for Mental Health Research in Wacol, and colleagues concluded in an article published online in Archives of General Psychiatry.
Marijuana was legal prior to 1937.
And, more citizens have died due to drunk driving than due to murder over the past 30 years. So, why do we need more legal ways for citizens become intoxicated? How many more lives are you willing to see lost per year so losers can smoke pot?
For the same reasons that alcohol is legal, marijuana should be legal. The criminalization of marijuana creates far more problems than it solves. More violence from drug gangs, more prisoners, more court costs, more police enforcement. Like I said, big government on steroids.
Live and let live. Leave the pot smokers alone, they aren't hurting anyone.
I also saw your posts about psychotic episodes and the purported link to marijuana use. It is a desperate attempt to scare people away from marijuana use. Almost everyone today tries marijuana at some point. When they do, the scare tactics no longer work.
No, it doesn't. Only 27% of conservatives support marijuana legalization compared 72% of liberals. That is because it is liberal and as dumb as most liberal ideas.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/123728/u.s.-support-legalizing-marijuana-reaches-new-high.aspx
God expects us to use common sense, our brains, & PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY when deciding how to use those things given us.
I don't need to gov’t to tell me not to eat opium. Neither do I need them to tell me when I may get morphine to ease my pain. If the gov’t wants to give me fair warning about potentially dangerous substances, that seems reasonable to me. But to criminalize someone for consuming ANYTHING is absurd. This is pure nanny state tyranny.
We lose citizens due to drunk driving alone than to murder. So how many more are you willing to see die so LOSERS can legally smoke pot?
It's absurd for anyone to claim citizens have a right to engage in behavior harmful to others. Getting high is a danger to others.
I guess you failed to see that these numbers have been steadily rising among all demographics.
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