Weed Legalization on California ballot / bourgeois press

[Communist]

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Now On the Ballot, Could Marijuana
Legalization Happen in California?

Marijuana advocacy groups heralded Wednesday's
news, but the path to marijuana legalization could
be difficult, say opponents and legal experts. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0325/Now-on-the-ballot-could-marijuana-legalization-happen-in-California)



http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0325-marijuana-california/7634699-1-eng-US/0325-marijuana-california_full_380.jpg (http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0325-marijuana-california/7634699-1-eng-US/0325-marijuana-california_full_600.jpg)

Marijuana legalization? A voter initiative will be on the November 2 California state ballot
on whether to legalize possession and growth of small amounts of cannabis for personal use.

By Daniel B. Wood
March 25, 2010

Los Angeles An initiative to control and tax marijuana
qualified Wednesday for the November 2 state ballot,
and could make California the first state to legalize
cannabis.

Proponents of marijuana legalization are celebrating
the announcement as a victory in a decades-long
struggle to end marijuana prohibition, and seem
convinced of the measure's passage. Opponents are
lamenting the demise of social standards and airing
concerns about a rise in crime, and promise a fight.

The measure, certified Wednesday by California
Secretary of State Debra Bowen, would:

Allow people age 21 years or older to possess,
cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use.
Permit local governments to regulate and tax commercial
production and sale of marijuana to people 21 years old
or older.

Prohibit people from possessing marijuana on school
grounds, using it in public, smoking it while minors
are present, or providing it to anyone under 21 years
old.

Maintain current prohibitions against driving while
impaired.

"This is a watershed moment," wrote Stephen Gutwillig,
California director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which
spearheaded the initiative.

"Banning marijuana outright has been a disaster,
fueling a massive, increasingly brutal underground
economy, wasting billions in scarce law enforcement
resources, and making criminals out of countless law-
abiding citizens," he said.

Proponents say the initiative will pass and that it
will cause a ripple effect.

"California is often a leader in these types of bold
policy changes," says Aaron Smith, California Policy
Director for the Marijuana Policy Project. "This will
have an effect across the Western US first and then the
Eastern states just like we saw with the passage of
medical marijuana 13 years ago. I think we are at a
tipping point and this will happen even faster."

Legal scholars say the initiative could run into
trouble. Robert Langran, a constitutional scholar at
Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., says the US
Supreme Court has held that the federal Controlled
Substances Act trumps any state law legalizing
marijuana.

"However, the feds have pretty much looked the other
way for states allowing marijuana for medical use,"
says Langran. "What it will do if California legalizes
recreational use marijuana is anybody's guess, but my
hunch is it might crack down on it, at least in the
beginning," he says.

Both those for and those against passage of the measure
use polls to support their positions.

A recent study by the California Police Chiefs
Association showed that crime has increased in several
categories since the state began allowing marijuana for
medical use in 1996. And other groups warn of other
problems.

But some 56 percent of Californians surveyed in an
April, 2009 Field Poll say they favored making
marijuana legal for social use and taxing the sales
proceeds. And in October, Gallup found 44 percent of
Americans favored legalization.

Mr. Smith says the measure has many things going for
it, including the down economy.

"In California, this is a $14 billon industry that is
going completely untaxed. This will create tens of
thousands of jobs and bring in over $1 billon in annual
revenue. That is hard to ignore."

Opponents of the measure say the societal drawbacks
outweigh the financial benefits.

"Budget holes don't justify legalizing pot," says Steve
Steiner, founder of Dads and Moms Against Drug Dealers.
"Taxing our youth to balance the budget doesn't make
sense," says Mr. Steiner, whose son died of a drug
overdose. He notes that the legalization of medical
marijuana in California hasn't been such a success,
with many cities now clamping down on the proliferation
of dispensaries after complaints from residents and
schools nearby.

Proponents like Smith, however, argue that social mores
have changed. He points to last year's Michael Phelps
episode in which a photo of the Olympic gold medal-
winning swimmer was widely distributed on the Internet.

"His sponsors reacted negatively, but the public was
outraged by the furor over it," says Smith. "They were
saying, `hey, this is no big deal . a guy in his early
20s smoking at a party ... so what? Half of the people
in that demographic do it.' "

Smith also points to the high cost of policing and
incarcerating marijuana users at the expense of other
areas of public safety.

"We are spending a fortune in our efforts to police
consensual adult behavior while there are other
important issues of public safety that need to be
addressed," he says. **

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5dgAszVslA

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[MaoTseHelen]

I actually feel bad for Humboldt and other counties that depend on this. The day Wal-Mart can move in on selling weed is gonna be a shitty day.

[Communist]

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Recreational marijuana use likely
to become legal in California (http://caivn.org/article/2010/03/27/recreational-marijuana-use-likely-become-legal-california)

by W. E. Messamore
Sat, Mar 27th 2010

In all likelihood, California could be the very first state in the union to legalize the recreational use of marijuana this November. After legalization activists submitted nearly 700,000 signatures for a proposition to legalize marijuana, California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified a ballot initiative earlier this week to legalize the cultivation, possession, and sale of marijuana in the state of California for recreational purposes.

The initiative will go on the ballot this November, and it needs only a simple majority to pass and become law (just as if the legislature had passed it and the governor had signed it), which should be a breeze considering that state-wide polling shows (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKNQlqjXCQ3whttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKNQlqjXCQ3w) that 56% of California's registered voters support legalizing and taxing marijuana.

One can only guess at how many new registered voters California might see in the following months as formerly apathetic California residents become energized and activated by proponents of the new marijuana initiative.
With reasonably good odds of becoming law, Californians might want to know what's in the proposition. Its sponsors summarize the "Tax Cannabis" act on their website (http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/about):

The Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 will:

• Regulate cannabis like alcohol: Allow adults 21 and older in California to possess up to one ounce of cannabis

• Give local governments the ability to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis to adults 21 and older

• Generate billions of dollars in revenue to fund what matters most in California: jobs, healthcare, public safety, schools and libraries, state parks, roads, transportation, and more

So what will happen if the ballot initiative passes? As far as California is concerned, adults 21 and older would not be prosecuted by state authorities for marijuana use pursuant to the new law. But the Federal government still considers marijuana use a crime.

In fact, White House Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske made it very clear (http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/0312/Marijuana-legalization-A-White-House-rebuttal-finally) earlier this month, that the White House has a tough position on marijuana legalization, despite earlier signals that Federal officials would no longer be prosecuting the medicinal use of marijuana in states where it is legal.

Kerlikowske said: "Marijuana legalization – for any purpose – is a nonstarter in the Obama administration." When I called the California Attorney General's office to ask if they would interpose to protect a California resident from Federal prosecution if California legalized marijuana, they had no comment.

Only time will tell if the new California ballot initiative to legalize marijuana will pass into law, but if it does, the controversy over drug legalization will merely give way to a much larger, much older, much more contentious controversy- that of the proper relation between (http://caivn.org/article/2009/12/28/marijuana-legalization-and-federalism) the States and Federal government.

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[zimmerwald1915]

The day Wal-Mart can move in on selling weed is gonna be a shitty day.
Greeter: Have you heard about our new rollback of weed prices, sir or madam?

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

I actually feel bad for Humboldt and other counties that depend on this. The day Wal-Mart can move in on selling weed is gonna be a shitty day.

A little, but rolling up to a gas station and getting a pack of Marlboro Greens, or Camel Turkish Herb, is gonna be great.

Really, though, while I feel for those farmers in the 'emerald triangle' who are, in some cases, not your typical outlaw but really just farmers, I can't let that hld up ending prohibition.

[MaoTseHelen]

I'd rather legalize possession and keep manufacture illegal, if solely to keep corporations out of the game.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Of course I think this should be totally decriminalized along with all other drugs and addiction treatment for people instead of prison. But I wish this campaign would take a less fiscal approach to this issue. On some of the election materials I've seen, they seem to be targeting a more working class sentiment, such as ending the excesses of the drug-war, but generally that approach seems to be taking a back seat to "financial income to the state" arguments.

Taking on the cops and prison system in this state is more important to me than tax revenue, but beyond that, focusing on revenue could make this loose. For the ruling class, prohibition and the drug war are not about revenues or any of that, they need to excuse for the prisons and cops and weed is a great excuse for cops to stop and search anyone (young and a minority most likely). Cop: duh, I thought I saw some smoke in their car, duh I thought I smelled smoke.

Then again, I think there is a split in the ruling class on pot specifically - in many cities they are enacting curfews and that would take the place of weed in giving the cops an excuse to profile people. In their view, legalizing pot could take some heat off other areas of the drug war since pot is so widespread that criminalization actually hurts the credibility of the drug war for the majority of (well of Californian) people.

Sorry for the half-baked thoughts on this subject (and that lame joke) but I'm just kind of throwing some thoughts on this out there. I guess the bottom line is that reforms in the absence of working class pressure are always going to be off the mark and not fully address the underlying working class concerns. So now we have healthcare that helps the insurance companies more than the people and we may get decriminalized weed that doesn't actually end the police harassment and criminalization of working class youth.

Other than all that, I hope it passes and I can smoke outdoors (and outside movie theaters) without fear or (legitimate) paranoia. Y'all have to come visit me to watch "The Hobbit" in 3-D after weed is legal in California, y'hear!

[Weezer]

21?

You can die for imperialism, but if this bill is passed, you can't drink or be a legal pothead?

[ArmedGuerilla]

I have mixed feelings. Of course cannabis will be legalized in California, I lived there for years and nearly everyone supports its use and everything... The fools in California will legalize bud. It will hurt the economy in the Emerald Triangle; nearly collapsing it. Oh, the legalization of marijuana in California will be HELL. :crying:
However, it will be good to know that nonviolent persons are going to jail instead of rapists and hard drug users, etc.

[cb9's_unity]

I'm really hoping for a domino effect to happen here. The optimist in me is hoping that this will cause a quick domino effect that could lead to weed being legalized in Massachusetts by the time I'm 21.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I have mixed feelings. Of course cannabis will be legalized in California, I lived there for years and nearly everyone supports its use and everything... The fools in California will legalize bud. It will hurt the economy in the Emerald Triangle; nearly collapsing it. Oh, the legalization of marijuana in California will be HELL. :crying:
However, it will be good to know that nonviolent persons are going to jail instead of rapists and hard drug users, etc.

I'm sorry, I just fail to see how HELL will be loose if we legalized another plant.

[ArmedGuerilla]

The Vegan Marxist,
Are you from California? Have you ever lived there? Everybody I knew there grew and sold cannabis. They rely on that money from selling it illegally to people. If it is legalized, it will be sold from government-run stores. These people who rely on the illicit transfer of marijuana will be completely fucked. The economy of California, specifically NorCal, will collapse for the common man. The government of the state will be greedily eating up the money from cannabis smokers that could be going to the average man. It's bullshit, I know, but you can't really know if you aren't from there. I lived in San Francisco and later San Diego, and all my good friends there who deal will not be happy if this passes. But the typical idiot who smokes bud sometimes or someone who doesn't smoke at all but supports it will vote for this shit, even though it's really fucking up the dealers and growers.

[The Vegan Marxist]

The Vegan Marxist,
Are you from California? Have you ever lived there? Everybody I knew there grew and sold cannabis. They rely on that money from selling it illegally to people. If it is legalized, it will be sold from government-run stores. These people who rely on the illicit transfer of marijuana will be completely fucked. The economy of California, specifically NorCal, will collapse for the common man. The government of the state will be greedily eating up the money from cannabis smokers that could be going to the average man. It's bullshit, I know, but you can't really know if you aren't from there. I lived in San Francisco and later San Diego, and all my good friends there who deal will not be happy if this passes. But the typical idiot who smokes bud sometimes or someone who doesn't smoke at all but supports it will vote for this shit, even though it's really fucking up the dealers and growers.

I'd rather people not go to jail for stupid shit like smoking a plant, thank you.

[ArmedGuerilla]

So would I, but it's really fucked up to destroy the economy of 3 counties just so people don't get a fucking slap on the wrist ($100 fine the one time I was busted for possession) for first time possession.

[Die Rote Fahne]

i doubt it will happen.

look what California did to gay marriage.

[Jimmie Higgins]

i doubt it will happen.

look what California did to gay marriage.Look at what liberal groups and a timid approach did to defending gay marriage in California. Before the election, and in many polls since, pro-marrigae equality sentiment was higher than opposition. The same thing could happen with this too if the proponents make timid arguments about financial benefits for the state.

[Jimmie Higgins]

So would I, but it's really fucked up to destroy the economy of 3 counties just so people don't get a fucking slap on the wrist ($100 fine the one time I was busted for possession) for first time possession.I was reading that they want to make some No cal counties like the Napa Vally of weed. So undoubtedly, legalization will enrich a very few people in unbelievable ways while the black market people will find their work turned into normal profit-driven agricultural work - i.e. not that great.

But what is the logic of keeping it illegal? The problems described above are the problems of agribusiness and capitalism in general. Do we side with small business owners over Wal-Mart which destroys local mom and pop business - certainty we empathize with their problems caused for the sake of profit by the rich and powerful. But their answers to the problem (restrictions on the building of "big box" stores, and tax incentives for small business) and the working class answers to the problem are totally different.

Should we criminalize the growing of tomatoes just to allow more people to make money on the black market? No. The underlying problems of legal pot are the same problems of all agriculture and the answers for workers are the same too: self-organization for agricultural workers, equal labor and civic rights for undocumented migrant fieldworkers, and ultimately working class revolution.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Look at what liberal groups and a timid approach did to defending gay marriage in California. Before the election, and in many polls since, pro-marrigae equality sentiment was higher than opposition. The same thing could happen with this too if the proponents make timid arguments about financial benefits for the state.

Exactly the pro-legalisation position has taken this pro-state stance which doesn't have anything to do with the working class position on decriminalisation/legalisation. I fail to see how these changes would be much different from what the situation California is in now.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Less working class kids going to jail. Less excuse for locker searches, cops at school. Cops won't be able to pull young people over and claim that they smelled or saw pot being smoked.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Less working class kids going to jail. Less excuse for locker searches, cops at school. Cops won't be able to pull young people over and claim that they smelled or saw pot being smoked.

I'm guessing that even if this does pass, it still won't be legal to drive and smoke.

[Mindtoaster]

i doubt it will happen.

look what California did to gay marriage.

The difference is, a lot of working class right-wingers will support this

Weed tends to be really popular with rural working class people

[Jimmie Higgins]

I'm guessing that even if this does pass, it still won't be legal to drive and smoke.
Very true - and it's not like the cops will not be able to randomly (or profile-ly) pull people over for other BS reasons.

But I guess I'll take some unexpected reforms coming from within the system now and then*. Anything that makes people feel less scared and fearful is a plus for us. People won't have to worry about drug-testing or getting targeted by universities for smoking pot - things that companies and schools use as an excuse to target "agitators" since a large percentage of workers and students smoke pot anyway. It's like if you are a worker and come in late but not often enough to notice; if you start talking about your union rights, all of the sudden several late clock-ins get mysteriously noticed by the bosses and you get fired or suspended.

Well they say that some of the economic problems related to the recession are as bad as the great depression... well the governmnet legalized booze shortly into the depression.

*I was pleasantly surprised by gay marriage legalization in San Francisco a number of years ago - but then again this example shows how even some long-needed common sense reforms (even for the majority of liberals some things like LGBT marriage and legalization of Pot are "gee-duh, do ya think" sort of issues) can't last without a real grass-roots fight too.

[The Ghost of Revolutions]

If theis passes does it realease all non violent marijuana prisioners from jail?

[<Insert Username Here>]

So would I, but it's really fucked up to destroy the economy of 3 counties just so people don't get a fucking slap on the wrist ($100 fine the one time I was busted for possession) for first time possession.

Illegal trade is an underground economy, so the effects will be less than you'd think. I HIGHLY doubt it will "destroy" anything. If you think losing a bit of disposable income is economic destruction you should go and join the tea party, you belong there.

My main objection is that the quality of the weed will be shitty. So if you want nice weed, or you sell nice weed, this shouldn't make much change to you other than not getting arrested for it. If you don't sell nice weed, then I have no clue how you're making any money off it anyway, unless you're selling to kids who have no idea what they're buying- which will still be illegal so carry on if you must.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Why are people worried about the work economy to fuck up for legalizing pot when, in fact, we need the American economy to fail drastically to wake this fucking country up! We can't gain workers conscious nor solidarity if we keep telling people how bad the capitalist economy is when the economy, in fact, isn't fucking up anymore. I hate to say this, but we need more unemployment to wake people up, & that's not going to happen if we try & save the economy. That's just like reforming the system, in my opinion. Which is not what communists want. We want the system to be eliminated completely!

[Jimmie Higgins]

in fact, we need the American economy to fail drastically to wake this fucking country up! We can't gain workers conscious nor solidarity if we keep telling people how bad the capitalist economy is when the economy, in fact, isn't fucking up anymore. I hate to say this, but we need more unemployment to wake people up, & that's not going to happen if we try & save the economy.Really? I can understand how people could have thought this before the most recent econ bust, but in that time have people "woken up"? I think they are hiding under the covers - and worse some are looking for scapegoats and throwing other people under the bus to grab some capitalist table scraps for themselves.

I agree that the bust was good as far as being able to show people how we are not at the "end of history" as the Washington consensus has been confidently proclaiming since the 1990s. But disillusionment in the infallibility of capitalism does not automatically produce working class let alone revolutionary consciousness.

Despite the worst economy of our generation and the baby-boom generation, strikes are at their lowest level since WWII! The worst years of the depression (1932) also saw the rise of antisemitism and xenophobia and nationalism on the one hand and a reluctance of workers to fight back on the other hand. It wasn't until there was a brief recovery and - more importantly some successful examples of worker fight-back, that most workers "woke up" and became increasingly radical.

So working-class confidence, I think, is more of a decisive factor for whether or not workers fight back. There was a brief rise in struggle between Obama's election and his first months in office because people expected things to change - when Obama reinforced the same old shit, that confidence was gone and it was the right-win with the initiative.

So that why I think something as unimportant to the struggle as legalization of weed could, in a small way, raise expectations. We can use this unexpected reform to bring the whole concept of a "war on drugs" into question; from there, why do we even have so much repression in this society; why are nonviolent people locked up for moral reasons or petty property theft or damage; what are the priorities of the state and why?

A better version of this is LGBT marriage equality. People haven't fought for this in the past because they didn't think they could win. Expectations have been raised though and it's hard for the ruling class to put that genie back in the bottle.

[ProgressiveThinker90]

Legalize marijuana!. What people put in their body is no business of the government!.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Why are people worried about the work economy to fuck up for legalizing pot when, in fact, we need the American economy to fail drastically to wake this fucking country up! We can't gain workers conscious nor solidarity if we keep telling people how bad the capitalist economy is when the economy, in fact, isn't fucking up anymore. I hate to say this, but we need more unemployment to wake people up, & that's not going to happen if we try & save the economy. That's just like reforming the system, in my opinion. Which is not what communists want. We want the system to be eliminated completely!

Just because the economy isn't 'failing anymore' doesn't mean it now works in the interests of the working class. I don't want conditions for working people to go backwards under Capitalism. I want to win the most rights as possible, this isn't reformism and improving conditions for the working class under Capitalism is not consistent with wanting to reform capitalism, it is consistent with working struggles that will eventually lead to revolution.