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Sheldon Alberts, Postmedia News (source: Edmonton Journal)24 Oct 2010
California
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Sales tax revenue under robust economic Times unreadable against the fear of ' Ganga Madness ' If Laws Relaxed
Gripping his lighter in one hand and a blue bubbler pipe in another, David Goldman is leaning forward on her living room sofa and begins to medicate.Pipe burbles has as he takes a long drag of the premium marijuana doctors recommended for his chronic pain and headache.He is waiting for a moment to exhale, savours the taste, and then release a long linjeopacimeteret of smoke in the air.
"," He says, "feels wonderful."
It is a feeling Goldman, 59, hope all adult Californians will be able to share--without fear of arrest or jail time--before much longer.
Fourteen years after California became the first jurisdiction in North America to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes is the State of weighing a history-making ballot measure to legalize drugs for recreational purposes.
Proposition 19 which Californians want to approve or reject on Nov. 2, would allow anyone 21 years of age or older to possess up to one Ounce and grow up to 2,25 square metres of marijuana. it gives local governments authority to tax and regulate the drug cultivation and retail sales in the cannabis cafes or other outlets.
The proposal has again set the left-leaning California--which is only two years ago, went through a wrenching debate over gay marriage--on the front lines-U.s. culture wars.
Public safety first, the group leads no campaign offers 19, have raised a pot Garden in each California backyard and places of work rife with stoned employees ghost.
The Obama administration is also raise its hackles.
In a move aims to give California voters pause before the vote in favour of the legalization, U.S. Attorney General Eric Keeps recently announced the Federal Government would continue "vigorously Enforce" federal drug law prohibits marijuana whatever California voters decide.
"Proposition 19 do not want to pass, even if it passes," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, also promised continued enforcement.
Warnings came as the pace of legalisation in California seemed to build. Despite opposition from virtually all the major political figure in the State found a public policy Institute of California poll in September, 52 percent of the voters backed offers 19.
In the wake of the farmer's message found a PPIC study released this week, support had declined sharply to 44 percent.
' There is some potential for confusion that gets created on the California actually do, have the right to pass prop 19, which it is not, "says Stephen Gutwillig, California state Director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a defence group will support the Yes on 19 campaign.
"There may be people who now have a question about whether or not the Federal Government just simply can invalidate the election."
Other critics of quotes 19 say ballot measure an unmanageable mess, which creates a patchwork of regulations in the counties and cities and towns across the State. in an editorial headlined ' no ' to hilda Madness denounced the San Diego Union-Tribune this week initiative as "an invitation to law enforcement chaos."
For fans of the quotes 19 is the legalization of marijuana, however, an idea whose time has come.
Even as legislators and editorialists fight proposal, Yes on the 19 campaign built a diverse and somewhat surprising coalition of backers--including the State's largest Labor union, an array of former police chiefs and civil right groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of colored people.
"I believe the passage of prop 19 will be a tipping point," says Goldman, a patients ' rights activist who believe that the majority of Californians will no longer accept they fall into heaven is predictions anti-marijuana movement.
In the no-campaign arguments belong Goldman echoes of the debate in 1996 over medical marijuana.
"The trøde world would be a end-of-children would be helplessly seduced into marijuana; the driving fatality rate would be jointly and severally liable, and all lay out gets stoned the whole time," he says.
"And Lo and behold, there just hasn't happened."
Many of the arguments pro-legalization know: that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco and law enforcement to precious dollars are squandered on enforcing minor infringements.
The often quoted statistics? in 2008, there were arrests for misconduct 61,000 marijuana possession in California, while 60,000 violent crime went unresolved.
"To spend a single dollar no locking up of cannabis just think is not comfortable to me," says Julia Negron, retired specialist who joined a dependency group of California mothers support Yes at 19 campaign.
' It is insane--Why would we ever make it To dollar? should go to education. To dollar should go to treatment That dollar. should go everywhere, but the prison system. "
On this point, outbound California gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agree seems. Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger signed legislation to make the possession of an Ounce of marijuana, a violation rather than an offence--put a violation on par with receive a parking ticket.
For all the focus on the traditional arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana, the passage of quotes 19 rest on the Yes campaign's ability to convince the voters, it is the fiscally responsible for California to do.
With the State of desperate new sources of revenue to tackle a $ 19-billion annual deficit, fight the legalization supporters, taxation and regulation of marijuana would give a much-needed infusion of cash.
Marijuana production currently generates $ 14 billion a year in the State and the pro-legalization human rights defenders argue the State could collect up to $ 1.4 billion in additional taxes by regulating its production.
Other vision California becomes a destination for tourists with marijuana Bay Area and northern Humboldt County, which is where most of the State's crop is grown--as the natural hubs.
In July, the licensing of four Oakland marijuana factories to sell pot wholesale for medical marijuana dispensaries. a local pot entrepreneur, Richard Lee, have opened Oaksterdam University trains students in cultivates and sells marijuana.
' I think Bay Area will develop into a Mecca in the direction of Amsterdam, "says Chris Conrad, a veteran Californias marijuana battles and a member of the Yes on 19 Steering Committee.
MAP posted by: Richard Lake
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