A Reuters/Ipsos poll released today shows that support for this November’s Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in the state, is slightly trailing but within the survey’s margin of error — 48 percent for, 50 percent against, with a 4 percent margin.
This article appears in Thunder in the Redwoods.
This isn’t a good sign for this to pass unless there is no organized opposition to this measure. I somehow think there will be.
I wonder if the Calif. NAACP’s endorsement of Prop 19 is going to change the poll numbers. Claiming marijuana is a civil rights issue backed by the appalling report stats should convince some people.
“In 2008, blacks and Latinos made up less than 44% of the state’s population, but together they constituted 56% of the people arrested in California for possessing marijuana.
…The substantial disparities in marijuana possession arrest rates between whites and blacks cannot be explained by their patterns of marijuana use. … U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use marijuana at lower rates than young whites.”
I hope it doesn’t pass….
My family and friends are in the same boat. We don’t want our kids growing up thinking it’s OK to use drugs. Cigarettes and alcohol are already too much… they cause way more than enough damage to society. No sense adding fuel to the fire.
The ‘medical marijuana’ fiasco is a complete joke….. if you want to use pot ‘legally’… go pay the quack doctor to get your little script and toke to your dark hearts content.
Every country that has legalized illicit drugs is a sh*t hole with even more crime and health problems than those that don’t.
So you rely on laws to teach your children the difference between right and wrong, good and bad?
kids can get alcohol easier than they can get marijuana.. why? because alcohol is regulated and marijuana are not…
sorry, it is the other way around. marijuana is easier to get than alcohol. you get the freakin point..
You do realize in countries that decriminalize drugs, the rate of drug use falls? Lying to children about it creates more problems than it helps, the truth is, like fast food and alcohol and TV in moderation it is fine (it’s alot healthier than alcohol, anyway).
Hey Scott, how about YOU taking responsibility for your children, and not forcing your personal morals on the rest of us? Are you such a poor parent that you can’t teach your own children, and require our government to do it for you?
Alcohol, cigarettes and unhealthy dietary choices account for millions of deaths a year. You know how many people died from marijuana usage alone last year? Zero.
Everyone out there, listen up:
Over 20 million arrests have been made in the US for Marijuana use. That is almost 20 million harmless people who have gone to jail over it. For all those 20 million arrests, police could have found more missing children, catch more killers, and rapists, and target more hard drug dealers instead of petty pot dealers.
20,000+ people have died from hard drugs, when perhaps if Marijuana was legal, they could have gotten high on that instead and been safe.
Almost 10,000 people die each year related to alcohol abuse. When they could have just gotten high on Marijuana, and been safe.
Marijuana legalization will devastate drug cartels, and put more money than you can ever dream of toward things that will improve our state.
It just seems like a no-brainer to me, regardless of the long-term effects of Marijuana, I am sure many less people will die because of marijuana being legal, and many good things will come out of it.
Marijuana also will present itself as a safer alternative to cigarettes. Cigarettes are nasty compared to weed, and kill far more people. How many people died last year from cigs? You don’t want to hear.
And I think those that oppose it and who have never had a molecule of THC in their system would see it this way if they tried it just once.
Me personally, I suffer from bipolar disorder and THC is the only chemical that has stabilized me, and kept me stable for days after using it.
Also listen up, the oil reserves are eventually going to run out. Once that happens, how will we live without a new source of energy?
California is going to be the state to take the first step to utilizing a GIFT from NATURE to improve our society.
This all comes from my heart, and sometimes you need to open your mind to see it this way, because many people who oppose legalization oppose it because they think Marijuana is a dangerous drug… it isn’t!
Adam is using common sense. A dying trait amongst most people. I can understand as a parent you wouldn’t want your kid getting stoned. Your child may do it anyway, and if he/she gets caught with enough of it on his/her person the consequences following can be very severe, especially if he/she is a legal adult 18yrs of age or over. Prison sentences for marijuana is a draconian punishment and should not exist. People get sexually assaulted, beaten, and straight up murdered in prison from marijuana possession due to a flawed system of justice. I understand that as a parent your intentions are good but please, dear god just think about how awful it would be if your own flesh and blood were sent to place as horrid as prison because of a plant in his/her pocket.