TIME MAGAZINE
Next month, Californians will vote on Proposition 19: the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. Prop 19 would make recreational use of marijuana entirely legal — and allow cash-strapped cities to raise funds by taxing it. Completely legalizing pot may sound like a radical idea, but not to the people who are actually going to decide: the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll found that 52% of likely voters support Prop 19, with just 41% who oppose it.
In fact, Prop 19 is polling better than Senator Barbara Boxer or her Republican opponent, Carly Fiorina. It is also outpolling the gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman. It is gaining support as the election grows nearer — and it has the backing of the state Service Employees International Union, perhaps the state's most powerful union.
One of the main arguments for rethinking marijuana laws is economic. A new study by the libertarian Cato Institute found that turning cannabis into a regulated commodity would save $8.7 billion in law-enforcement costs annually, while generating $8.7 billion in revenue.
Supporters of Prop 19 argue that in these dire fiscal times, when the state has been laying off teachers and hospitals have been firing nurses, putting low-level pot users through the legal system is a luxury California cannot afford. Governor Schwarzenegger — who opposes Prop 19, which he believes goes too far — said when he signed the pot-infraction law that bringing criminal charges for pot possession is a waste of "limited resources" in a time when the state faces "drastic budget cuts." The governor may also have been thinking about conditions in his state's prisons, which house twice as many inmates as they were designed to hold, and were ordered last year to reduce the overcrowding.
But the biggest factor driving the pro-legalization movement is simply changing attitudes. People today are more skeptical of the claim that pot is a gateway drug and that people who use it are destined to move on to harder substances. In fact, a study published last month in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that life factors like employment status and stress were stronger predictors of whether teenagers would use other illegal drugs than whether they had smoked marijuana.
Many supporters of legalization acknowledge that marijuana has bad health effects. They just argue that it is hypocritical to make pot use a crime, when alcohol — which has well-documented links to automobile fatalities, domestic abuse and birth defects — remains legal. The alcohol industry has been contributing to the "Say No on Prop 19" campaign, no doubt worried that if pot is legalized, it will cut into beer and liquor sales.
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I think that making pot legal is the wrong choice to make. It might help out California's economy but it will not help the health problems. If they don't have very much room in prisons, then they should build more. I think many people will become users of pot once it is legalized. Using marijuana is illegal and it should stay illegal.
ReplyDeleteI TOTALLY agree with Abby! Why would anyone come up with the idea of making marijuana legal? So, California can keep laying off teachers and firing nurses, but want to make marijuana legal? I think maybe someone was using marijuana at the time when they came up with this idea..you never know. And if marijuana does become legal I'm sure people will start to use it and that's just crazy because they know what it can do to them. We are all old enough to make better choices!
ReplyDeletei say pot is better than snortting pills, or doing acid. why not try it i mean it pretty much is kinda like alchol if you think of it
ReplyDeletei think that if they leagalize pot in california it would not be within our best intrest! because people mite flee to california to do pot, and not get in trouble I guess i can see both sides but i think its more stupid than smart! if it becomes legal some people who do it just to break the law might stop because if its taking the being a rebel out of it, but then wil move on to something that is illegal just to break the law again and im not sure if pot is better than snorting pills or drinking, but no matter what it doesnt make it any more right! I do think it is mostly stupid becaue like abby said our health problems will not benefit from this at all, and like kaley said of all things to make leagal, why on earth pot?? i think that they could make something more productive and useful leagal! THATS NOT POT!
ReplyDeleteThink about it though, it's just going to cause even more promblems if it would become legal and why does California need pot to be legal when we should be worrying about more important stuff? And when it would become legal people will go to pot to relieve their stress when they could find better help. I know a lot of people would want pot legal, but you should look at the big picture making it legal is just plain stupid and won't make your life better when you start using it.
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of arguing I am in favor of the proposal. First the obvious reason that it would really help California's economy by; saving the law enforcement a lot of money and all the money gained in taxes on pot. I also agree with most of you that pot is a bad idea but I have faith that most people know that and will stay away from pot even if it is leagl. The only peole doing pot will be the people already doing it. This way the state of Califoria gains some where around 17.4billion and not much else changes.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think that it is completely stupid to even think about legalizing pot in California. Ya, it may be helpful and useful for people who are using pot for medical reasons but I highly doubt that's all it's going to be used for. There are already a lot of people who probably already use pot as a drug to get high on but by legalizing pot it will just get more people hooked on it. If California legalizes pot, all of the other states will eventually want it to be legalized. Legalizing pot is just a gateway to legalizing other drugs. If pot becomes legal it will basically just encourage people to try it because they know they won't get in trouble for it. Overall, I think legalizing pot may be good for medical users only but other than that I think it's a bad choice!
ReplyDeletePot legalization in California I believe would do more harm to their economy than help it. There was a reason why it is illegal to have it in the first place.Sure not as many people will be put through the court system, and there may be less people in jail, but in the long run there will most likely be way more chemical dependent people out there in the streets who would probably do almost anything to get pot or money to get it. So yeah, there may be less money spent on court cases and people in jail because of pot, but there will probably be tons more in trouble because they "need" to get it.
ReplyDeleteGetting rid of the pot cases will only increase violence of people tring to get other drugs people can get high without consiquence will get experamental with other drugs when they don't get as high from pot. It can get rid of people in jail and help the economy but raise the trafficing of other drug in the state.
ReplyDeleteI don't think pot should be legalized. That would just create more problems than California has already with the prisons or whatever. And if it's legal then teens who haven't tried it would and that wouldn't be goood and the people who do use it would just use it more and more and pot isn't very good for you so it'd harm them. If California has problems with spending too much money on pot court cases then thats their own problem they have to take care of it. Legalizing pot is not going to make that any better.
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