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Push to Legalize Marijuana Gains Ground in California
NY Times via The Woodward Report ^ | October 27, 2009 | JESSE McKINLEY

Posted on 10/28/2009 2:51:00 PM PDT by honestabe010

SAN FRANCISCO — These are heady times for advocates of legalized marijuana in California — and only in small part because of the newly relaxed approach of the federal government toward medical marijuana.

State lawmakers are holding a hearing on Wednesday on the effects of a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate the drug — in what would be the first such law in the United States. Tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling state about $1.4 billion a year, and though the bill’s fate in the Legislature is uncertain, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated he would be open to a “robust debate” on the issue.

California voters are also taking up legalization. Three separate initiatives are being circulated for signatures to appear on the ballot next year, all of which would permit adults to possess marijuana for personal use and allow local governments to tax it. Even opponents of legalization suggest that an initiative is likely to qualify for a statewide vote.

“All of us in the movement have had the feeling that we’ve been running into the wind for years,” said James P. Gray, a retired judge in Orange County who has been outspoken in support of legalization. “Now we sense we are running with the wind.”

Proponents of the leading ballot initiative have collected nearly 300,000 signatures since late September, supporters say, easily on pace to qualify for the November 2010 general election. Richard Lee, a longtime marijuana activist who is behind the measure, says he has raised nearly $1 million to hire professionals to assist volunteers in gathering the signatures.

(Excerpt) Read more at thewoodwardreport.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: airbrainedhippies; ca2010; california; dopersrights; legalization; libertarians; marijuana; medicalmarijuana; obamacare; potandcircuses; weed; wod
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To: honestabe010

This bill will devastate what’s left of the economy of Humboldt County. I ran into two of my old times friends in Costco and they were both talking about selling their newer Harleys now as the pot money is burning a hole in the pockets of some of the neewbies. On the other hand the Brown Cartel are the really big growers and also they hedge their bets with lots of Meth Labs plus there have been about 5 murders because of rip offs of pot dealers. I have never been so close to voting for a bill like the one coming up as I am now. My fear is the Cartel will up production of cheap Meth to make up for the lost revenue...


21 posted on 10/28/2009 4:58:21 PM PDT by tubebender (Santa Claus is always jolly cause he knows where all the bad girls live...)
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To: fr_freak

It’s not social stigma that stops me from smoking dope, it’s having at least half a brain.

And, your feeble attempt to insult the military aside, half the military aren’t stoned, it’s more like four percent who come up hot. If it’s someone’s first time, he or she usually gets a reprieve when boarded.

I don’t like urinalysis and I don’t like getting deployed, but I have done both more than once, so don’t go “why don’t you just get out?” Those who serve do so in spite of lots of inconveniences and privations (and you’ll probably reply that’s because they couldn’t get a real job).

Sorry to reply to several FReepers in one post, but if the shoe fits....

If your father is a Vietnam veteran, thank him for his service and then ask him what drugs from the Golden Triangle did to our people over there. Example: those living skeletons on crystal meth you see on TV? That’s what 98% pure heroin did in Vietnam. So I guess I have an opinion about what illegal drugs do, including “harmless” marijuana.

And for all of you who demand respect for others’ right to use illegal drugs (even if you personally don’t, that caveat always gets thrown in) , pardon me if I disagree.


22 posted on 10/28/2009 5:09:20 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease!")
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To: autumnraine

I wish the feds would pull their heads out of a certain place and make the growing of hemp legal. Hemp was, at one time, Missouri’s largest cash crop. The rope was stronger than anything, the cloth made from hemp outlasts cotton by an exponential number, and oils made have limitless uses. It grows tall and fast meaning that you can harvest more than one crop a year and it doesn’t require pesticides.

Hemp could give mom and pop farms some much needed cash from a crop that was grown by our founding fathers.

BTW, the hemp of which I speak could not get you high if you smoked an entire acre of the stuff. But it gets the same stigma as the THC filled weed.


23 posted on 10/28/2009 5:20:34 PM PDT by MissouriConservative (Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!)
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To: honestabe010
dude!!!!!!!!!

I'm moving to california man....stumbling for my bong, Club rolling papers and Dead archives CDs..

now where are my statins and prilosec?

I'm high already..


24 posted on 10/28/2009 5:31:53 PM PDT by wardaddy (folks, these freepathons are taking too long tightwads, shame on us in front of the kooks)
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To: honestabe010

The new California millionaire,

The Pizza delivery person.


25 posted on 10/28/2009 5:48:57 PM PDT by Eye of Unk ("If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." T. Paine)
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To: wardaddy

Yeeeech! I can smell the Patchouly from here....


26 posted on 10/28/2009 6:04:58 PM PDT by BullDog108 (A Smith & Wesson beats four aces)
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To: honestabe010

The war on pot is a failure.


27 posted on 10/28/2009 6:06:28 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: honestabe010

I dunno... This is a toughy. On the one hand, we might put thousands of professional drug warriors out of business. On the other, American drug growers would be able to operate in the open, paying taxes as they do so. But then again, there are thousands of illegal aliens growing MJ in our national forests. What will they do for a living? After all, they’re just growing the dope that Americans refuse to grow.


28 posted on 10/28/2009 7:21:51 PM PDT by Redcloak ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: elcid1970
Sorry to reply to several FReepers in one post, but if the shoe fits....

I'm not sure who else you were replying to, but you only have me in the "To" line, so I just want to be sure you aren't accusing me of insulting the military, because that would be silly.

As far as your statement "It’s not social stigma that stops me from smoking dope, it’s having at least half a brain.", my question to you is, do you drink? Because if you do, you are a severe hypocrite. Alcohol is at least as bad a drug as marijuana, not just in the short term effects (i.e. fighting, crashing cars, puking, passing out, etc.) but in the long-term effects (i.e. liver disease, brain shrinkage, etc.). Condemning one drug but not the other and feeling self-righteous about it is just ridiculous. And let's not even get started on cigarettes and chew.

Also, since you are Reserve and not Active, that means that most of the time you are living as a civilian and hanging out with civilians. When I said that the Army would expect that half your friends were getting stoned, I meant the civilian friends. That is why they are pissing you monthly now.
29 posted on 10/28/2009 8:24:46 PM PDT by fr_freak
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To: elcid1970

What? Monthly drug testing in the reserves? So every single drill, drug tests for everyone? How much time does that leave for actual training?


30 posted on 10/29/2009 1:06:40 AM PDT by vmpolesov
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To: vmpolesov

“How much time does that leave for actual training?”

An excellent question.

A 100% lockdown (everybody confined to a holding area) until everyone has given a sample will easily kill half a training day. If applied correctly, the program is supposed to test ten percent of personnel each month. The first sergeant calls out names randomly selected by SSN, and everyone else goes about their business. This keeps the actual druggies on tenterhooks as it was designed to do; for the rest of us it the same invasive, degrading, guilty-until-proven-innocent procedure it has always been since introduced in 1972, our last full year in Vietnam.

Now, somebody said that “alcohol is at least as dangerous as marijuana”. That is nothing but an opinion unless backed by volumes of facts and statistics, so the assertion is a non-starter.

My whole argument is that compulsory urinalysis, like airport security searches, are the result of the misdeeds of a few, for which the majority (and liberty itself) pays a considerable price.


31 posted on 10/29/2009 4:13:29 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease!")
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To: Hodar
"...Never done drugs, never intend to try them..."

You really oughta try pot. It's awesome; you won't be sorry.

32 posted on 10/29/2009 7:33:26 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns
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To: elcid1970
My whole argument is that compulsory urinalysis, like airport security searches, are the result of the misdeeds of a few, for which the majority (and liberty itself) pays a considerable price.

Your analogy to airport security screenings is a poor one. At the airport, we are attempting to keep those determined to commit murder from getting on airplanes. They are bent upon doing something that the vast majority of people consider evil and immoral. Acts such as murder are immoral in and of themselves and require no laws to define them as such. Drug use, on the other hand, is not so universally condemned. Some drug use, such as alcohol consumption, is even socially acceptable. Drug use is not an act that is immoral in and of itself. It is only "evil" because the law says so. Take away the law, and the definition as "evil" goes away too. Not so with murder. Murder is evil with or without a law saying so. (In legalese, this is the difference between Malum in se and Malum prohibitum.)

Thus in your case, you are not being told to pee in a jar because a few bad apples are intent upon doing some horrible evil, but because some politicians didn't like their choice of a recreational intoxicant. (Do you suppose said politicians toasted the passage of their drug laws with a few adult beverages?)

33 posted on 10/30/2009 9:46:54 AM PDT by Redcloak ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Redcloak

“Good citizenship means obeying the laws, even those you don’t like.”

;^)


34 posted on 10/30/2009 10:29:24 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease!")
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To: honestabe010

Ahh, California. The Amsterdam of the USA.


35 posted on 10/30/2009 10:31:53 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
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