Free Republic

An initiative passed narrowly by voters in 2020 to protect wildfire victims and seniors has opened the door to massive tax increases that threaten tenants and the roof over their heads. Proposition 19 removed important taxpayer protections from the state constitution that for 35 years guaranteed that parents or grandparents could transfer property to their kids without any change to the property tax bill. The removal of these protections has brought back the death tax to California. Now, when property is passed from parent to child, it is reassessed to current market value, triggering a huge increase in annual property...

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward making lots of money. That's Jamen Shively's thesis, anyway. The former Microsoft manager, 45, is embarking on a publicity tour for the marijuana enterprise he's happy to label the "Starbucks" of pot. "Yes, we can" is for Shively "yes, we are big marijuana" -- and he's getting ready for what he believes is The Next Big Thing: legal pot -- everywhere. With his trusty sidekick, former Mexican president Vicente Fox -- a partner of Shively's in Diego Pellicer, Inc., the nation's first "premium marijuana" retail brand -- in...

Full headline:In CA on Election Eve, Women Solidify Opposition to Prop 19; Even the Greater San Francisco Bay Area No Longer Supports Legal Marijuana SurveyUSA Breaking News - 8 hours ago [about 5pm edt] On Election Eve, California remains divided on Proposition 19, with women opposing the measure now more than at any point during the campaign and support in the greater San Francisco Bay Area no greater than opposition, according to SurveyUSA's 8th and final pre-election tracking poll , conducted for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, KPIX-TV in San Francisco, KGTV-TV in San Diego, and KFSN-TV in Fresno. "No" has 46%,...

California's marijuana legalization campaign, which has struggled to raise money despite the intense nationwide focus on the issue, was jolted Tuesday when a multibillionaire investor with a long interest in loosening drug laws endorsed Proposition 19 and donated $1 million. The contribution triples the amount of money that legalization advocates have to spend in the final week before the Nov. 2 election and dwarfs the $317,500 that the California Chamber of Commerce has spent on radio ads in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego against the initiative. ...Soros donated to a campaign committee run by the Drug Policy Alliance, a...

How To Decide in Less Than A Minute on How to Vote on Proposition 19For those of you in a hurry, here is a quick question to ask yourself. Do you want marijuana smoke in your house or apartment? If the answer is "no", then VOTE NO on Proposition 19. It's as simple as that. Proposition 19 strips away your rights to stop marijuana smoke from entering your home. Things I Found Out About Proposition 19•Proposition 19 has no protections for the public from exposure airborne marijuana, either vaporized or burned. There isn't a word in there about this. A...

Next month on election day, Californians will have the chance to legalize marijuana for the specific purpose of raising revenues via taxes. Think about that for a moment: legalizing a dangerous product for the specific purpose of collecting more taxes.  I guarantee you that the politicians will begin demonizing marijuana the moment the Secretary of State reports the initiative passed. By Christmas they will be telling the public how much revenue they will collect from taxing marijuana, and by next June they will be raising taxes on it to pay for the treatment of those who want to quit but...

Next month on election day, Californians will have the chance to legalize marijuana for the specific purpose of raising revenues via taxes. Think about that for a moment: legalizing a dangerous product for the specific purpose of collecting more taxes. I guarantee you that the politicians will begin demonizing marijuana the moment the Secretary of State reports the initiative passed. By Christmas they will be telling the public how much revenue they will collect from taxing marijuana, and by next June they will be raising taxes on it to pay for the treatment of those who want to quit...

One of the state's biggest and most powerful unions, the Service Employees International Union, has endorsed Proposition 19, the November ballot initiative that would legalize pot and its cultivation and distribution. The union has 700,000 members in California. ... the SEIU is a nice stamp of legitimacy that counteracts all the law enforcement agencies and elected officials of both parties who have come out against Prop. 19. This could allow other groups to feel more free to come forward. Game on.

California's three ACLU affiliates announced today they are backing Prop 19, the statewide initiative to legalize pot for those 21 and older. The measure will be on the ballot in November. "Enforcement of marijuana prohibition consumes a great deal of California's law enforcement and court system resources, and has a disproportionate impact on communities of color," the ACLU said in a press release.

If the federal government does not preempt the Golden State's attempt to legalize marijuana, it would make their attack on Arizona's immigration law look like a matter of political whimsy. Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, is a California ballot proposition which will be on the November 2, 2010, California statewide ballot. It legalizes various marijuana-related activities, allows local governments to regulate these activities, permits local governments to impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorizes various criminal and civil penalties.

IN 1971 a group of teenagers in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, started meeting after school, at 4:20PM, to get high. The habit spread, and 420 became code for fun time among potheads worldwide. Ever since, California has remained in the vanguard of global cannabis culture. Oaksterdam University in Oakland is today unique in the world as a sort of Aristotelian lyceum for the study of all aspects—horticultural, scientific, historical—of the weed. Legally, California has also been a pioneer, at least within America. In 1996 it was the first state to allow marijuana to be grown and consumed for...