Effort To Legalize Marijuana In California Losing In Latest Poll

• To vote no is ridiculous. In my opinion all drugs should be legal. Anything the government does to protect me from me I am against. I am supposed to be free in America. The idea I cannot do what I want drives me nuts so I do it anyway. But if it were legal I would feel much more at ease and definitely more free. What are people afraid of exactly? Children are going have better access? WTF?! It will be regulated just like alcohol. More people will be addicted? People are going to be addicted either way. All you can do is check yourself. Stop trying to control other people. It's creepy. The best we can do is legalize, educate, and regulate. The real problem I see is that democrats who are the majority of supportive voters want big government. Or so it seems. And what we get with big government is a whole lot of control. I do agree with a few earlier comments. One was about how if California goes so will the rest of the nation. Very true. So important for Californians to go out and vote YES on 19. I live in WA state and would love to have the opportunity. and to True MJ Advocate. I am glad that you are able to use MJ for medical use. I think that is awesome. But you are confused on the issue. The issue is a much bigger picture. The whole point of legalizing MJ is to send our government a message. The message is this: A politician does not have an opinion, we give them their opinion. Its that simple. There are some people who do not have access as easy as you do. And they want it. And they have every right to do so legally as you do. I smoke weed about twice a year. It's planned, safe, and in no way is anyone else in harms way. If it were legal I would keep the same habit. But it is very frustrating that twice a year I have to risk my job just to smoke a plant because someone else thinks it is bad for me, shouldn't that be my decision? Give me a good answer for that and I might agree with you.

• i think marijuana should be legalized there is nothing wrong with it if you legalized it you wouldnt have to worry about the weed problems so much people getting busted thrown in jail gang, drug violence would go down increasingly we should take the idea into consideration and give it a chance see how the change is and if it gets bad then change the law but we should just try once

• i think marijuana should be legalized there is nothing wrong with it if you legalized it you wouldnt have to worry about the weed problems so much people getting busted thrown in jail gang, drug violence would go down increasingly we should take the idea into consideration and give it a chance see how the change is and if it gets bad then change the law but we should just try once

• While bullets fly into El Paso and bodies pile up in the streets of Juarez, and thugs with gold-plated AK-47s and albino tiger pens are beheading federal officials and dissolving their torsos in vats of acid, here are some facts concerning the peaceful situation in Holland. --Please save a copy and use it as a reference when debating prohibitionists who claim the exact opposite concerning reality as presented here below: Cannabis-coffee-shops are not only restricted to the Capital of Holland, Amsterdam. They can be found in more than 50 cities and towns across the country. At present, only the retail sale of five grams is tolerated, so production remains criminalized. The mayors of a majority of the cities with coffeeshops have long urged the national government to also decriminalize the supply side. A poll taken earlier this year indicated that some 50% of the Dutch population thinks cannabis should be fully legalized while only 25% wanted a complete ban. Even though 62% of the voters said they had never taken cannabis. An earlier poll also indicated 80% opposing coffee shop closures. It is true that the number of coffee shops has fallen from its peak of around 2,500 throughout the country to around 700 now. The problems, if any, concern mostly marijuana-tourists and are largely confined to cities and small towns near the borders with Germany and Belgium. These problems, mostly involve traffic jams, and are the result of cannabis prohibition in neighboring countries. Public nuisance problems with the coffee shops are minimal when compared with bars, as is demonstrated by the rarity of calls for the police for problems at coffee shops. While it is true that lifetime and past-month use rates did increase back in the seventies and eighties, the critics shamefully fail to report that there were comparable and larger increases in cannabis use in most, if not all, neighboring countries which continued complete prohibition. According to the World Health Organization only 19.8 percent of the Dutch have used marijuana, less than half the U.S. figure. In Holland 9.7% of young adults (aged 15 to 24) consume soft drugs once a month, comparable to the level in Italy (10.9%) and Germany (9.9%) and less than in the UK (15.8%) and Spain (16.4%). Few transcend to becoming problem drug users (0.44%), well below the average (0.52%) of the compared countries. The WHO survey of 17 countries finds that the United States has the highest usage rates for nearly all illegal substances. In the U.S. 42.4 percent admitted having used marijuana. The only other nation that came close was New Zealand, another bastion of get-tough policies, at 41.9 percent. No one else was even close. The results for cocaine use were similar, with the U.S. again leading the world by a large margin. Even more striking is what the researchers found when they asked young adults when they had started using marijuana. Again, the U.S. led the world, with 20.2 percent trying marijuana by age 15. No other country was even close, and in Holland, just 7 percent used marijuana by 15 -- roughly one-third of the U.S. figure. In 1998, the US Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey claimed that the U.S. had less than half the murder rate of the Netherlands. That�s drugs, he explained. The Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics immediately issued a special press release explaining that the actual Dutch murder rate is 1.8 per 100,000 people, or less than one-quarter the U.S. murder rate. Here�s a very recent article by a psychiatrist from Amsterdam, exposing Drug Czar misinformation. Just put the following sentence in GOOGLE: "Amsterdam Psychiatrist Blasts US Drug Czars for Distortions, Fear-Mongering" Now let's look at a comparative analysis of the levels of cannabis use in two cities: Amsterdam and San Francisco, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health May 2004, The San Francisco prevalence survey showed that 39.2% of the population had used cannabis. This is 3 times the prevalence found in the Amsterdam sample Source: Craig Reinarman, Peter D.A. Cohen and Hendrien L. Kaal, The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy. Moreover, 51% of people who had smoked cannabis in San Francisco reported that they were offered heroin, cocaine or amphetamine the last time they purchased cannabis. In contrast, only 15% of Amsterdam residents who had ingested marijuana reported the same conditions. Prohibition is the �Gateway Policy� that forces cannabis seekers to buy from criminals who gladly expose them to harder drugs. The indicators of death, disease and corruption are even much better in the Netherlands than in Sweden for instance, a country praised by UNODC for its so called successful drug policy. Check out YouTube and watch Antonio Maria Costa doing his level best to avoid discussing the success of Dutch drug policy. The Netherlands also provides heroin on prescription under tight regulation to about 1500 long-term heroin addicts for whom methadone maintenance treatment has failed. The Dutch justice ministry announced, last year, the closure of eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty. There's simply not enough criminals.

• Medical Marijuana is not doing fine. It's fighitng for it's life in court. Big investigaitons and prosecutions are coming for the dispensarires. They are being declared illegal by cops and prosecutors who hate prop 215. They have found a way to not allow a 215 defense. Read about the Jovan Jackson case down in San Diego. The prosecutors are getting smart and adpating. If you think 215 will save your suppy, it wont. People will be forced back into the criminal market. People are begining to see through the medicine BS. Vote prop 19 YES! If you don't and the 215 gets restricted, you'll be smoking that mexican brick weed again.

• Young people bitch and complain -- especially complain. They tend not be be doers. Any Prop that depends on the fickle youth is in danger. The youth tend to have a sense of entitlement. They should be able to smoke Pot -- end of story. For them democracy is on automatic pilot. When Prop 19 is defeated, they'll just complain -- even though they were too lazy to vote.

• @ trueMJadvocate - yes yes for voting no! @ Truer MJ Advocate - as the price falls, so does the quality. It will be a fine symbolic vote, except that the feds will come after CA. Medical is finally doing fine, being left alone, and better yet with the recent decriminalization. Why screw with it right now?! We're only screwing ourselves. I'm voting no this round and you should too. Think big picture!

• Thank you, Republicans, for supporting big government. It's so nice to know that the federal government can tell us what we can do with our own bodies.

• The genie is already out of the bottle, if it doesn't pass this round, it will in the next.

• Prop 19 is CRAP!! And I am very dissapointed with the LA Weekly for the way they have been representing the "Stoners" of California. Supporting Prop 19 as some sort of stand off against Obama?!?! What the F is that?? Is that really what we have come to?? I am a Patient for Decriminalization!! Legalization, Taxation, and Government Regulation is not the answer!!

• I support REAL legalization with REAL regulation and tax schemes. Prop 19 does not legalize, tax or regulate. NO ON 19!

• HEY TRUE MJ. You are completely mis-informed. You may pay a little tax to SAM, but you already are paying taxes. Don't be greedy everyman has the right to indulge. "Don't hide Share"

• Please stopped acted like a stoner idiot, it's articles like these that give cannabis users a bad name. Talk like this is fine when you're passing blunts with your buddies, but when you publishing stuff keep it professional, it's the non tokers that we have to convince to vote yes, and ridiculous writing like this is more likely to dissuade them. Please vote yes on Prop 19

• @ true mj advocate If you were a truer mj advocate like me you would vote yes. Who cares if it's taxed? It'll be cheaper than it is now, which rocks. Peace, AND YES ON 19!

• I am a "medical marijuana patient" and have been an pro marijuana advocate for 15 years. I am voting NO on 19 and everyone I know is doing the same. I love MJ and think it is a wonder plant in so many ways. This bill is so a few get rich. Fines go from $200 to $1000.. MJ possession is already decriminalized in Ca, less than a misdemeanor and it is "medicine". Why would anyone vote to pay taxes on medicine or anything else that which is tax free??? California will not get any of the tax revenues, it says right in the bill the revenues generated will be used to enforce the "new" mj laws in the bill. If you are too lazy to read the bill just imagine how the government can screw this up for everyone and that will be closer to the truth about what this bill will create.

• I would REALLY like to read an article about Propisition 19 that doesn't have a lot of stupid puns and stoner jokes in it. Not this time. Cheap and lazy writing.

• Once again the media scare tactics at work. I urge everyone go to the colleges and go to the streets. Encourage everyone you know to support a yes vote on prop 19. GET OUT AND VOTE PEOPLE. THEY SAY WE WONT GET OFF OUR BEAN BAGS, I sold mine 25 years ago and graduated to the sofa; it's easier to get to the fridge when you just smoked some kind bud. NO, seriously folks; there is a very old saying �So as Cali goes, so goes the rest of the country�. People from all four corners of the US are looking for this madness to stop. And we Cali�s must fight the good fight for all mankind rights to self medicate as we so deem fit. �GO VOTE YES on PROP 19�

• As long as elections are secret, you can still say one thing to keep your job and vote another way in secret for your liberty.

• ya nice try!!!!!!!!!!!!

• This article sucks and is bullshit.

• Nice try April Fools is over. It's still going to pass. This is either proof that post-polling is inaccurate or that people are desperate to sway voters. OMG WE GET A FAIL POLL! YES! Publish!!!

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