Legalizing WEED in CA is now 50/50…sort of…

California’s newest strategy to stop police, city, and county officials from circumventing the will of the people in regards to Medical Marijuana is Proposition 19, that looks to legalize marijuana for ALL adults, not just marijuana patients, 21-years and older. Despite the popular vote, official verbal and written declarations from President Obama and US Attorney General Eric Holder to ease up on the marijuana movement abuse, cops are still busting (in 2008, California police made 78,500 weed-related arrests) and harassing legal medical marijuana patients, collectives and growers. City and county officials continue to use lame zoning restrictions and an array of underhanded legal tactics to completely ban dispensaries, not just limit them like they’ve done all over LA, San Jose and countless other regions, but completely outlaw them…effectively taking medicine away from those who need it and completely ignoring the will of the people!

According to a SurveyUSA pot field-poll sponsored by our local CBS affiliate, 50% of those polled in their oral interview, despite an enveloping fear and paralyzing embarrassment of voicing a contrary opinion to the War on Drugs so pervasive in our culture it’s destroyed honest discourse on this subject of national importance, say they’re completely down with prop 19 and legalizing marijuana for all adults 21 and up. So, much like divorce rates in our country…it’s looking as if the legalization of weed here in California this year is coming down to a coin toss. Okay, it’s not 50/50, rather 50% of those polled say they’re down, while 40% say they aren’t and around 11% haven’t made up their fucking minds yet because they’re still digesting all that bullshit Reefer Madness and many think since they’re still “weighing their options,” they’ll vote in opposition. Those are some deflating numbers when you look back at the hard work done between now and 1972 when California saw a similar initiative to legalize cannabis get shot down. Oh, and it was also named Proposition 19, by the way.

So who exactly is interested in ending a government-created black market and the criminal violence that goes along with it? All the Young Dudes! People ages 18-34 are completely down with legalizing the recreational use of weed because they recognize the legalization of medicinal use has failed. That group votes yes on WEED by a whopping margin of  70-22, while lame, crusty ol’ voters aged beyond 65 years, totally oppose letting just anyone “old enough to buy booze” buy weed; 50-37. No shocker, it ain’t those Baby Boomers, who all tried weed in their teens and 20’s, who are going to legalize weed anyhow, it’s the kids who are in their teens and 20’s right now who look to eliminate the capricious hand of law enforcement that ruins peoples’ lives by destroying their right to an education, employment, and a future when cops randomly catch someone (and by random we mean target and by someone we mean minorities) doing something a humongous percentage of people in their teens and 20’s have done and still do regularly.

Republicans, as you’d expect, would rather keep prisons full of marijuana users while fun-loving Democrats and all the cool people in high school who nowadays identify themselves as Independent voters, favor legal weed by stadium-sized margins.

SurveyUSA does not show a large disparity in support for Prop. 19 between whites and minorities because everyone, including white people, likes to smoke weed! Cool people like Bob Dylan and that dude who drove the GTO in Dazed and Confused and gets older while all the high school girls stay the same age, support weed unanimously, while uncool people like Adolph Hitler, Meg Whitman, Brendon in the Big Brother House, the California Narcotics Officers Association, California Police Chiefs Association, Klingons,  Mothers Against Drunk Driving, people who can’t get laid, and the California District Attorneys Association and  are all against legalization because they’re a bunch of pussies!

Even if the proposition is passed on November 2^nd, the sale of marijuana will remain illegal under federal law via the Controlled Substances Act however, so don’t get your hopes up. And, the issue seems an obvious contender for a decision by the Supreme Court, so it’s not like we’ll all be buying those $1.50 Purple Kush joints any time soon.

Wha? $1.50 joints you say? Yeah, well according to a new study by the RAND corp., legalizing recreational marijuana would make herb a lot cheaper, an ounce of herb could drop in price by as much as 80 percent. They also predict an increase in pot consumption by up to 150 percent! You listening snack-food industry? Oh…and that lucrative tax revenue politicians keep promising, the State Board of Equalization has estimated that imposing a $50 per ounce levy could generate $1.4 billion a year in new tax revenue, is based on current weed prices, man…not post-legalization prices. And, keep in mind…California’s deficit is nearly…what like currently approaching $20 billion or something?

So at this point…we’re going to toss a coin, because who the hell really knows what’s going to happen to weed post November…and it’s not like the governing body here in CA listens to the popular vote anyhow…