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A Different Kind of Tea: Tea Partiers May Support Pot Legalization

by Leo E. Laurence, J.D. (leopowerhere [at] msn.com)
Proposition 19, which would legalize and tax marijuana in California, may have some unexpected supporters in the conservative tea party movement, reports Leo E. Laurence, associate editor of Zenger’s magazine and a former deputy sheriff who's campaigning for the measure as a member of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (L.E.A.P.).
A Different Kind of Tea

Some Libertarian “Tea Party“ Conservatives May Back Prop. 19

by LEO E. LAURENCE, J.D.

Copyright © 2010 by Leo E. Laurence • All rights reserved

Support for Proposition 19 on the November ballot to regulate, tax and control cannabis (marijuana) is coming from unexpected sources, including activists in the Tea Party.

Recent polls show support for the statewide initiative is growing, and it may pass with a bigger major-ity than expected.

The glossy, locally published NUG Magazine ran as its lead article in its October issue a story I wrote supporting Proposition 19 on behalf of the international organization, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. NUG is distributed within the cannabis community (and therefore widely read by young people). I’m a former deputy sheriff and once served in the San Diego D.A.’s office.

My article suggested that “the impact of the conservative Tea Party movement is unknown, and could threaten passage. Some [San Diego] City Councilmembers (Todd Gloria, Carl DeMaio) even refused to discuss it, ignoring the hundreds of millions of dollars that could come into our city treasury if Proposition 19 passes.”

“[The] impact of the fiery, neo-conservative Tea Party movement is unknown,” I wrote in NUG.

After that magazine hit the streets, I received a phone call from conservative El Cajon.

“Proposition 19 is not a partisan issue, especially in East County,” said Justin Price, 26, after reading my NUG article.

Price is a Tea Party supporter.

“Conservative support for Proposition 19 might be stronger than you think,” he added.

“There are lots of Republicans and Tea Party activists who are smoking a joint in their home while watching TV,” he believes.

Price works in a convenience store and reported that many of his customers, including conservative seniors, are talking about it and intend to vote for it.

Change in Law

Under current state law, the possession, cultivation or distribution of marijuana is illegal. In 1996, medical marijuana was approved by voters, but recent San Diego City Council restrictions on the location of medical marijuana dispensaries threatened to create a nearly de facto ban on it.

While possession of it heretofore was misdemeanor, the governor recently signed a state law that reduces it to an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket. Unlicensed sales remain a felony.

Under Proposition 19, everyone over 21 will be able to lawfully possess, share and transport up to an ounce of marijuana. Use will be restricted to a residence or any non-public place.

Cultivation of marijuana will be permitted in an area up to 25 square feet per residence or parcel, and possession of any items of equipment associated with those lawful activities will be permitted.

State and local law enforcement agencies will not be able to seize or destroy marijuana from persons in compliance with the state law.

Employers under Proposition 19 will retain exiting rights to address the consumption of marijuana that impairs an employee’s job performance.

Smoking in the presence of minors — anyone under 21 — will be unlawful, as will driving under the influence and possession on the grounds of an elementary, middle or high school.

Existing laws prohibiting penalties for furnishing marijuana to minors under 18 will remain.

Big money for local governments

Up to two billion dollars will flood into the treasuries of local and state governments with passage of Proposition 19. That figure is an estimate by the state’s taxing agency, the Board of Equalization.

That could make a big dent in the huge budget deficit that the City of San Diego is experiencing.

Another state agency, the independent, non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), says, “To the extent that a commercial marijuana industry develops in the state, we estimate that the state and local governments could eventually collect hundreds of millions of dollars annually in additional revenue.”

So why are local politicians (e.g., City Councilmembers DeMaio and Gloria) refusing to even discuss it with the media?

The initiative is carefully worded to insure that most of its money goes to local government, not the state in Sacramento.

Inaccurate Opposition

In a published statement that ran in our local newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, our district attorney Bonnie Dumanis provided grossly inaccurate facts. Why? Here are some “facts” she wrote:

1. “The truth is, Proposition 19 does not regulate, does not control and does not tax marijuana as its name implies.” FALSE! Apparently she did not read the official state LAO report.

2. “It means zero revenue for the state of California.” FALSE!

3. “The proposition would prohibit an employer from firing an employee who is under the influ-ence.” FALSE!

When I was a deputy sheriff, I would sometimes question a suspect by asking questions, the answers to which I already knew. If they lied on some significant facts, I would question the credibility of all their facts. The same applies to the D.A.’s, inaccurate statements opposing Proposition 19. Why does the opposition have to lie?

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the prohibitions against marijuana have been based on lies ever since the first commissioner of the federal government’s Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, lobbied Congress to enact them in the 1930’s.]

The Basics

Unlike cigarettes or alcohol, marijuana is not physically addictive. Its use does not lead to heavier drugs.

Legalization will lead to reduced consumption, according to studies made in countries (like the Netherlands) that already made that change.

Marijuana does not make consumers violent, as does alcohol.

Consuming cannabis does not have long-term toxic effects on the body, as does smoking tobacco.

Passing Proposition 19 will hit the Mexican drug cartels hard. An estimated 64 percent of the cartel’s revenues come from marijuana. Its cultivation soared by 36 percent, and is higher than at any time in nearly two decades, according to the U.S. State Department. That’s why former Mexican president Vicente Fox has called on his own government to legalize marijuana.

The U.S. has about 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it has 26 percent of its prisoners; some in prison for possession of a single joint and typically people of color.

More information is available at http://www.taxcannabis.org

Contact writer Leo E. Laurence, J.D. at (619) 757-4909 or leopowerhere [at] msn.com
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Lars
It is very important for prop 19 to pass, as it could be the start of a worldwide change against a brainless prohibition that has ruined the lives of so many people and made gangs and mobs rich.
Yes to proposition 19!
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 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.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2010/02/public_split_on_cannabis_legal.php

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.
thttp://www.alternet.org/drugs/90295/

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
http://tinyurl.com/247a8mp


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
http://www.mapinc.org/lib/limited.pdf

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.

Here's Antonio Maria Costa doing his level best to avoid discussing the success of Dutch drug policy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lExNjEhdSkY&feature=related

The Netherlands also provides heroin on prescription under tight regulation to about 1500 long-term heroin addicts for whom methadone maintenance treatment has failed.
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/free-heroin-brings-everyone-a-bit-peace

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
http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2246821.ece/Netherlands_to_close_prisons_for_lack_of_criminals

For further information, kindly check out this very informative FAQ provided by Radio Netherlands: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/faq-soft-drugs-netherlands
or go to this page: http://www.rnw.nl/english/dossier/Soft-drugs
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