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by Chris Jones
A bunch of reefer addicts in Oakland filed a ballot initiative with the California Secretary of State yesterday to legalize the marijuana for fun time recreational purposes. The fine folks at Oaksterdam University, those guys who advertise on the back page of the weeklies alongside bankruptcy attorneys and certified massage therapists offering dubious treatments like "prostate drainage", are spearheading the effort to collect the 434,000 signatures necessary to get this thing on the ballot. Now that Oakland is taxing medicinal marijuana out of budgetary desperation, pot activists figure flat out legalization is mere steps away. Sure it is, hippies.
If passed, the measure would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of pot and especially ambitious urban gardener types to cultivate veritable fields of "hoobastank" on plots of 25 square feet in size. That's a big plot. Now imagine that plot covered entirely in festive sticky, smelly, green plants. Wow, man. One wonders if this kind of cultivation will be allowed in all the new community gardens Gavin Newsom has promised to bestow upon San Franciscans as part of one of his greener than thou political gestures. The mind reels...
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I can understand how it might be easy to be a cynic on this topic, but I think you'd find if you took three deep breaths and stepped back far enough from the situation to see the big picture, you would understand that this builds momentum for the rest of the country to correct their marijuana laws on a local level rather than to drag their feet waiting for the federal government to legalize it on their end (which we can all agree will NEVER be the first one to deviate from the status quo).
There is no reason for marijuana to remain illegal. Its illegal status fuels organized crime and simultaneously creates a big hole in the tax-payer's pockets to pay for law enforcement, clogged up courts/prisons, etc. Let us not also forget the opportunity cost of tax revenue that is being forgone with it not being legal.
It is wrong, and your wimpy little article does absolutely nothing to better the community. Next time try doing some research and spend just a little more time pontificating about that bigger picture called the world around you.
Wes Day
Birmingham, AL
Stop whining.
Why is it that pot advocates who leave comments here always seem to be the most humorless and joyless of anyone? Dude, chill. The article's obviously tongue-in-cheek. It's a website, not a policy journal. Lighten up.
(And this is coming from someone who fully supports legalization.)
Seeing you're from out of town, let me remind you - you're preaching to the choir. Also, this is nowhere near cynicism for SFist. ;)
Dude, grow up. Your stuff is both stupid and not funny.
Hee!
"...plots of 25 square feet in size. That's a big plot."
Yeah, five feet by five feet is just massive.
"...pot activists figure flat out legalization is mere steps away. Sure it is, hippies."
It's coming, whether you like it or not. Support for it keeps growing. Several recent national polls have shown support in the forty some odd percent range now, except one where 52% of those surveyed were for legalization. On a recent field poll in California 56% of those surveyed were for legalization. Every year the percentage for legalization increases and that has been the trend since 1992. We've seen steady increases since then on national polls. Younger people are for it. Older people who grew up before marijuana became popular are almost all opposed, but they are steadily dying off and being replaced as voters by people much more open to legalization. Those born before the baby boom comprised about 28.3% of the voting aged population in 2000. Now they are less than 18% of the voting aged population and that percentage is shrinking by about one point a year.
Unless there is just some drastic change within a few years the majority of voting aged Americans will be for legalization. Legalization may not happen in the next couple of years in California or anywhere else, but we aren't that far from seeing it happen, and California will likely be one of the first if not the first state to legalize it if states start legalizing it before the feds do.
As for the hippie comments, keep in mind that a lot of us for legalization are short haired suit wearing professional types who see that trying in vain to keep up the ban on marijuana is an enormous waste of resources and it is causing a lot more harm than good. I don't even know any hippies, but I know plenty of people who think we should legalize marijuana and regulate it similar to alcohol.
This just keeps getting more and more comical. Are any of you people huffing over here from wherever it is this entry has been linked reviewing the rest of this site for context?
"Are any of you people huffing over here from wherever it is this entry has been linked reviewing the rest of this site for context?"
Clearly not. I kinda sorta wish I had before making my initial post.
Marijuana is serious business.
*giggle*
Oh, brother. You'd think I'd written an expose on the Michigan Womyn's Festival for the complete lack of a sense of humor our good neighbors are demonstrating here. Wes of Birmingham, Sebastapol, and Jay65 makes me sad!
Sorry you have to be sad, Chris. You have to understand though that there are a lot of us out here who are dead serious about the need to legalize marijuana. What you wrote here is insulting on top of being harmful to a cause I believe in. I'm not a hippy. I don't even smoke pot. I gave it up years ago because it's a waste of time and wasn't helping me get to where I wanted to be in life. But I deal with marijuana issues all the time as an attorney. I've handled thousands of pounds worth of pot cases and they just keep coming. I've been a prosecutor and a defense attorney. I see what a waste of money and resources this whole thing is and the problems we are causing with it even though we are stopping nothing, not doing a lick of good. Don't expect me to have much of a sense of humor about this. This $hit is not funny to me. It needs to end yesterday.
And to answer the other poster's question about how I got here, I typed the words "legalize" and "marijuana" into Google just to see what people are saying these days and yours is just one of the articles that came up.
You can write "shit" here, dear.
While we appreciate anyone who has a strong belief in anything -- especially drugs -- what you're asking for from my writer is, for lack of a better word, censorship. Please refrain from asking my writers to stop doing anything, ever. OK? OK.
Really, you should know better.
I'm not asking him to stop doing anything. I'm just calling him on what he did, exercising a little free speech. He can write whatever he wants write. But I guarantee you this type of thing will always upset some people. This is becoming more of a heated issue in this country. People have some very strong opinions on marijuana legalization now. The percentages for and against are starting to even up and this is likely to be a contentious issue for years to come. By all means write whatever you want to write, publish what you want to publish, just don't be surprised when articles on this issue touch a nerve or two even if they are just meant to be light fluffy humorous pieces. It's a touchy issue these days. You'll see it from both sides.
Thanks.
Oh, after reading my post I think I see what you were talking about when you said something about me wanting your writer to censor his thoughts. When I said "this shit is not funny to me... it needs to end yesterday," I was referring to the ridiculous war on marijuana and all the problems it is causing, not articles like the one Chris wrote. Sorry for not being clear on that. I might disagree with someone on something but I won't tell him what to think or what to say.
"It's coming, whether you like it or not."
Well now, that does sound very Bay Area.
Thanks, Chris. Excellent article.
Where is Angelina Jolie, or is she getting high with Mr. Hand and Spicoli (sp?)?
to Jay65: chill out.
Cannabis prohibition represents a perilous collusion of commercial/industrial establishments with the religious right that equates to treason against the Union. Our very national security is being threatened by these laws which are directly responsible for short order funnelling of BILLIONS of U.S. dollars straight into the pockets of some seriously dangerous people. Sorry we potheads just cant quit with the jokes sometimes, dude.
It is very important to point out when someone is wrong on the Internet!
I think if it legalized the use would actually decline because the illegality thrill of it will be gone. https://www.mindreign.com/en/mindshare/Religion/Abortion-is-OK-e2-80-93-Because-e2-80-93-It-e2-80-99s-Not-3f/sl36962305bp409cpp10pn1.html has some interesting ideas on the subject as well...