cannabisnews.com: US Mulls Pot Law Ballot





US Mulls Pot Law Ballot
Posted by CN Staff on November 04, 2002 at 16:01:41 PT
By Marc Lavine in Los Angeles
Source: Australian
More than three decades after the start of the pot-powered hippie revolution, voters in six US states will vote Tuesday on the still-smouldering issue of whether to ease laws on marijuana use.Years after European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Portugal decriminalised the drug, many Americans are fuming over fresh local proposals to legalise marijuana sales of under certain circumstances. 
"The United States looks increasingly isolated on the issue of marijuana," said Peter Reuter, a professor of law and criminology at the University of Maryland, adding that Americans are less willing to be pragmatic over drugs. As pundits focus on a possible shift in the balance of power in the US Congress following Tuesday's polls, advocates of easing access to pot were issuing last-minute rallying calls to voters in the states of Nevada, Arizona and South Dakota and the cities of San Francisco and Boston. In addition, voters in the eastern state of Ohio and in the US capital of Washington are to cast their ballots in local referendum on relaxing punishment for pot users by offering them treatment instead of criminal penalties. The most radical proposal is on ballots in the freewheeling gambling state of Nevada, where voters will decide whether to become the first state to allow citizens to carry up to 84 grams (three ounces) of marijuana. Under the scheme, people older than 21 would be allowed to buy marijuana in state-licensed shops rather than buying off street-corner drug dealers. "Our war on drugs in not working and its time we admitted that," said Nevada state Representative Chris Giunchigliani, who sponsored the initiative. "Marijuana is now three times easier to get than alcohol and tobacco simply because it's not regulated. I would rather tax it like cigarettes and put money into education and rehabilitation than put it in the hands of drug dealers." But polls show Nevadans are divided on the issue. A recent survey showed 44 per cent of them back the initiative, 46 per cent oppose it while 10 per cent are undecided. In Arizona, voters will vote on whether to allow a register of people allowed to use soft drugs for medical purposes, while toughening the punishment for those caught with marijuana without this excuse. The move would also reduce punishment for marijuana possession to a civil fine and require a conviction before defendants must forfeit their property. US antidrug czar John Walters has been fervently campaigning against the proposed liberalizations, branding the movements irresponsible and saying they constituted the thin end of the drug abuse wedge. Initiatives in Ohio and Washington would force judges to sentence drug offenders to rehabilitation treatment rather than jail. South Dakotans will approve or scupper a proposed law that would make it legal under state – but not federal – law for people to plant and possess industrial hemp, another move violently opposed by antidrug groups. In the traditionally free-spirited California hub of San Francisco, "Proposition S" will allow the city to explore the possibility of growing and distributing marijuana for medical use. California and Arizona approved using marijuana for medical purposes in 1996, but the move clashed with federal laws and sent tensions soaring between the states, the city of San Francisco and government drug enforcement chiefs. Several local authorities in the Boston area have put a nonbinding question on the ballot asking voters if marijuana offenders should be fined instead of facing a judge. But the administration of President George W. Bush and many voters are appalled by efforts to liberalise marijuana use. "While I'm optimistic that our Nevada initiative will pass, we are a nation founded by puritans and some people are worried that lightening up on marijuana will make us look bad," said Giunchigliani. Source: Australian, The (Australia)Author: Marc Lavine in Los AngelesPublished: November 05, 2002Copyright: 2002 News LimitedContact: ausletr matp.newsltd.com.auWebsite: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/Related Articles & Web Site:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Government Gets in on Dope Dealinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14656.shtmlSan Francisco Considers Growing Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14640.shtmlNevada Voters Face Marijuana Initiative http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14605.shtmlMarijuana Initiative Qualifies for Arizona Ballothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13727.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by afterburner on November 05, 2002 at 14:42:44 PT:
Re: Thank God for Hippies! by Stephen Gasken
DdC --Thank you for your posting. I added your link to my favorites. Do you have a link or an email for Stephen Gaskin? I have an important question to ask him. --Taafterburner
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Comment #5 posted by observer on November 05, 2002 at 09:14:03 PT
US Mulls Pot !
Mulls ... pot? :-) A little Aussie reefer-humor in the title, there.
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Comment #4 posted by DANA on November 05, 2002 at 04:10:25 PT
....DdC...
...Thanks for posting that......Hippies are nearing extinction.....but our spirit will live on..
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Comment #3 posted by DdC on November 05, 2002 at 00:36:46 PT
Thank God for Hippies! by Stephen Gasken
Thank God for Hippies!When the crime is so minor, having marijuana, and the punishment is so unreasonable, taking people's homes and years of their lives, as well as a very real Twentieth century shunning, one is forced to look for deeper motives. I have come to believe that it is not the proscription of a
substance but the systematic oppression of a certain kind of people. There have been a whole series of decisions made, on local, state and federal levels, to the effect that hippies, by which is meant any committed liberal persons, are undesireable and are to be banned, interdicted, harrassed, discouraged, arrested and pee-tested. It is a blatant use of police power to frighten and intimidate millions of people into giving up a heartfelt spiritual practice and lifestyle. There are probably 25 million marijuana smokers in the United States alone, as well as millions more who if not smokers now, are still sentimental about it. The oppression to which I refer is for the purpose of keeping these millions of people off balance to minimize their political power. All those 500,000 pot smokers doing time are out of the political process, present but not able to vote. The urine test is the loyalty oath of the Nineties. The hippies are this season's Jews, this season's Reds... Who are these people? We are the yeast that makes the dough rise. And it's not just us, there's been people like us for centuries. Before there were hippies, there were beatniks, before there beatniks, there were bohemians. The European counterculture ran away from Nazî Germany. They brought hundreds of thousands of artists and musicians and writers into this country. Before that there were people like George Bernard Shaw and Voltaire and all the way back to Socrates. There have always been that fraction of people who have said, "I want to see the truth." Stephen Gasken Welcome Home! When the earth
is ravaged and
the animals are
dying, a new
tribe of people
shall come unto
the earth from
many colors,
classes, creeds,
and who by
their actions
and deeds shall
make the earth
green again.
They will be
known as the
warriors of the
Rainbow -- Old Native American Prophecy Rainbow Family of Living Light
http://www.welcomehome.org/Hip Forums
http://www.hipforums.comThank God for Hippies thread
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=3.topic
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Comment #2 posted by mayan on November 04, 2002 at 18:23:25 PT
VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
Don't forget to vote on tuesday! Free the weed!unrelated -The People's investigation of 9/11:
http://www.911pi.com/ 
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Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on November 04, 2002 at 17:31:04 PT
Q9 on MSNBC
I caught The Abrams Report with Chris G. and Sandy Heverly interviewed on Q9. Dan Abrams seemed to be leaning towards the reform viewpoint - he said if Sandy thought alcohol was so bad, she should be crusading for its prohibition, and if she's not then her position isn't balanced. But even more importantly, he said he'd love to have them both back to debate the issue further.
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