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Why Marijuana Advocates Oppose Initiative 
Posted by CN Staff on May 20, 2010 at 15:00:54 PT
By Chris Roberts 
Source: SF Weekly
San Francisco -- Law enforcement and pot smokers don't often see eye-to-eye, but some medical marijuana activists have something in common with the police: They don't like Tax Cannabis 2010, the much-ballyhooed ballot initiative that would make California the first state in the union to legalize — and tax, tax, tax — recreational cannabis use.Of course, they oppose the November ballot measure for different reasons. Cops predictably don't like it because it deals with "dope," while medical pot advocates complain that its fine print actually creates new criminal penalties for marijuana use.
The stated purpose of the measure's authors was to craft a law that treats marijuana more or less like alcohol while creating an additional $1 billion in tax revenue for cash-strapped California. But while it is legal to drink a beer or a fifth of scotch in front of a minor, Tax Cannabis 2010 would make it a crime to use medical marijuana in front of a minor, or pass the dutchie on the left-hand side to a 20-year-old with AIDS or cancer. These heinous acts — some of them hard-won rights provided by the Compassionate Use Act (1996's Proposition 215) — would carry new penalties of up to a $1,000 fine or six months in county jail, on top of the three-to-seven-year minimum state prison sentences for providing cannabis to a minor currently in California law."It creates more crime — why?" asks Dennis Peron, one of Prop. 215's authors, and an activist who is credited with opening one of the nation's first cannabis clubs in the Castro. "Why would we want to create more marijuana crime and add more police?"Peron says he's dead-set against Tax Cannabis 2010, and he isn't alone. Dispensary owners like Kevin Reed of San Francisco's Green Cross wonder whether the nearly 700,000 people who signed petitions qualifying the ballot measure knew exactly what they were signing, and questions whether the push to tax and regulate will do more harm than good to the medical cannabis movement.Jeff Jones, the measure's cosponsor along with Oaksterdam University's Richard Lee, says Peron and Reed are overreacting. Prosecutors rarely, if ever, pursue the tough mandatory minimums provided by law now; why would they do so if the measure passes? The new penalties affect a "minute population in our society," he says, and points out that if the measure passes, law enforcement officers would be forced to shift focus away from pot. "Right now, if someone has a plant in their backyard, they can be a felon," he says. "We're trying to remove that felon status. You cannot tell me that [Tax Cannabis 2010] is worse than [penalties] we have right now."Source: SF Weekly (CA)Author: Chris Roberts Published: Wednesday, May 19, 2010Copyright: 2010 New Times Inc.Contact: feedback sfweekly.comWebsite: http://www.sfweekly.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/mxd6WitkCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #48 posted by Paint with light on May 23, 2010 at 22:56:17 PT
Gandhi quotes
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” -Gandhi has always been one of my favorites.I also like the..."Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth." -Gandhi I would change the seven blunders to six and get rid of, "worship without sacrifice."Thanks for sharing the wisdom.Legal like alcohol. 
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Comment #47 posted by Hope on May 23, 2010 at 09:15:29 PT
Afterburner
You fill my being with joy.Thank you.Gandhi was, his teachings and advice still are, so brilliant. He was always opening a window or door to heaven and letting us see through it, it seems. He was like a conduit to something.... Brilliant.I would have liked to have seen your face after such a wonderful meditation. I bet you fairly glowed.Peace, strength, wisdom, and contentment.Totally cool.
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Comment #46 posted by afterburner on May 22, 2010 at 23:27:36 PT
It's Up to Us - It's Up to You
My meditation continued until I felt a sense of peace and contentment, a "peaceful, easy feeling."Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - Wikiquote 
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi
{
"Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth." -Gandhi "Seven social sins: (Variant: The seven blunders that human society commits and cause all the violence:) politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice." -Gandhi "The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women." -Gandhi "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." -Gandhi "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." -Gandhi "We need to be the change we wish to see in the world." -Gandhi"I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace." -Gandhi "The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least." -Gandhi "A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back — but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you." -Marian Wright Edelman, as quoted in The Art of Winning Commitment : 10 Ways Leaders Can Engage Minds, Hearts, And Spirits (2004) by Dick Richards, p. 11
}It is said that the cannabis liberation movement is "like herding cats." Hey, cats: "Now we must all hang together or we will all hang separately." -Benjamin Franklin, when he stepped forward to sign [the Declaration of Independence].
-quoted in 4th of July http://www.independentlyspeaking.com/4thofjuly.htmlFood Freedom; Health Freedom: Actions Needed Now!
http://www.youtube.com/v/UoZ-j0_8v1s
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Comment #45 posted by afterburner on May 22, 2010 at 23:20:02 PT
Like Lettuce & Tomatoes
I find the in-fighting in the cannabis community personally distressing. We have come so far. Let's not get derailed by bullies, vandals & vigilanties. In order to get back to spiritual balance, I meditated for about half an hour on Saturday morning with the help of Gandhi quotes.Mahatma Gandhi quotes
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/first_they_ignore_you-then_they_laugh_at_you-then/214891.html
{
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” -Gandhi 
}Mahatma Gandhi quotes
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/mahatma_gandhi/
{
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed” -Gandhi“Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it” -Gandhi“Faith... Must be enforced by reason...When faith becomes blind it dies.” -Gandhi“All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such” -Gandhi“They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.” -Gandhi“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” -Gandhi“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result” -Gandhi“We must always seek to ally ourselves with that part of the enemy that knows what is right” -Gandhi“The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children” -Gandhi
}
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Comment #44 posted by BGreen on May 22, 2010 at 14:06:21 PT
I've seen the fear card played before
All of the old people around here denying me the right to have health coverage because they were scared to death it would affect their medicare. It doesn't matter what the truth is, it's the perception that matters.The more people allowed to use cannabis legally the faster it will become commonplace. That is an empirical fact based on the 30-year-old Dutch cannabis model. Limit legal cannabis to just a few and it makes it a helluva lot easier to go after both groups. Legalize, or just tolerate it like the Dutch do, and the world will think its totally legal, thus acceptable.Even the media reports that cannabis is legal in the Netherlands and we know that's totally false. It doesn't matter what the truth is because, regardless of what this bill says, people all across this country will treat it as and understand it to be de facto legalization.I'm sorry if I seem confrontational, Steve, but the only way Kentucky and Missouri are going to move forward is by the actions of the more progressive states. That's historically accurate and easily verifiable. If not, we're going to march headlong right into the 17th century.Peace, Brother Steve. I'm not angry at you.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #43 posted by herbdoc215 on May 22, 2010 at 13:08:31 PT
BGreen...whoa bro we are just debating here?
See comment #23 of mine...I'm still on the fence about my vote but the passions around this has way outran the reality I believe as this really isn't but a symbolic change for most, and other than my specific owing of people for helping me, I haven't seen one logical fact to sway me yet? As long as somebody has a marker on the rest of the patients here it should all be downhill from here, Lee and Jones have done what the cops couldn't for 15 years... as we will surely be fighting for the golden apple for quite a while as Rome burns to the ground? I would take a bullet for many brothers here, but don't tilt windmills? peace, Steve Tuck
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Comment #42 posted by herbdoc215 on May 22, 2010 at 12:49:04 PT
Some literally sacriced everything to be here
A few more have given several more times at the office to stay ahead of the micro-managed laws in order to produce enough medicine (which is almost impossible even for me these days) to stay alive one more day. I have had to move so many times since 215 passed in 1996 (we packed the day 215 passed and moved to Cali with less than $1000 and slept in a tent for a month in 96 to live here) to stay legal, it would take a cray computer to figure them all out as I've lived in California, Oregon, and Washington just since 2005 always one court case away from having to pack-up like last year, so that makes it even easier for me to take risks other patients couldn't for love or money? My kids would love to be with me today, as would my grandchildren and my parents whom everyone of us who have moved here has...there is nothing in the entire universe I would rather do today than be fishing with my step-grandson Tyler whom at 13 just can't understand why I can't just live in Kentucky with them so we can be together? Things are not always as cut and dried as they seem and my main problem is with these medical issues not being more seriously addressed by proponents of the law before it got this far or worse seriously ill patients being used by everybody on all sides without the least thought to what would actually happen to them either way this goes as it's all just about $ and their giving none away!!! bro you know my heart is with you 100% but my crippled ass is scared to death we are being shoved down the cannon one more time? peace, steve
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Comment #41 posted by Hope on May 22, 2010 at 10:45:30 PT
If you appreciated that one
you'll love this one.Una Mas Cervezahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5F2QXODtn8I think half the cops in the county must have been there, along with my dentist, and, I thought for a moment, my ex husband, as well as Cheech Marin. It's a trip to Texas.:0)
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Comment #40 posted by Hope on May 22, 2010 at 10:26:49 PT
maybe in mexico
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOCkP7eh-U
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Comment #39 posted by BGreen on May 22, 2010 at 09:10:02 PT
Yeah, screw the rest of us
Maybe you elitists in CA and other states can take up a collection to help all of us who don't have a hope in the world of seeing legal MMJ. Sure, why sacrifice a little to help those who have sacrificed to help you. You got yours, so f the rest of us.It reminds me of the black guy we just fired from our band who was prejudiced against gay people. As long as it's someone else, f us all.We can't all move to CA so enjoy your freedom, if you can, knowing the rest of us who supported you have been thrown under the bus.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #38 posted by herbdoc215 on May 22, 2010 at 07:01:23 PT
The bill should be called the Oakland Relief Act.
Or at least the 'big weed' bailout act of 2010 as this sure ain't legalization by a LONG shot and won't even slow the march of folks to prison in my opinion and will add patients to their numbers if you ask me! Guess what city is only one in Cali to pass local enabling legislature already...ta da, Oakland, which used to be little Mogadishu so I am sure they didn't place a lot of political risk in becoming the 'weed' capital of cali as that is why they pushed all the brothers to Richmond long before this started?
I also don't see where California owes anybody or state one dang thing as the US is letting our economy fall into dust while it treats us as a third world country while at same time gives these crooked banks and their cronies all the money the can spend (TARP), and ...if it was up to me and a bunch of others we would be printing our own money and be a separate state already which looks 1000x times better to me than playing MPP legal games with our medical cannabis laws we JUST NOW GOT CLARIFIED in Cali vs Kelly by Ca Supreme court in our favor that took >10 years to get and we are just supposed to chuck/risk that for wish biscuits? I think all the activist slobbering on this bill from others states should read whole thing and what pigs are saying about it. Like 215 this isn't written well enough to know whose going to jail and who isn't outside of Oakland (and there is no guarantee feds won't go buck-ass wild either way it goes) 
 I don't get all the other states not even trying to do this either and expecting people whom already have the best medical cannabis law in USA to play with ours in an experiment on a chance in might help else where when it already has the pigs going crazy shutting places now that have been left alone for years because of this crap already?
There are many more complexities about this than I have even scratched the surface of and the sponsors can't even control the message here let alone in the media, they are so far over their greedy heads they can't even see the top of the water...I am just trying to figure out all the facets and the bs keeps getting deeper here in Cali...this at least should be fun to watch? peace, steve 
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Comment #37 posted by BGreen on May 21, 2010 at 23:55:43 PT
herbdoc215
The patients are already getting hurt. The laws and regulations being unfairly applied towards MMJ are getting tougher and more intrusive as we speak. In my opinion, a NO vote is cutting the throats of the MMJ patients. You're going to see that, just like with abortion, the local laws will almost eliminate the ability to get access to a legal product or procedure.A widespread legalization of cannabis for all adults will only serve to reduce or eliminate the legal pressure currently being applied to MMJ because it will be a moot point by then. They'll be overwhelmed and understaffed and impotent.I can guarantee you that Missouri won't even get legal MMJ for years to come unless California goes total legalization. California will soon become the new Amsterdam and the tourist will be flocking to the museums and zoos and all of the attractions, after visiting the coffeeshops, of course. Teachers will be rehired, the restaurants will be crowded, tourism will take California out of bankruptcy and people will begin to see how good of a thing cannabis legalization really is.The alternative is to vote no and watch the dog and pony act get even worse than it is. Local DA's will be shutting down compassion clubs right and left and you'll soon be seeing patients and the recreational users suffering equally.Some may not be able to afford their medicine but none of us can afford being jailed even if we can get cannabis. As I see it, people that don't even partake could use their 25 sq. ft. gardens to grow medicine for their loved ones. Things can be worked out as long as we're not in prison.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #36 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 17:43:56 PT
Hey, Hope! You didn't miss anything, either, lol.
You're welcome, but you've seen it before, way too many times. It was like a throwback to how our issue was mostly treated until recently. Get a R and a D together to gang up on us and show how both parties are united to oppose the crazy idea of legalization. No legalization advocate on to call them on their lies. An old school propaganda piece. It's sad how little difference there is between GHW Bush's Drug Czar and Obama's.
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Comment #35 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 17:23:20 PT
You didn't miss anything, FoM.
No surprises, except possibly that CNN thought a piece on mj legalization would be good ratings wise to run against the old Big 3 newscasts.Tragedy, indeed, isn't enough to describe the continuing oil spill into the Gulf.
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Comment #34 posted by Hope on May 21, 2010 at 17:01:20 PT
Sinsemilla Jones
Thank you. I missed it, too, but your description gives me an excellent idea of how it went.
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Comment #33 posted by FoM on May 21, 2010 at 16:02:22 PT
Sinsemilla Jones
I missed it. I wanted to see NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams about the oil disaster. The word tragedy doesn't seem enough.
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Comment #32 posted by The GCW on May 21, 2010 at 16:01:52 PT
Cannabis / hemp activists are all different
Cannabis / hemp activists are all different like everyone else.Some are hemp activists who do not have an interest in RE-legalizing cannabis for recreational use. Some of them enjoy Our support and others believe We cannabis activists harm their effort.Some are medical cannabis supporters 1st and some of them enjoy Our cause to RE-legalize for recreational and some don't.My primary interest is to RE-legalize cannabis full on. That's recreational use, medical use and hemp interests.The prohibitionists would like to see cannabis activists be divided. One way to do that for example is to create something in which the medical cannabis users will not support recreational cannabis users.-0-This issue at the ballot in November may seem as though it harms medical users but in the end the RE-legalization of cannabis for recreational users can help everyone. Now, medical users must pay extortion money to government for permission to use the plant.Once RE-legalized, there will no longer be extortion payed.-0-Let this not be an issue which divides Us.
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Comment #31 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 15:38:42 PT
And Wolf did't dispute one "fact" they said.
Pathetic.
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Comment #30 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 15:36:19 PT
Gil admits alcohol causes more problems....
But claims if mj legalized, it would cause more.Bill cites 40,000/year drug deaths, and then claims mj legalization would at least double and probably would triple or more that figure!Glad they got both sides.
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Comment #29 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 15:32:27 PT
Gil - "non-starter"
Bill - "you might think about putting more restrictions on alcohol instead"
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Comment #28 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 15:29:21 PT
Big Bill B, self-appointed moralizer in chief....
and Gil the K, B.O. appointed head of morality enforcement...now on CNN in a bit to discuss MJ legalization with Wolf.
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Comment #27 posted by rancher on May 21, 2010 at 13:52:01 PT:
Please vote yes! Hope said it very well
If you want marijuana reform, you must vote yes. Hope is right. Losing sends a message that people oppose marijuana legalization not some detail. If this loses big it will be a huge setback for all marijuana reform efforts.A no vote shoots us all in the foot.
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Comment #26 posted by EAH on May 21, 2010 at 13:24:52 PT:
My Vote
I never said I would vote No. I am however sharing frustrations here. I get it, the big picture that is. As a society we seem to take relatively simple things and make them immensely complicated needlessly. Mostly because a lot of busybody
people who don't know what they're talking about can't mind their own business. It's amazing, there is simply no good reason to oppose ending prohibition, period. Yet people do.
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on May 21, 2010 at 11:48:01 PT
Rainbow
How did you post if it says you aren't registered? I don't think CNews is broke because that has also happened to me. I always copy the comment to my browser just in case that happens. As long as I do that I haven't lost a post. I had that happen on Cann.com back when I posted there and Ron had the site.
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Comment #24 posted by Rainbow on May 21, 2010 at 10:58:18 PT
process
Fom,I hit the Post mesage before putting in my password and got the error message but when I clicked on back my message was cleared.Can you ask to have this fixed as I had a good message this time.Now it says I am not registered and gives me my message back.
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Comment #23 posted by herbdoc215 on May 21, 2010 at 09:08:10 PT
I think this initive will pass reguardless of what
any activist or groups says now as it's taken on a life of it's own...for good or bad we will have to learn to live with this and start planning for how to limit damage to patients which is really my #1 focus...I don't want anyone going to jail for cannabis not even my enemies but things have a way of having unintended consequences as we have all seen with previous laws on this subject? But the police acting a fool and saying same old bs along with general frustration with drug laws will pretty much assure passage of this and it's only going to be if the sponsors screw up bad is there a chance in heck of losing??? I would just like the fact that medical is left 100% alone delineated brightly and clearly by the law and by sponsor literature as that is what courts use later to interpret law? I would like to see more debate and it's certainly time for legislature to step up first and do this right and I believe Arnold would sign it on the way out?
  
 peace, Steve Tuck
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Comment #22 posted by Hope on May 21, 2010 at 08:09:04 PT
We have "Miles to go before we rest"...
but losing this initiative, I believe, will add many more hard miles to this terrible long journey we've been on for so long and are still on.It's really a very symbolic vote, extremely symbolic, and a yes means more than the fine point details and nit picking the initiative.
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on May 21, 2010 at 08:04:30 PT
Vincent
Maybe you can tell me why the right uses the word socialist like it's a swear word? I don't know why they hate that word so much.If the right thinks that uncontrolled business is good for our country just look at the oil disaster in the Gulf.
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on May 21, 2010 at 08:04:00 PT
If this doesn't pass
the news reports will be saying, "California rejects legalization" and "Californian's reject easing marijuana penalties".They won't be saying "Some voters didn't think the initiative went far enough." or "Some voters had issues with some of the details". They'll be saying "Voters rejected legalization".
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Comment #19 posted by Vincent on May 21, 2010 at 07:43:06 PT:
Mykeyb420's "no" vote
You give a "Libertarian" point of view on this topic, but if you vote no, as BGreen posted, you will embolden these cops even more than Mayor Rudy "I want to show my true Republican stripes" Giuliani did. Your argument about "taxation" is the main reason why I registered as a Socialist, instead of a Libertarian. Libertarians are too close to the Republican Party for me. Socialists however, share the same views on herb legalization as the Libertarians, and they side with the poor over the rich. Why should I pay the same rate of taxes as the wealthy? 
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Comment #18 posted by rchandar on May 21, 2010 at 07:39:15 PT:
Dennis, Are You Serious?
A couple of holes can easily be shot into this one. The first: most of the people who "pass a joint" to someone who is 20 will also be under 21. In either case, the court is most likely going to try them under the old statute--the $100 fine and no record. Second, the Feds already have some pretty tough laws, like the AmberAlert law that says the same thing: California isn't putting forth something that's going to really result in, say 50-60,000 new cases. But as Sinse implies, I could pretty much guarantee that they wouldn't use this as an opportunity to push for full penalties and re-grow the jail numbers: I can see why Dennis thinks this isn't good, but it's real unlikely that in Obaman times this will be used maliciously if at all.--rchandar
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on May 21, 2010 at 07:07:42 PT
Herbdoc
How will this have any effect on the laws about medical? I thought they were completely separate and this would have no effect on the medical laws already in place.
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Comment #16 posted by herbdoc215 on May 21, 2010 at 06:52:03 PT
BGreen, what if our yes vote hurts patients?
is it justified to take rights that us patients have fought so dangerously for and just through them away so certain individuals can make piles of money of off a slickly worded initiative? Do recreational smokers have the right to ask us to surrender what we fought so dearly for, when every step they have gained has come off of our backs? I hate this bill with a passion and really can't decide how to stand on it but it's much more complicated then many here are making it seem and to ask patients to go backwards for recreational smokers seems two-faced as hell to me especially considering the black market hasn't ever given us one nickels break here in Cali makes me think this is also going to price us patients out of the market unless we are TOTALLY except from the new rec system they are putting in place...and I ain't heard nothing but smoke and BS from Lee and Jones (not the two most compassionate men in Cali I have found???) and I keep hearing that song in my head...Money changes everything! peace, steve 
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on May 21, 2010 at 06:42:22 PT
Mykeyb420
This doesn't seem like you. Your logic, to me, seems petulant and.... petulant.You, as I know you, are a gentle man that cares about other people. Your commitment to the camp for children with Aids. Your love of your pets. I'm so disappointed. A no vote is a stumbling block for all of us.We all loved Jack Herer... but he was wrong about voting no on this initiative.
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Comment #14 posted by runruff on May 21, 2010 at 05:35:59 PT
Cannabis advocates of America....
...Oregon-ize!
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Comment #13 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 02:51:01 PT
mykey #9 - That's just horrrrrrrrrrrrrible....
Instead of arresting you and helping the feds prosecute you, the state will tax you and not help the feds arrest or prosecute you.Yes, just wait for that perfect bill where you can grow as much as you want, use it and sell it anywhere, no sales taxes, no income taxes, no regulations except for banning big corporations, and the state will bring out the militia and secede from the union if the feds try to take your stuff.I'm sure the political climate won't swing back to the right, and you'll have a bunch more chances to vote for that perfect cannabis law. 
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Comment #12 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on May 21, 2010 at 02:26:48 PT
And I guess some folks didn't vote for Obama...
...because he wasn't black enough for them.Just forget how white McCain is.
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Comment #11 posted by Canis420 on May 21, 2010 at 00:13:56 PT:
The Reverand Bud Green
speaks wth great wisdom in his last post...all you Cali voters votin no because the bill is not perfect need to get a grip and think of us poor souls lost in a quagmire in other parts of the country...jus sayin!
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Comment #10 posted by BGreen on May 20, 2010 at 23:23:22 PT
Here's what a NO vote will mean
A "NO" vote will be spun nationwide to mean that people do not want cannabis to be legalized for personal use, period. It won't matter what your reason is, the only thing that matters is that the rest of this country is looking at California to be the first state to legalize cannabis for personal use so other states will feel emboldened to follow suit.Who cares if you're only slightly more free for the time being? Not only will it embolden states to follow suit just as the MMJ legislation did, it doesn't have to be the final step. What's stopping you from getting a better bill on the ballot next year fixing the wrongs of this particular bill?Some less hassle from the cops for now, many states joining in to finally overgrow the federal government and the possibility for a better written bill next year. If people say "Yes" this time why should it be any problem at all to get them to say "Yes" to an even better bill next year?Please don't blow it for the rest of us. If you say "No" it will set back cannabis legalization in the rest of the country for years to come. The psychology of a "Yes" vote far outweighs the flaws of the bill itself.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #9 posted by mykeyb420 on May 20, 2010 at 22:19:06 PT
vote
I am a Cali voter:I plan to vote NO on this because if you pay the tax,and the FEDS take your pot or arrest you, the STATE says you are on your own to face the feds. they take the tax and won't back you up,,taxation without representation.
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Comment #8 posted by EAH on May 20, 2010 at 22:08:31 PT:
Let's hope
Should this pass one of the next things that will happen is localities empowered to write their own ordinances and levy their own taxes will rush to do some really onerous stuff. I just saw a promo video where they were touting the fact that this provides an affirmative defense for home growers. WHAT!!??Yeah that's right, when for some reason you are discovered possessing more than one ounce and get arrested, yes arrested, for possession of more than an ounce, you will be able to try and prove that you grew it yourself in your 25 square foot grow area. A judge will have to allow you that as a defense. Phew! Glad that's an option. I can't believe anybody thought that was a desirable situation to create.Tom Ammiano's bill is so much better it's not funny. It creates a real legality 
that mimics alcohol. No oz limit, statewide laws, not local ones and so on.
I know the symbolism of this initiative is huge and that probably trumps all other considerations but still I'm frustrated. Fixing bad law can be nearly impossible as we know...
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Comment #7 posted by gloovins on May 20, 2010 at 21:43:31 PT
good channel....
streaming now - all about cannabis : http://www.justin.tv/toilet_bug#r=Mg3m9k0~
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on May 20, 2010 at 21:10:59 PT
Keep it trim and easily understood...
People will be released... without it having to be written in the initiative.Pass it first! The door will be open.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on May 20, 2010 at 21:05:24 PT
Any legalization
would soon be followed by "Why hold people in prison for a crime that doesn't exist any more. Time served!"
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on May 20, 2010 at 20:07:31 PT
EAH,
You are correct: it would be appropriate to include releasing political prisoners in any RE-legalization bills...If 10 people were to write a bill / ballot measure there's a good chance 10 different bills would emerge.To include releasing political prisoners may make it more difficult to get the measure passed at the ballot box; I don't know...For now, I'm an activist and I support this ballot measure: Tax Cannabis 2010.Tax Cannabis 2010 is something We can touch this year. A different worded ballot measure is something We can not achieve this year.
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Comment #3 posted by RevRayGreen on May 20, 2010 at 19:43:40 PT
My Latest Campaign (video 1:56)
WHEN 10,000 PEOPLE MAIL $4.20 TO THE IOWA BOARD OF PHARMACY/Make It Legal Make It Green http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjH61Gw_AcII just got a letter 5/13/10 from Governer Chet Culver who said an interim task force is in place.Too many people are outlaw patients in Iowa that need not only protection but safe access, now. Time for the state of Iowa to put our money where our mouths are.PLEASE MAIL $4.20 TO Iowa Board of Pharmacy c/o Terry Witkowski, Executive Officer
400 SW Eighth Street, Suite E
Des Moines, Iowa 50309-4688PHONE: (515) 281-5944 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 20, 2010 at 18:20:46 PT
Medical Marijuana Dispensary Submits Ballot Bid 
 May 20, 2010 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Supporters of an initiative to create a system of medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon have submitted petitions with more than 110,000 signatures in hopes of getting on the ballot this fall.The state Elections Division will determine whether there are enough valid signatures to meet the minimum of about 83,000 needed to qualify for the November ballot.Supporters say the initiative would add also create a regulated supply system of medical marijuana producers.Under current law, patients are required to produce their own medicine or designate a grower.Copyright: 2010 Associated PressURL: http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Ore-gets-medical-marijuana-dispensary-initiative-94544144.html
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Comment #1 posted by EAH on May 20, 2010 at 18:19:48 PT:
Why
Why is it that in real life, at the mainstream level, the proposed reforms and solutions to things I care about that actually get to the threshold of reality are SO LAME! Purely and simply it will" legalize" possession and growing, OK fine.
But so many aspects of this are just terrible. The list is long but one of the worst 
is that any legalization should also mandate the immediate release of all those in state jails and prisons who are there on cannabis charges including those who are in on probation and parole violations, along with the clearing of records. This does not do that. I could craft a far better initiative than this.
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