cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Law in Hands of Voters
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Marijuana Law in Hands of Voters
Posted by CN Staff on October 04, 2010 at 06:50:16 PT
Opinion
Source: Enterprise
Quincy, MA -- This month, California voters will consider the biggest change in drug policy since Congress made marijuana possession a criminal offense in 1937.Proposition 19, if passed, will not just legalize marijuana possession, it will empower municipalities to regulate and tax it. The state Legislature won’t be able to stop it. Any community looking to avoid a property tax hike could open up its own cannabis revenue stream.
Marijuana would still be against federal law, which would put the Obama administration in a quandary: Should they send an army of federal agents to enforce a law state and local police won’t, or turn their backs and let Californians choose their own intoxicants?That conflict is not without precedent. Back in the 1920s, New York gave up on Prohibition before the rest of the country. While manufacturing and distribution of alcohol remained against federal law, it was legal under New York law. The feds mostly looked the other way and New Yorkers kept drinking, which is one reason the Prohibition-era crime wars were waged in Chicago and not New York.Meanwhile, some Massachusetts voters will have their own say on the Bay State’s marijuana policy. Question 5 on the Nov. 2 ballot in Wayland, Sudbury and Lincoln will ask voters’ opinions on whether the Legislature should consider legalizing and regulating marijuana like it now regulates liquor.Similar questions will face voters in several other state House and Senate districts across the state. Voters in other districts will be asked to weigh in on legalizing medical marijuana.Those questions are all non-binding, of course, and if past history holds, even the legislators in those districts will ignore the results. The Massachusetts Legislature has for many years refused to even discuss marijuana policy. Two years ago, voters took the issue out of the Legislature’s hands, approving the decriminalizing of marijuana. Question 2 passed with 65 percent of the vote.If California leads the way, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a binding legalization measure on the Massachusetts ballot in 2012.Source: Enterprise, The (MA)Published: October 4, 2010Copyright: 2010 GateHouse Media Inc.Contact: letters enterprisenews.comWebsite: http://www.enterprisenews.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/VZtksPZoCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 04, 2010 at 11:07:12 PT
Potpal
Thank you for the link and it's great to see you.
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Comment #1 posted by potpal on October 04, 2010 at 08:25:59 PT
in the news
http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/04/while-you-were-weekending-california-makes-pot-an-infraction/?xid=rss-politics-huffpo 
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