Marijuana supporters nationwide awoke on November 3rd to find they had been defeated in all four statewide initiatives on the ballot. While losing these battles is not good news for our movement, the lessons we’ve learned and coalitions we’ve formed will help us win the war even sooner.
California’s Prop 19 received 3.4 million votes for legalization, which represents 46.1% of the voters. This is the best a statewide marijuana legalization measure has ever done, besting Nevada 2002 (39%), Alaska 2004 (44%), Colorado 2006 (41%), and Nevada 2006 (44%)
The most recent Gallup Poll showed 58% support among Westerners for “legalization”. That means there are 12% of our supporters who dropped their support for legalization once the details are spelled out. What lessons have we learned from the loss? I believe there are ten main lessons we need to learn to succeed in 2012.
1. We must explicitly protect medical marijuana rights.
During the campaign some on our side were surprised by the emergence of the “I Gots Mine” crowd, the so-called “Stoners Against Legalization”. But the fact is that in a medical marijuana state, especially California, what they “gots” is pretty amazing. Moving forward, any legalization measure in a medical state must include the following three explicit points:
a) This legalization bill will not affect your medical marijuana rights in any way.
b) Your medical marijuana rights will not change in any way once legalization passes.
c) If you are concerned about your medical marijuana rights, please see points a) and b).
I’m being somewhat facetious, but the point better be taken. No legalization bill is going to succeed unless the current medical marijuana smokers believe it makes their lives better or at least doesn’t threaten to change their lives.
Now, I know as well as anyone that Prop 19 wouldn’t have affected medical rights, but it got lost within the Purposes and Intents and buried in a cloud of “notwithstandings” and “excepts”. The next initiative needs to have an explicit declarative paragraph protecting medical rights. And it has to be written in such a way that it is perfectly clear to even the most unlikely, naive, and uneducated voters, which leads me to…
2. We must remember that people 18-25 are our biggest group of stakeholders and we cannot over-penalize them to appease our opponents.
The theme that Prop 19 would be creating a crime out of 21-year-olds passing joints to their 18-20-year-old friends resonated among every toker who first smoked a joint with an older friend or sibling. I even heard from people aged 18-20 who thought Prop 19 made them a felon. The new crime was created to soothe the soccer moms, but I think people realized it would be as ineffective at stopping young college kids from toking as the 21 drinking age stops frat keggers, so that all we’d accomplish is creating new criminal records for young people. The next initiative needs to retain the 21+ age (18 just won’t pass when alcohol is 21) but leave the punishment for furnishing to 18-20-year-olds the $100 ticket it is now… or at least don’t make it more punitive than the law for alcohol.
I understand the “make it like alcohol” motivation of punishing someone who furnishes to minors, but the punishment called for by Prop 19 was akin to the punishment for one who furnishes to a teen who then causes serious injury to self or others. The minimum punishment for merely furnishing alcohol, absent injury, is a misdemeanor, a $1,000 fine and 24 hours community service. Thus we were portraying marijuana as far more harmful than alcohol (see point 5 below) by implication.
3. We must find a way to integrate the current illegal growers into a new legalized market.
The results from the so-called “Emerald Triangle” – defeats for legalization in Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties – show us that legalization has to be framed to appeal to small time marijuana growers. Putting aside the immorality of profiting from the misery of prohibition, the fact is that many small time growers are paying their mortgage and feeding their families from profits on illegal marijuana. Nobody is going to vote to reduce the price of weed from $300/oz to $60/oz when that takes food out of their kids’ mouths. The next initiative needs to create a level playing field for small businesses to compete in marijuana cultivation. By emphasizing small, local grows, we can increase the grower vote while also soothing pot smokers worried about “WalMartization” and non-tokers worried about pot becoming as ubiquitous as alcohol they see advertised daily nearly everywhere.
4. We cannot win until people are more scared of prohibition than they are of legalization.
People resist change. In order to shake things up, they need to find the status quo unacceptable and the alternative a moral good. Early on, many of our messages focused on what good would come from legalization, such as tax revenues (see point 6 below) and prioritization of police resources. While these things are good, they don’t tell the story of why it is so critical to change the status quo.
It’s not that legalization must be approved, it is that prohibition must be ended. LEAP speakers made the point that every test on a baggie of pot for a $100 ticket means a crime lab test of a rape kit has to wait, but it came too late to make a commercial out of that point. We need commercials with high school weed dealers in parking lots and hallways, dealing without any regulations or ID checks. We need commercials with indoor marijuana grow factories taking over suburban neighborhoods because there are no legal commercial grows. We need commercials with illegal outdoor grows polluting our state parks. We need commercials of SWAT teams breaking down doors over a pot plant, abusing families, while the rapist, murderer, and thief escape detection. (We need billionaires to kick in big dollars sooner in the campaign so we can get these commercials on air.) All these commercials that would use scenes prohibitionists use against us need to be used against them in an act of rhetorical judo that shows those evils to be the result of the prohibitionary status quo, not the proposed marijuana legalization. The next initiative campaign needs to scare people about the out-of-control prohibition situation we have now. Which leads to the corollary…
5. We must stop painting the marijuana as a bad thing that needs to be controlled.
We did a great job with exposing the racially disproportionate nature of marijuana law enforcement. We’ve shown how much money is spent enforcing marijuana laws and how the cost of doing so is diverting police resources. We’ve illustrated the violent nature of the drug trade, particularly in Mexico.
None of that really matters, though, until we honestly address the social disapproval of “smoking pot”. The underlying premise of prohibition is that we are forbidding adults from an activity for all of our own good. Without addressing the morality of marijuana, the flaws we point out in prohibition are just kinks in the system that need to be improved, not an indictment of the reason for the system. We’re locking up too many blacks and Latinos? We’ll just try to be more fair about arresting all races equally, then. We spend a lot of money going after pot? How much is too much to spend to keep your kids safe? Gangsters are violent in the marijuana trade? That’s why we need to arrest people, so they’ll stop smoking pot. See how that works?
The next initiative campaign must do more pro-active positive portrayals of marijuana for adults. It is not enough to campaign against the bad guy (prohibition), you have to have a story arc for the good guy (legal marijuana use). People need to question why we bother arresting bright, successful, educated people and break up their loving families just because they prefer sensimilla to a six-pack or a cigarette. However, as we tell the good guy’s story…
6. We must be realistic about what legalization can and cannot accomplish.
As marijuana activists, we’re already starting with a deficit in the public trust column. So when we make our case, we have to be diligent about never over-promising what good can be realized by ending prohibition, especially if we attach hard numbers to those promises. It is too easy to become characterized as the glassy-eyed idealists who believe too much in the magic wonder herb when we supply targets that are so easily shot down.
Both the primary offenses in messaging can be traced to some honest mistakes. First was the claim that Prop 19 would raise $1.4 billion in taxes for California. This arose from the legislature’s legalization bill, AB 390, which proposed a statewide $50/ounce tax. Then the California Board of Equalization crunched the numbers and announced that $1.4 billion could be realized. Then AB 390 failed and Prop 19 took over, but never distanced itself from the $1.4 billion tax revenues and in a few instances, co-opted the $1.4 billion for internet forums and print. When Prop 19 instituted no required taxes and any taxes would be local, not statewide, everyone, even Prop 19’s supporters, knew that far less than $1.4 billion would be raised. Then when the Attorney General vowed to aggressively pursue anyone who opened up a Prop 19 shop, we all knew there would be even less taxes raised.
Next was the implication that Prop 19 would be a significant blow to Mexican drug cartels. Part of this owes to misinformation from the drug czar’s office, which had publicized the stat that 60% of the Mexican cartel income is raised from marijuana. But Prop 19 advocates could be faulted for accepting a drug czar’s word on anything, as well as not knowing their home state marijuana market well enough to realize nobody in California is smoking much Mexican brick weed. Combined with the “billions in taxes” saving the state, the “cripple the cartels” message was easily debunked and left us looking like we’re bullshitting the voters. The next initiative must be careful about promises and always return the focus to any modest gains from ending prohibition being more than what we’re getting now.
7. Legalize first, then deal with the drug testing issue.
You won’t find anyone who hates drug testing more than me. It’s inaccurate, unscientific, ineffective, and a disgusting invasion of our right to privacy. And I was thrilled to see non-discrimination language regarding drug testing in Prop 19. But tackling the drug testing issue along with the legalization issue presents too many conflicts for most voters.
Again, it’s about the good guy and the bad guy. The good guy is drug test that protects us at work from the bad guy, the whacked-out druggies. Many people are fine with you smoking a joint and getting whacked-out at home, but want to be sure you’re not smoking a joint at work or while driving. The drug testing language gave opponents a wedge to separate business owners, managers, and responsible workers from supporting us.
The next initiative needs to remain focused on the sole issue of ending the criminalization of people who smoke and grow pot. Once marijuana use is legal, and as the image of marijuana use becomes mainstreamed, the drug testing issue will be easier to work out. It would be considered ridiculous in most circumstances to have a work policy that accepted only teetotalers and punished someone for having a drink Friday night because he’d be dangerous on Monday morning. When marijuana is legal, soon those policies for pot will seem as ridiculous. Now, speaking of drug testing…
8. You can’t “treat it like alcohol” unless you can test for it like alcohol on the roadside.
We often use the phrase “treat it like alcohol” to get through to voters with little knowledge of marijuana (indeed, if they were educated, they’d realize treating cannabis like alcohol is an insult to cannabis.) But every time we do, we activate many long-held frames about alcohol, and one of those is “shit-faced drunks who drive”.
The “stoned drivers” scare is one of the few effective bits of rhetoric our opponents have left, along with “what about the children”? We insisted that Prop 19 didn’t at all change the cops’ ability to bust a stoned driver, but I believe this just did not overcome a gut feeling for most people that it would, because we could offer them no new tools for law enforcement to watch over stoned drivers while creating a more lenient state for marijuana users.
The next initiative must work with the “treat it like alcohol” frame by providing a “breathalyzer” equivalent for the stoned driver. This is the hardest part for me to write, because I so loathe drug testing and even the breathalyzer, which really does not prove anyone’s actual impairment. All any drug test proves is that you’ve used drugs, alcohol included. Some alcoholics can drive fine at a 0.12 BAC; some lightweights are a danger at 0.04 BAC. But since the public believes in the breathalyzer as a magical scientific instrument than can detect and help punish drunk drivers, and since we’re engaging them in the “treat it like alcohol” frame, they need something more tangible than “we’ll just bust them like we do now”, which rings hollow when the general public knows we bust the stoned driver (impaired or not) now just for having weed in his pocket or a roach in the ashtray. There are technologies available – blood testing, cheek-swab saliva testing, epocrine gland (armpit) sweat testing – that can show recent use of marijuana within four hours. That, along with a “no burnt cannabis / no used paraphernalia” in the car rule to match the alcohol-equivalent “no open containers” would go a long way toward negating the “stoned drivers” scare.
9. Commercialization must be handled with consistent statewide regulation.
Prop 19 designed its commercial regulations to be opt-in, with cities and counties each deciding if they wished to have regulated sales and how they would regulate them. The reasoning for this is sound, as the proponents wanted the commercial regs to stand up to federal court scrutiny, the theory being that since Prop 19 didn’t explicitly tell the state to allow marijuana commerce in violation of federal law, the commercial regs might not violate the Commerce Clause.
However, as a rhetorical piece to convince voters, it was lacking. Most people don’t trust their city government or believe it to be ineffective. Opponents were able to conjure a future where there were hundreds of different pot regulations across the state. This becomes troubling in a crowded Southern California where driving down one strip of road can pass you through multiple city jurisdictions that are visually indistinct from one another. Am I in City of Industry that allows me to have 2 ounces in personal possession or am I in La Puente that only allows one? How will our stores in Torrance collect their 10% marijuana tax when just up the road in Gardena they only charge 5%?
The next initiative must establish a statewide commercial regulatory framework. It will probably be squashed by the federal courts, but it will be better to have legal marijuana first and fight those commercial battles in court than to have prohibition and no chance in court. Once people have the legal right to possess, use, and grow marijuana, the commerce will inevitably follow (see: medical marijuana everywhere.)
10. Medical marijuana has reached its peak and is now inextricably linked to legalization.
In California, the people are already accustomed to a fairly open marijuana policy, where anyone who wants to toke can get a Prop 215 recommendation and buy it from many dispensaries. In the North it’s a well-regulated system that is contributing to clean neighborhoods and city tax revenues. You can see by the county results map above that most of the support comes from the Bay Area where cities and counties put together regulations and ordinances and created a healthy system. Why wouldn’t people vote for more of that?
But in the South it’s a “Wild West” system with tent after tent of “pot docs” on Venice Beach that can’t spell “cannabis” and carnival barkers pushing the “4-gram eighth”. This is the fault of the local officials who refused to put forth any sort of regulations, but that’s lost on the average voter. All they see is that what they have now is pot run wild. Why would people vote for more of that?
In South Dakota, a medical marijuana initiative failed in 2006 with 48% of the vote. In 2010, South Dakota’s support for medical marijuana dropped to 36%. In Arizona they passed a flawed medical marijuana initiative (it used “prescription”, not “recommendation”) with 65% in 1996. In 2010, it got just below 50% of the vote. In Oregon a measure to create medical marijuana dispensaries lost with 42% of the vote in 2004. In 2010, the dispensaries measure gained slightly with 43% of the vote.
This is reflected in Gallup polls on both medical marijuana and marijuana legalization. In 1999, support for legalization was just 29%, while support for medical use was 73%. It’s fair to say that people who believe in legalization would naturally support medical use, so the difference of 44% in 1999 would represent those who believe in medical use but think people who just want to get high should be punished. By the mid-2000s, medical marijuana support reached 75%-78% and legalization reached 34%-36%, meaning those who support medical-only dropped to 31%-32%. Now in 2010 we have legalization support at 46% while medical support has fallen to 70%, leaving only 24% who believe in medical-only.
The reason for this 20-point decline in medical-only support is that the public is beginning to feel hoodwinked on the medical marijuana issue. They completely support the cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma patients getting their medications, but have seen too many dispensaries, too many healthy-looking young people, too many huge marijuana gardens, too many large volume busts, and too many patients overall to believe that medical marijuana is anything but thinly-veiled legalization. Now that California, the first medical state, has gone forward with legalization, and since the previous legalization attempts were also in medical marijuana states (Nevada, Colorado, Alaska), the two issues are linked. This means the next medical initiatives and bills will have to be even more restrictive to convince the doubters who cry “Trojan horse!”
The next initiative needs to highlight the second-class-citizen nature of medical marijuana laws that can only be solved by full legalization. The legalization campaign needs to bring forth those same medical marijuana patients who played to public sympathy to get medical marijuana and show how even with medical marijuana, they are still harassed, arrested, tried, and convicted because they’re swept up in the overall battle law enforcement must engage with healthy marijuana smokers. People need to see the patients who lose housing, lose scholarships, lose child custody, suffer home invasion robberies, can’t travel outside the state, and hear from the patients themselves that medical marijuana just isn’t good enough.
And one thing we don’t need to do? Change the word “marijuana” to “cannabis”. I’ve heard this suggestion a few times, but I think it actually works against us. You and I know that “marijuana” is a Mexican slang term initially used for racist reasons to confuse and frighten the public. But now “marijuana” is the familiar brand name everyone knows. When we run from “marijuana” and only say “cannabis”, “marijuana” is emphasized by its absence. Why won’t they say “marijuana”? What are they trying to hide? What’s wrong with marijuana? It’s like when liberals go out of their way to call themselves “progressives” or when conservatives felt the need to emphasize “compassionate”; it’s distancing yourself from your own brand – if you don’t like it, why should anyone else?
The next initiative needs to just be honest: The Marijuana Legalization Act of 2012. There is nothing wrong with that linguistically or even ethically, as the laws on the books that this would repeal are “marijuana laws” – they use the term “marijuana” (or sometimes “marihuana”) in the statutes. We can, and should, pepper in the word “cannabis” as we explain the act, using it as the proper name of the plant species, but not be afraid to talk about “smoking marijuana” when the public brings it up. By now, people know the plant by the name “marijuana” and that name, in and of itself, doesn’t denigrate it in their minds any more than the less-familiar “cannabis” promotes it.
No, see, this is just addressing 2010’s complaints. There will be an entirely new set of complaints (see: lies) by 2012. The important thing to do is not just to address what went wrong this year, but anticipate what could go wrong in 2012.
Be prepared to refute new complaints as they arise. Even better, take a stance that can’t be refuted. I’m no political expert, but we have evidence and facts on our side. We need to make claims that are backed up with evidence, rather than just throwing evidence around as if it’s a compelling argument. Then people will try to refute our claims, and we can strike them down with the evidence. That’s what will change their mind: by showing them that their belief in the opposition’s lies is wrong.
May I propose an 11th?:
More money bombs, sooner! Also, let us know what each money bomb is going towards, if/when possible. “We need to raise x-amount for commercials.” “We need x-amount for a rally downtown.” “We need x-amount to get Allen St. Pierre to the White House to debate Gil Kerlikowske in person.”
Let us (the supporters) know how we can help and where you need help the most. Even us out-of-staters want to contribute, especially those of us living in legislatively stagnat states. We know NORML has its hands tied in California, but if you rally the support of the rest of the nation, we’ll be there for you!
Let the campaigning begin!
I love most of this primary enlightenment. I love how defeat means nothing to us that love the bud.
I think one thing we have to re-frame is the economy and Mexican cartel arguments.
It must be noted that only in the long run when hemp enters the picture and all the southern states have legalized will it fix the economy and the country of Mexico, which will likely have residual corruption for many generations to come, much like what we are still seeing in Illinois since the Capone days. Not directly but the accepted unethical practices deeply rooted in that state over the last couple decades
I would like to find someone to help me draft a bill to pass the type of act described above in my state, which is Tennessee. Is there anyone out there interested in doing so?
[Editor’s note: Contact your local NORML chapters in TN here.]
to weight cannibis in the same sentence with alcohol is an injustice. I have been smoking it for 42 years, with no ill side effects. people wwho blame crimes they have committed do to smoking pot are liar’s.it could make some people parinoid, but to rob a store, maybe cause of the munchies.It is like alcohol in that the government can not figurre out how to sell it and rip off the public and make money off it.since it is easily grown, that makes it so anyone could have their own. the gov has no control, hah big brother, piss off
The way to solve the roadside testing problem is to move away from drug testing towards functional testing. After all it is the ability to drive and not what you are taking that matters.
We need a laptop based functional impairment test that can detect impaired decision making, lack of response to stimuli etc. This would be totally impartial and it would not matter what drug you took, if you are tired or ill or mentally not functioning well.
I don’t see why the cars itself can’t detect drivers that are not driving well. Maybe the technology should be added to the safety computer and limit maximum speed of the car if the driver is out of control in an intoxicated way.
[Russ responds: That is incredibly reasonable. Thus, completely unsuited for American political discourse. 😉 See, the problem is that honest impairment testing would catch people that are too sleepy, too old, on prescriptions, eating fast food, talking on their cellphones, and watching in-dash entertainment. That would cost some companies some profits and bring opposition from a few politically powerful lobbies. It took many years of lobbying and many high-profile drunk driving deaths before we even made an effort to control that safety risk. I grew in a time when driving home drunk was a punchline.]
11. The mainstream press must cover the historical facts regarding the prejudiced reasons marijuana was made illegal by Anslinger and Nixon.
12. The mainstream press must cover the legalization issue in a factual way.
13. The mainstream press must cover the legalization issue more frequently.
14. The mainstream press must deliver challenging questions to prohibitionists during interviews, not just setups for their talking points.
15. The legalization movement must find a way to encourage the mainstream press to adhere to numbers 11 through 14.
It wouldn’t hurt if a few more “important” people came out of the closet and admitted that they have or still use Cannabis, okay “marijuana”.
Like many I’m amazed that in this “free country” we still lock up people for possessing or growing a plant.
Breaking through the years of propaganda regarding the properties of the substance has been a slow and painful process. Even if all the lies about pot were true, I still don’t get how one person believes they are promoting “freedom” all the while jailing another human being for simply “owning themself”.
Overcoming the cognitive dissonance of the enslavers seems to be the biggest obstacle. I like the “safer than alcohol approach” and testimonials from doctors. Sadly some people will only be convinced others should own their bodies if some “authority” such as a doctor says it’s okay. We’re going to keep fighting in New Hampshire and wish our friends in other states the best of luck!
Trial footage in the link below of a woman who had her life ruined by her arrest for growing.
http://talley.tv/
There is only one way out of this dilemma the way I see it. Throwing money at the problem will help educate, and eventually, possibly change things. But we have to keep in mind, the opponents have more money to throw, and they’re entrenched.
We have to start with the smallest voting districts. We need to find someone within these small districts who is a smoker, who will quit their habit for the duration of the War on Drugs. They have to have lived in their district for some years, been of good character and preferably is working class! Not some rich guy.
Plumbers, Electricians, Policemen, Firemen, Store Owners, Farmers…
These people bust be our Ambassadors, if you will. By quitting their habit, they’re simultaneously proving that Marijuana is not Addictive. And that a pothead can not only be a decent person, hold down a job but that they can also quit when they care to. Something most cigarette addicts cannot.
This person will then be empowered to walk into the sheriff’s office, or the police department and ask to speak them. As a citizen, they must listen to our concerns, it is, after all, an elected office. Free of fear from retribution, they can speak freely. Introduce them to LEAP… discuss with them at length about the true problems of the War on Drugs.
1. It’s has evolved into a paramilitary action being conducted against American Citizens, taxpayers, one American soil. It’s even happening in their stomping grounds, against their own people, at the orders of the Federal Government.
2. Nearly 30,000 Mexicans have perished, human sacrifices to the God of War, just over our border. More than half of which were either fully innocent bystanders or Policemen and Mexican Army Soldiers, their comrades in arms just over the border, the men holding their mirror positions in another country. Men held accountable for the safety of his district. Because our Federal Government has the delusional notion that they can stop people from smoking marijuana. After all, they couldn’t even keep it out of MY HOUSE!!!
3. Obviously the whole agenda is a failed endeavor. On every front it is a complete and utter disaster by any standards we chose to use.
4. It a tremendous drain on our economy, one of the main contributing factors to many State’s budget shortfalls.
5. Innocent American’s casualties are amongst the Collateral Damage. American Law Enforcement personnel actually killing other Americans who, other than violating one unjust and unreasonable law, would be guilty of nothing at all.
http://www.mpp.org/victims/
Just to name a few! One man died of a heart attack while zip-stripped hand and foot in his living room. The tip was a hoax, there was no marijuana. He was not a dealer.
He is still just as dead, no matter who “oops my bad”‘ this was. His family, friends and congregation miss him. Do you think they respect their local Law Enforcement? How were these men any “better” than SS troops rounding up Jews?
6. Americans who are guilty of nothing that should be a crime in any sane Nation, are losing their cars, their jobs, their homes, and their lives. Every day. It just happened again while we’re reading this..
and another about one a minute will get accosted, shook down, and possibly jailed and suffer loss of valuable assets.
for smoking a flower.
I could go on….
We then need to go into the community and buck up to the burden of bringing this discussion up in restaurants, gas stations, everywhere we go.
We need to go talk to our representatives with a petition in hand that delineate our list of complaints, and the many signatures of the people we talk to, and who may come around to sanity.
Do they want to wait until it’s their son, or daughter, or grandchild who gets caught, maybe even growing it on THEIR LAND. The government will swoop in any you could lose it anyway! We are all in danger! Every one of us, even those of you who don’t care, or think the War is right!
You could be next!
If they won’t listen to us and do something, this year. 2011. Then in 2012 we need to take these Ambassadors, who have been talking to their friends and neighbors and cops and politicians, and run them for office. State, Local, Sheriff, Police Chief, Senator, Governor!
But they have to stay off the smoke for two years. They will be watched, no one will be able to bring regular packages, they may even be subject to unlawful stops and searches. They will have to stay clean. Maybe sneak one here and there if they happen to start preaching to a Believer. They must never drive stoned! One offense and you’ve ruined the whole thing.
It’s what I’m gonna do.
re; This means the next medical initiatives and bills will have to be even more restrictive.
didn’t prop 19 just fail, because it was TOO RESTRICTIVE ??
didn’t the LAST state to win medical mj have the MOST RESTRICTIVE LANGUAGE of any of the 14 states to pass it ?? and it passed by a smaller margin than the less restrictive states did ??
the more restrictive we get, the more of our OWN PEOPLE will vote against it.
and you think we need to be more restrictive ??
stop trying to win over the prohibitionists !!
-we don’t need them, and will never get them.
there are more than enough non-prohibitionists !!
-60 % of eligeable people don’t even vote.
concentrate on them, not on the prohibitionists !!
it is just like the dems v/s reppies. every time the dems lose, they say “well, they voted for the reppies, they must like the reppies, so to win next time, we need to be more like them. we need to move MORE to the right,”
BUT, the more they move to the right, the less satisfied their base is, and they lose again, (why vote for a wanna-be reppie, when you can get a real reppie)
and then they move MORE to the right, and the cycle repeats.
we just saw it, again, the dems lost the house, because they were more worried about what the reppies wanted, than what their base wanted.
(no end to wars, no single payer health care, no end to NAFTA out-sourceing our jobs, and NO LEGALIZATION.)
[Russ responds: No, I don’t think they should be more restrictive. Indeed, I’m arguing that we should focus on legalization, the least-restrictive medical marijuana possible. What I’m saying is that those who put together medical marijuana bills are going to interpret these election results not as ‘supporters thought it was too restrictive’ but as ‘mainstream South Dakotans think medical isn’t restrictive enough’.
The New Jersey medical marijuana wasn’t an initiative; it was legislated. The politicians are going to start with language more restrictive than the people’s initiatives. Then as their opponents batter them with California and Colorado stories, they begin whittling down those bills even more. (Not that I’m against California and Colorado; I’m just telling you that ‘tens of thousands of legal tokers and hundreds of legal pot shops’ is not what your average red state legislator considers ‘medical’.)
So isn’t it contradictory, then, to say ‘go for legalization’ when even medical marijuana is getting trounced? No. I point to the rising poll numbers for legalization and the falling numbers for medical, both from Gallup and from four elections now. Medical marijuana is not the same issue on the public’s mind as it was in the 1990’s and 2000’s; to a significant number of voters, it now feels like a sham, a backdoor way to legalization that some might vote for if we were just honest about it.
Here in Oregon, many of our newspaper editorial boards, both those that opposed and supported our dispensary initiative, pleaded that we stop with the medical marijuana arguments and just got to the debate on legalization. When I talk to police – the front line guys, not the bosses – they say they just wish it was either illegal or legal, but the whole ‘medical thing’ just makes their jobs tougher and criminals’ jobs easier. When I talk to patients, they complain about the cost of their doctor visits and the state card and the growing limits and lack of access and all the rules they have to follow to avoid being criminals.
I believe that more medical marijuana bills are coming and they will be very restrictive like New Jersey’s. I also see Sativex and future cannabinoid pharmaceuticals coming very soon and states will allow the sickest and most disabled patients to use those instead, thus separating the most sympathetic representatives from the medical marijuana campaign. Indeed, the debate over whether we pursue medicalization or legalization may be answered by technology; there may be no more medicalization to pursue once Big Pharma gets it.]
The last paragraph makes me think that the NORML slogan should perhaps change to “Working to legalize marijuana”.
re; 5. We must stop painting the marijuana as a bad thing that needs to be controlled.
marijuana is A MEDICALLY BENEFICIAL, natural, NON-NARCOTIC, non-toxic plant substance, LIKE BLUEBERRIES, ORANGE JUICE, GARLIC, or olive oil.
-and should be regulated as such.
-NOT HARMFULL, NOT DANGEROUS !!
and don’t be afraid to say “i am PRO-POT” !!
Time will help the cause. Let the slow process of education, exposure, and taboo-busting work its magic, and next election you may have four percentage points that tip the battle. The key is to keep marijuana in the public eye. The more that people are exposed to it and learn about it, the better. When it is concealed and obscure, then every manner of evil can be attributed to it. But when people learn the history and the science, then the good and thoughtful people will favor legalization. With education, it becomes obvious that only a villain would want to send people to prison for the personal use of marijuana.
Very well written and concluded. I respect NORML and all the bright minds behind it for this summary of the bullet points on what to do better next time.
Congratulations, and lets get on it once again.
As you said, this still showed how close we are to a major change, even though the elections themselves were not as positive as hoped.
i don’t know. i actually think that if you made two voter initiatives at once: one to legalize pot and the other to make it illegal to test for marijuana for the work place, young people especially would be a lot more interested in getting this chance to force their bosses to stop doing something. Then, all you have to really do is make a huge deal over drug testing. People will show up to the polls to vote against drug testing, but while they are there they are more likely to vote for legalization.
This is because workplace drug testing is something everyone has to endure. Even if they don’t smoke pot, they still hate it. Put it to a vote, after getting some basic information out, and too many people are affected negatively to allow it to continue. The actual smoking of pot isn’t something too many do, however. People will show up to vote against workplace drug testing, but while they are there already voting to tell the government “this is none of your business,” they are more likely to carry that mindset into the next question, which is the legalization of marijuana.
Try this as an experiment: take two polls, both would ask if marijuana should be legalized and both would ask if workplace drug testing should be made illegal. The difference between these two polls is on one legalization is question before WPDT, and on the other poll legalization is question after WPDT. Compare the results. I would bet that hostility against WPDT is fairly consistent across both polls, but the poll where you asked about WPDT first is the one that shows the most support for marijuana legalization.
Very well done. I was feeling bummed about the election, but after seeing the level of reason applied here, I realize it’s only a matter of time.
Medical nationwide, then legalize. Legalize only for private consumption, no bars – public use ONLY if local regulations are passed in that municipality, like Las Vegas or downtown Detroit desire. Private use is the key to weaving around the stoned drivers and stoned nurses argument – it cannabis legalization must maintain that it is never OK to be ‘stoned’ in public. Just because we want tolerance, doesn’t mean people will vote for permissiveness.
Good articel but I have 3 major issues with this list of 10 lessons:
1. ALL DRUG TESTING IS FLAWED AND AN INVATION OF PRIVACY.. YOU CAN NOT, NOR DO YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO REGULATE WHAT GOES INTO MY BODY, NOR DO YOU HAVE RIGHT TO KNOW. The next thing they will be testing for is caffeine when they decide to make that illegal…..Testing for pot is EXTREMELY UNFAIR because it shows up in your urine for 45 days after consumption. Alcoholics can piss clean after abstaining for just 8 hours. Coke addicts can clean up in 3 days. Smoke a joint and you are a moving target for the next 45 days. FUCK THAT!!!!
[Russ responds: Read closer. I’m not talking about urine testing, which shows up for 7-90 days, but blood, saliva, and sweat testing, which have much smaller windows of response time to cannabis use. You’ll also find I completely agree with you about drug testing. However, I also know how and when to pick my battles. We’re dealing with an American public that accepts warrantless wiretapping, full-body scanners, and mini-shampoo bottles at the airport to keep safe from the ‘terrists’; it’s gonna be a while before we can get them to accept not drug testing drivers on the freeways.]
2.One of the MAJOR REASONS pot should be legal is the astronomical cost of a weed that grows out of the ground all by itself with no help need from man unless you want to fine tune it. So fuck the greedy growers who are paying their mortgages by charging $360 an ounce for something that should cost about 10 bucks. Why should I support your mortgage when I have to live in an apartment? FUCK THAT!!!!
3. Once pot is legal for everyone, medicinal marijuana becomes a moot point. Those who need it for medicinal purposes will not have to go to a ‘doctor” to get treated when they will be able to go to the local store and get what they want. Using pot is not rocket science, like some of these entrepreneurs and connoisseurs would have you believe. You smoke a little, you feel it right away and then you decide if you want a little more. If not, you put it down. DIG THAT!!!
One other thing : I have no preference for any type of cannabis. It’s all good and all of it gets me feeling good. Don’t get brainwashed by greedy growers. Purple Kush, White Widow or just plain old commercial – its all good – you don’t need one over the other.
The problem with getting moe restrictive with medical marijuana to avoid the so called “trojan horse” problem is that it ineviably cts out people who have eal medical conditions fromgetting medical marijana because those condiions are not recoinized by the public as being helped my edical marijuana. I suffer from hypertension and this is a condition which medical marijuana can help with but ll of tho9se states which have more restrictive laws do not allow peoleith my condition ton qualify for medica marijuana. This is a case where a legitimate patient still cannot get hs medicine even after medicalmarijuana has bee legalized. More restrictive laws is a disater for me because I am always left out. I a 51 years old and I am not some kid who is pretending to have a backache just to get around the law. A second disaster which happens iswhen they try to limit the ammount of thc in the marijuana. What works for me is a high thc purple indica that is 14% or more and s enat for niightime use. Weak scwag of 10% or less does not cut it for me. forbdding patients to grow simply taes the patient’s freedom away. If the patient cannot grow his own he annot be guaruntee the right tohave a srain that meets his needs. New Jersey’s attempt at medical legalization is the worst case senaro for someone like me but the truth is tat most mical arijuana states simply denyme access to my medicine because I don have the “right” condition. Why should I suffer wen other people who are equally deserving can gt their medicine. I live in New york and since the electio of Cuome all hope ha been lst for any medical bill to pss. Bt if a medical bill did pass I would probably not qualify sice my hypertension would probably not be recoginzeed as a qualifying condition. The sad thing is that the only choice is the illegal market: but heres the catch: thre is no illegal market here. The repression has been so successful that such dealers cannot be found. So much for the lie that he drug war has failed. TFor me the drug war has tragicaly been a great success. Then there are those who say “just wait for ecreational legalization”. This is an insult because it treats me as if I was a liar who had no medical condition. It tells me to wait for a nonmedical legalization which may not come to New York in my lifetime . Even if it id why should I have to wait until I am 70 or 80 to get my medicine. he only place I am certain I can get my medicine is California. I am not certain I can qualify in any other state. The problem is that if Cooly becomes Attorney General he may close down all dispenseries in california. I clearly do not “have mine”. Far from being the California kid who is not sick and can get his easily through the medical program I am genuinely suffering witht any end in sight. The last thing I needisatightening of the aw. “tighteing” is fatal to me. My crrent hypertension medications are inadequate ndmatbe what is making me impotent. Add to this that I am unemployed and my only hpe of getting my medicine is finding a temp job in California and you can see how this statistial downslide is negatively impacting me. I support meical legalization of the type foud in california and I support nonmedic legalization; I strongly supported prop. 10; I am not part of the “only legalize medcial marijana but do not legalize recreationl marijuna”. The more restrictive the medical marijuana law the worse for me because whenever conditions are listed hypertensin is always left out. It is simply wrong to treat me as if I am a fraud o to have Caliorna, the last place in the world I can permanently live andqualify for my medicine taken ay. Whenwill my uffering end/ Why do I have to wait for a nonmedical legalisation that I may never live o see or if I do see will be so distant from now has no practical usefor me? Is all of this not cruel? Where is the compassion?
Great information. Thank you for providing us with all the support for our cause over the years!
I Think I’ll just move to the Emerald triangle area where they don’t enforce prohibition , then I can just vote NO to protect my greedy little cash cow & laugh all the way to the BANK !
In response to constantine, i don’t believe that “famous” or “influential” people coming out in support of marijuana will necessarily be a good thing. Most people already regard all those that are in the so called spotlight as part of the upper echelon, to a certain degree above the law. Most people see them as pot smokers and whacked out ppl, and accept that. So bringing those people out, to the ppl we are trying to reach, is just like telling them something they already know, and that makes me ppl feel like you think they are stupid.
The caption making fun of cops for being fat is not going to win any votes. We need to unite rather than divide. Granted, I do not like being busted by a cop, but I treat them with respect if they do the same to me.(I’ve been busted twice)
And to mark, you are obviously not very experienced with marijuana. There is a VERY big difference between strains. To the rookie, yeah, it all gets you high. But as you gain an appreciation for the different levels of compounds in the bud, not to mention the resins that make them all taste so wonderfully distinct from each other, you come out of the ignorance of thinking that people are just overthinking it, or “trying to push something.” Again, even fellow stoners are falling into these self destructive thought patterns, and you’re feeding into the hype by posting your ignorance on here.
One of the major reasons pot should be legal is because it costs so much….Haha yea thanks for contributing, go tell obama that.
Nice one, Russ, you’ve given us lots to think about.
One point you made needs real ideas: how to “level the playing field” for mom ‘n’ pops. I actually wonder whether this is something that could be addressed by an initiative (rather than, say, niche marketing by growers themselves).
I agree with one of the first comments, this is an astute analysis of what happened with 19, but I’m not sure that you can reverse-engineer success in 2012 by looking at why people rejected 19. And I’m also not sure that you can come up with a law that pleases everybody…but hopefully enough ‘body’s.
There is only one path to ending this 40 year failed WAR ON MARIJUANA and that’s to take marijuana/hemp out of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. I know attempts have been made before to take marijuana out of the Drug Schedules but with the AMA now interested in studying marijuana, the government patenting it and Sativex almost ready for the U.S. market the time is right. If marijuana is not in the Drug Schedules it would take the DEA out of the drug war business completely and marijuana would be treated the same as any other herb (think blue cohosh, catnip, basil) and sold over the counter as an inexpensive herb.
The DEA will never want this to happen, too much money flowing in for those high tech toys and paramilitary swat teams for the border. Lots of info on the rescheduling issue and here is a link to a pro/con argument:
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/sourcefiles/marijuanareschedulingrevisedoct292009.pdf
I would support making a donation to NORML if they tried the rescheduling route again and let’s have Ethan Nadelmann run the point on this because he’s one of the best minds on this subject who is on our side.
[Editor’s note: You can send the donation to 1600 K St. NW, #501, Washington, DC, 20006 because NORML has never ceased seeking a rescheduling of cannabis…from 1972-2004 (NORML vs. DEA) and from 1998 to present (Gettman, NORML, et al vs. DEA).
Information about the second round of these protracted administrative law proceedings are found here.]
Great article. I’m still gonna use cannabis though, because I believe in calling a spade a spade. I don’t care how “mainstream” the term “marijuana” is. You know its racist history, and that ought to automatically disqualify its use. It’s for this reason that I cannot describe a loud, obnoxious, and ignorant person a “nigger” because of the racial baggage that term carries in this country. Even though that word used to be mainstream in America, it is now shunned by almost everyone in society today. I can only hope “marijuana” will one day share that same fate.
[Russ responds: Calling a spade a spade… Interesting choice of metaphor.
I don’t think there is an equal comparison between the two words, however. “Marijuana” was used to demean a plant, not a people. The purpose of using the word “marijuana” is racist in origin, in that it is a slang Mexican term and along with “loco weed” depictions of Mexicans, it was used to to frighten and confuse early 20th century white voters who knew what “hemp” and “cannabis” were.
But now the word “marijuana” has come to mean “smokable cannabis”. It evolved. Our culture sees no racist stigma attached to it any more than “gay” carried sexual overtones in the 1890’s or how a “fag” in England is a cigarette, nothing more. “Marijuana” dominates the Google searches 10:1 over “cannabis” in America; regardless of origin, it is now the brand name of smokable cannabis.
Besides, for a simple test of the comparison between the two words, walk into any major city in America, find Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., and yell both at the top of your lungs. You’ll make more friends with one than the other.]
The CA & American people voted overwhelmingly for me to pay less in tax. Thus, I have already made a tax deductible contribution to NORML’s education efforts. I suggest you all do the same. The groundwork has to start now.
The Giants parade here in SF was thick with marijuana smoke, and Brian Wilson made a joke about it. The Texas players & media kept going nuts about how ubiquitous pot is in SF. But that’s the smell of victory! That’s the smell all the kids at the parade are going to associate with winning.
And that’s how the legalization camp needs to carry itself. We are winning: here’s why! Clever media needs to be commissioned now. Work on viral videos, tweets, Facebook, etc. Celebrities from Rick Steves to Bill Maher to whomever need to step up & rev up the propaganda engine now.
Basically, we need a media blitz that serves as the artillery. We’ll soften up the target while we write an airtight ballot initiative. Let everyone know it’s coming. Let them know how to get involved. Let them know where & how to donate. Make those donations tax deductible if possible (education oriented). If the voters don’t want you to pay tax, hide your money & do good at the same time!
….i believe a big reason 19 lost was the lack of focus on the emerging research regarding our body’s own endocannabinoid system. How many people out there, stoners included, know that science has discovered that all mammals including mankind(above the lowly sea mollusk in the evolutionary chain) have an “endocannabinoid” system, with cannabinoid receptors in more locations and higher density than any other receptor in the body. How many know that cannabinoids regulate every other system in the body by traveling “backwards” along the synaptic pathway to regulate specific processes up or down. That is an astounding scientific discovery! How many know that our bodies produce it’s own marijuana like substances and have been found in mother’s milk. Again, amazing,no?! How many know that cannibidiol is being used successfully to inhibit the growth of aggressive breast cancer in woman. How many know that cannabinoids have the ability to kill cancer cells without killing the surrounding cells, unlike the pharmaceutical companies drugs. How many people know the names: Raphael Meshoulem, Dr. Donald Tashkin, Dr. Robert Melamede I believe that trying to lump marijuana together with alcohol was a big mistake. There are no receptors for alcohol in the body. It is a completely different substance with completely different effects. I have had the most success in turning people around both pro and anti cannabis as soon as I start talking about HARD,COLD SCIENTIFIC FACTS. There are over 17,000 credible peer reviewed studies worldwide showing the medicinal benefits of marijuana, yet as we all know the MSM is absent in relating this info to the world and most people have never heard or seen the evidence. We must do that ourselves. I want to see our activists on Oprah with Dr.Oz,etc,talking about hard cold scientific evidence, not ideology like “it’s not as bad as alcohol”. Very weak argument IMHO.
But should the next bill address industrial hemp? Would it help to have farmers talk about how hemp is currently imported for stores such as Patagonia, when they could easily grow it here? What about showing 3rd world countries and how we could feed them with hemp seed?
New reality show needed. Alcohol vs marijuana. Pick the best drivers. Put them through driving obsticle tests like on other shows. Keep tabs on statistics.
Remove some of the stygma surrounding marijuana and at the same time prove what we all know. You cannot compare the two. Alchohol removes your ability to reason, “hold my beer and watch this”. We’ve all seen that. Some people have not seen the opposite, and I’m sure would be suprised, with the marijuana smoker.
Nevermind…they’d want to make alcohol illegal again.
I’d just like to add that our side should not self-reflect too much over the ballot result. I think our side did about the best it could under the circumstances. Prohibitionists pressed the FEAR button, like they always do, running commercials of overturned school buses (the bus driver was high on marijuana). How to counter FEAR? I don’t know. More education would help. Prop 19 certainly was not going to legalize impaired driving! But the Prohibitionists pretended otherwise. They have no problem with lying, as they are completely devoid of ethics. All that matters to them is power and money.
One more important point that I think must be stressed is the legalizing of hemp. Many of California’s farmers are struggling, and the ability to grow hemp would seriously change their financial future. The public always has a soft spot for the farmers.
4. We cannot win until people are more scared of prohibition than they are of legalization.
This is the single most important goal moving forward, in my opinion. I’m tired of these prohibitionists using their “moral high ground” BS. It’s about time they are exposed. If I know Psychology, and I do (4 year degree), it is the attitudes that must be changed first.
I’d also like to add:
Cheech and Chong’s comedy were detriments to the overall movement. I was only a tiny kid in the ’70’s…. and I am sick of people like that being at the forefront of the perceived cannabis movement. Yes I’m aware that Chong did more for the movement than just comedy.
The real “comedy” here should be skits about bumbling, bigoted prohibitionists, not perceived “stoner humor”.
I admit being a white dude I take offense to the term, “marijuana”. (I’d be even more offended if I was Mexican). “Cannabis Legalization Act of 2012” sounds better to me.
Don’t get brainwashed by greedy growers. Purple Kush, White Widow or just plain old commercial – its all good – you don’t need one over the other.
Mark, I agree that we can’t let the growers overcharge for bad strains, but…
Strain does matter to a lot of people. Some strains (sativas) I use during the day so I’m more active… If I smoked that Purple Kush (indica) during the day, I’d be more lethargic… so it’s perfect for nighttime.
A lot of misconceptions about “stoners” comes from seeing teens with low tolerances smoke a strain that doesn’t agree with them.
This was a very good read, I spent a good two weeks trying to explain the first point to so many people it was beyond frustrating, I thought the whole notwithstanding existing law line was pretty clear, but apparently not. I love all of the information presented here. And I can’t agree more with the lack of including the drug testing clause in there. The way our legal system works, you take small steps and hold your ground and wait for the public to become more supportive as they don’t see maleffects. It’s sad how many people I’ve talked to that think we need to just make one giant leap, and while I’ll agree in many ways prop 19 needed to be a little more lenghty and in detail, and definitely needed to allow specifically more than an ounce at the very least for those involved commercial exchange. I like all the points this brings up, I can’t wait to see some test legislation written up in the near future to try and accomplish all this. I however propose another possible approach that is even more freedom creating. A simple proposition to repeal/nullify the existing state law prohibiting marijuana, combined with a second proposition to enforce jurisdiction, (could also be combined with the prior proposition) as in it takes a federal officer to enforce a federal law, and perhaps even take it to the level that has been proposed in one piece of legislation in wyoming in which a federal agent violating the state rights of an individual could be arrested for kidnapping and/or false imprisonment. Don’t forget about the power of the tenth amendment. You may find that if you ally this cause with the tenth amendment that many who may oppose this on moral ground may approve of it on legal ground. Plainly simply though I am very much a legalization activist, I am all the more excited for what legalization means for putting a foot down on a state and person’s constitutional rights.
There needs to be a way to directly contribute to commercials. I personally, would donate a substantial amount if I knew my donation contributed to pro-legalization commercials.
I appreciate the points made but hope it can all be greatly simplified when written up as a law. For example:
*Whereas marijuana is a non-toxic, naturally occurring herb, adults 21 and over are free to possess, use and grow personal amounts without tax or penalty.
*Whereas marijuana ia a non-toxic, naturally occurring herb, it may be cultivated and offered as a commercial product subject to appropriate licensing and taxation.
*Industrial strains of the plant, known as hemp, shall not be prohibited from commercial farming and development.
There can be further definition of personal amounts and appropriate licensing and taxation, but keep it simple and brief. I think it’s important for the law to acknowledge that marijuana is a non-toxic plant. And it’s important to liberate the hemp industry.
Medical use becomes moot in a legal environment. I think we all appreciate how medical need has paved the way but it has also led to high prices and financial dependency by growers who now fight complete legalization. There will always be a market for premium, recreational or medical strains lovingly grown, and that should rightly cost more than common marijuana…but hundreds of dollars an ounce is robbery! And there should be a way for low income people with a validated medical need to get it at low or no cost.
One more thing that should be part of the narrative: the end of alcohol prohibition. Show how docs were prescribing whisky just like they do medical marijuana now. Show how different state laws evolved & how they are evolving. Make it seem normal & inevitable prohibition will end again.
I would also recommend using footage of the Columbia, MO raid where the SWAT team shoots the dog over a personal stash. Go hard on that & people will fear the prohibitionists more than they fear the drug. Radley Balko is all over this. Get him involved! Reason Foundation, too.
ya i did not like the fat cop, joke,fat people are the last frontier of jackass’s that use to pick on blacks,retards,browns,yellow,reds,and white,ya have ya ever been the only white person in a room with 12 blacks, yup your white ass is the joke,the cops need and better get respect and so should over weight people most can and will kick your skinny ass’s if ya don’t like this post meet me outside and ill bust your face,then you’ll want a cop around,anyhow toke em is ya got em and death to the pot smokers that voted no on 19
medical marijuana has NOT reached its peak.
and you DON’T need a breathalyzer! that is just stupid. once again adding things that won’t help get votes that only hinders the stoner. nobody gives a shit about that. why are you so insistent on throwing everyone under the bus?
yea< whats up with the "i gots mine' crowd . they sound just as bad as the actual criminals takin advantage of the illegalization of marijuana. the "i gots mine" crowd blow and ghetto. i gots mine, really ?
Holy Smokes. Another way would be that congress, as smart as they are, remove marijuana from a schedule I listing. Move it towards caffiene and aspirin. But, I guess the $400 million DEA budget could not afford the loss of jobs. I see that 20 people died (murdered) this pass weekend in Mexico. Only 6000+ since 2008. Keep up the good work. Apathy is setting in.
Rev.sLeezy
Dibz: I take exception to your post. I’m 52 and I’ve been smoking since 1973 and have made 4 trips to Amsterdam and enjoyed every bowl I smoked.
If one strain is too strong for ya, put it down, smoke less. If one strain is too weak, then smoke a little more. If one strain works better for ya, by all means use it. BUT DONT FUCKING CHARGE ME $360 for this ounce and $10 for that ounce. Its all the same shit!!!!!! Budweiser costs the same as Coors and you get the same fucking buzz. Corona gives you the same fucking buzz as Bud but costs more because its imported. But its all the same shit.
Your post is what I would expect from a capitalist in Humbolt county.
And to the other asshole who remarked about my complaint of pot costing too much: oh, wait that was you. never mind.
Alan:
The federal government uses the threat of financial (and other) sanctions to the major networks if they air ANYTHING REMOTELY RELATED TO ADVOCATING LEGALIZATION. Just look at what Holder said to CA: If you legalize it we will throw you in jail anyway.
Do a google search on what countries are paid off by America to keep it illegal.
Looking at the graphs that you have posted above, you either need to motivate the older voters, or get more republican voters to this side of the issue.
With the tea parties gaining momentum nationwide, This issue should be portrayed as a state right vs a federal mandate. Tie this in with states rights (which it should be) and you have the potential to get an incredibly amount of voters behind it (people that identify themselves as politically conservative is a growing segment, well over 40%) Moderates are shrinking, and liberals are staying the same.
The people that are going to the polls in 2012 are going to be tea partiers anyway, you have the time to seperate the propoganda from the factcs, and frame this so that you will have the support of those folks.
Just because we disagree on taxes and national defense does not mean we can’t agree on weed.
Keep this a single issue campgain and you will grow your support base in no time.
Wow , Russ . That’s a quite impressive article and list of facts you gathered . I’m impressed .
As long as you keep the age limit 21 I will oppose your measure. I prefer an age limit of 16 but can live with 18.
I am well over 21 too so let me stop any paternalist bullshit accusations before they are posted. Damn the pot people who cater to such discrimination against young people. I and many other people will never support an age limit older than 18 years of age and will vote against the measure until the age limit is lowered to at least 18. 17 would be better.
[Russ responds: I’d personally prefer an age limit of 18 for everything; you’re an adult or you are not. However, for every vote of yours we’d gain for an 18-limit, we’d lose ten votes of parents with high school-aged children who know there are 18-year-olds in the halls as high school seniors.
So your stance essentially means: if we’re going to criminalize 18-year-olds, we ought to just keep criminalizing everyone of any age.
As long as alcohol’s age is 21, we’re never going to pass anything that treats marijuana less stringently. I can live with legalizing for 21+, then as society begins to accept that and learn that marijuana is so much less harmful than alcohol (currently only half of Americans believe that way), we can work toward lowering the age limit.
Of course, if 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds ever bothered to vote in numbers matching their support for legalization, maybe an 18-year-old limit could be passed.]
“The next initiative campaign needs to scare people about the out-of-control prohibition situation we have now.” This is by definition, terrorism. The coercion by means of fear. Never ever word it this way. Say “We need to make people aware of the dangerous reality of prohibition instead. The reality itself should be scary enough. As a medical marijuana patient here in the Southwest, I am PRO legalization! Being from a VERY RED state (Indiana) where a SEED can get you jail time and probation, I’ve always thought it quite ABSURD to have such a crusade against this flower.
[Russ responds: Semantics. We both agree that people need to see the scary reality of prohibition.]
HEMP
HEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!
TALK ABOUT HEMP MORE!!!!!!!!!!
I felt that too much of the debate was focused on the rights and freedoms of people who smoke.
If we focus on industrial hemp more, I think this will bring a new demension to the pro-legalization side.
[Russ responds: I think you’re wrong. Focus on hemp and we end up with legal hemp and still illegal marijuana (see: Canada, China, Australia, etc.) Focus on legal marijuana and hemp is legal by default.
The only focus on hemp should be that keeping marijuana illegal keeps hemp illegal. There’s no doubt we can move many minds with hemp’s benefits, but we must be careful to ensure that’s a means to the end of prohibition.]
Holy Smokes. ?
Rev.sLeezy
Amazing Grace
I feel The Holy Spirit
One of the excuses I heard of why some voted against prop 19 is that there were pot smokers that were afraid marijuana produced in the state for recreational sale would become weaker in potency. Maybe that’s just propaganda but I heard someone call into a radio show and say that’s what their friends that are pot smokers thought is that the pot available to the public would be weak in THC.
Anyone could have argued that thought by telling the people that if they can grow their own marijuana they can grow their own potent strain or maye have the bill be clear that marijuana potency will not become weaker although they could say they will sell weak strains and potent strains to the public. Just like selling beer to the public or whiskey to the public.
The next time around for these bills allows for changes in the bill and to make it more clear to the people.
Russ,
Thank you for pointing out the immorality of profiting off of prohibition’s misery.
Friend of Leap,
I completely agree. Back when this was less mainstream, poking fun at the cops was fun, in a juvenile way. We need to take pointers from Nelson Mandela, and bless those that persecute us.
Russ, could NORML give Iowa a little more press? I’m going to be filing the paperwork to make Iowa Patients a legal non profit here soon, and Carl Olsen’s work with Iowans for Medical Marijuana and the Iowa BOP stimulated a national discussion. Iowa taking this issue seriously helps balance out the prohibitionists fear mongering of “medical marijuana abuses” in Cali…just a thought.
Thanks!
Jason Karimi
[Russ responds: I’m a bit amused that an off-hand fat cop joke has gotten so much attention. The cop in the picture isn’t even fat! But the point is noted – I probably didn’t need to go there. Sometimes suffering a hundred-thousand pot pun headlines will make a guy act out…]
In the meantime
Battering Ram Raid Of Legal Seattle Patient By Machine Gun-Toting Officers Results In Review
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/11/08/McGinn.jpeg
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/11/botched_raid_mayor_to_meet_with_cops_about_pot_enf.php
“Is it our job to compromise the investigation to give the benefit of doubt to people?” Whitcomb whined. You know, when your potential pot raid targets could be chronically or terminally ill patients — as is required by Washington’s medical marijuana law — I’d say maybe that is your damn job, Officer Whitcomb.”
I Wonder about my only soul
We need to show people the link between the drug war and bigger government. That would have helped tremendously in the 2010 elections. There are now more people afraid of bigger government than the evil weed. The last thing they should want is a bigger government telling them what they can and cannot put into their own bodies.
I also strongly agree that hemp should be included in the next initiative! All potential uses and benefits of the plant should be legal.
[Russ responds: I disagree. Keep the initiative to one subject: Should we continue to lock people up for use and cultivation of cannabis?
Now if you pass that legalization for cannabis that has psychoactive levels, haven’t you just legalized the non-psychoactive hemp as well? Hemp doesn’t even need to be mentioned; legalizing pot legalizes it for all uses – medical, spiritual, and industrial.
Putting hemp in there just creates a side discussion that distracts from the focal point of ending prohibition. It’s not that I don’t agree about hemp’s importance; I just don’t want to give opponents the opportunity to cull the hemp-only supporters from our herd.]
Keep running the economy into the ground. Republicans are going to slash government programs to save money, but saving money doesn’t necessarily lead to jobs if there are no new ideas for new products or new industries that CAN NOT be outsourced to cheaper production source. They’re going to keep running the country into the ground, IMHO. If I had money and wanted cannabis legalized, I’d hold off until I got what I wanted, too. The U.S. drug war is used too much as an excuse to go to war and to marginalize entire societies and races of people–the new Jim Crow.
and HOW did these election defeats show you that medicinal marijuana hit its peak?
oh, it DIDN’T. you’re just holding onto that idea to move forward without even considering how beneficial medical marijuana has been to the movement. so this is you NOT learning.
[Russ responds: Uh, let’s see…
South Dakota medmj 2004 = 48%
South Dakota medmj 2010 = 36%
Oregon dispensaries 2004 = 42%
Oregon dispensaries 2010 = 43%
Arizona medmj 1996 = 65%
Arizona medmj 2010 = 49.75%
Gallup poll medmj support 2005 = 78%
Gallup poll medmj support 2010 = 70%
Of nineteen states with medmj bills, how many passed their legislature last session? = 0
You should also take a look at this: http://stash.norml.org/medical-marijuana-trends-for-2010%5D
you’re also NOT learning anything by trying to add the Breathalyzer thing. that won’t entice any non-smokers to vote for it any more than taxing it hasn’t.
[Russ responds: You weren’t listening to any of the Prop 19 telephone town halls. I heard numerous questions from undecided voters about “what’s the legal limit for stoned drivers?”]
you didn’t learn again. you should have learned that bending over & taking the extra unfair taxes won’t convince anybody. and if you’d learned that you’d know that adding things to entice non-smokers just doesn’t work. all it does is screw over smokers.
[Russ responds: Marijuana smokers only make up, at most, 10% of the population of any state, and that’s including the once-a-year-for-a-special-occasion tokers. So any legalization that is going to pass must appeal to non-tokers. Even if everyone who smoked pot in California went to the polls and voted yes, that’s only 3.3 million votes, vs. the 4 million that turned out to vote NO.
By the way, the tax marijuana measures that were on the ballots in numerous California cities passed overwhelmingly. Part of what may have harmed Prop 19 is that it didn’t have mandatory taxes included in it.]
and this is why i voted NO on Prop 19. i want legalization, but GOOD legalization. keep adding things like a breathalyzer and keep saying that medical marijuana has peaked & i will continue to urge everybody i know to vote no on any propositions that have garbage like this.
right now, medical marijuana IS an alternative. & honestly it’s as legal as i personally need it to be, and honestly ANYBODy can get a prescription legally. this is the way to move forward: cultivate support among more actual users. and the best way to do that is through medical marijuana for the time being.
prop 19 has severely impacted the good messages that medicinal marijuana has been sending. and medicinal marijuana has JUSt been picking up momentum in california in the last year or 2. how can you say it’s peaked?! you are doing yourself & everyone else a disservice by dismissing the medical marijuana movement.
medical marijuana has been the MOSt successful in changing hearts & minds. & thats’ what you need most.
[Russ responds: I agree, medical marijuana from 1996-2008 did more to change people’s minds in favor of cannabis than any reform before. However, even in California you can see how medical marijuana has peaked in the restrictions you see coming in Los Angeles regarding dispensaries, the raids that continue with state support, and soon, your new Attorney General Cooley who thinks ALL cash sales of marijuana are illegal, period.
While you may think medical marijuana in California is sending “good messages”, activists in non-medical marijuana states would disagree with you. New Jersey and Pennsylvania lawmakers specifically note California in expressing objections to medical marijuana, leading further restrictions and cuts.]
re; ‘notwithstanding existing law’
definition; ‘notwithstanding’ means in spite of, or without regard to
-so it means it overrules / superscedes any / all existing laws.
so ALL WE NEED for FULL legalization is;
“notwithstanding existing law, MARIJUANA / CANNABIS / HEMP IS HEREBY LEGAL for adults to grow, buy, sell, posess, gift, share, and use, for recreational, medical, industrial, and religious uses, and cannot be patented.”
PERIOD.
it doesn’t need to be more complicated that.
(this also proves prop 19 would have overruled 420/219 rights and limits)
[Russ responds: Not quite. You don’t quite have “notwithstanding” correct. It means “just because we’re making this thing legal it doesn’t mean that other things that are illegal or legal change in any way.
David Nick put it this way:
See http://stash.norml.org/prop-19-is-the-best-thing-to-happen-to-medical-marijuana-patients-since-prop-215 for the full explanation of “notwithstanding”.]
Beautiful article. Exactly what needs to be done it seems. I would of voted for Prop. 19 if i could of (different state), but I did see how it tried to win over some people with the strict penalties. In doing so, lost some support from people smoking the night before. I will be donating to the 2012 effort. California will set the groundwork for the rest of us. Seems like 19 was rushed. We’ve got plenty of time to fine tune it.
I think the title was all-important, and that was definitely the first mistake. I agree with most of your top 10. We don’t need to “soothe socker moms” or anyone else. Being honest, brief and to the point. Don’t get bogged down in “what-ifs”. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Cannabis/Marijuana must be legalized fully first and foremost, because we MUST stop sending people to prison for this. We don’t have to label it “recreational”. Why must we use this term? I understand Dennis Peron’s objection… to the purist, any use of cannabis IS medicinal. This is how I feel about it also. I don’t mind how people think about it, but calling it recreational demeans the remarkable medicinal power of cannabis. As a practicing community herbalist, I don’t view medicine as some kind of entertainment or amusement. This, I believe, you address by focusing on the pure legalization issue. Keep it simple.
Small note: the map you have of the states says that this years initative in CA took place in 2004.
[Russ responds: Thanks for catching that. It’s fixed now.]
Also just wondering but why has every legalization measure taken place in a midterm year? CA in 10, AK CO NV in 06 and NV again in 02?
[Russ responds: AK was 2004. But yes, why try in midterm elections, which traditionally have lower youth turnout?]
Money is what we need utilize the opportunity and do the right thing for the government. Wisdom is right.
Right I think the Prez election could give you a huge boost in fact i’m pretty sure with the 08 demographics prop 19 would have passed.
Awesome article, with many valid points.
Except this one:
“3. We must find a way to integrate the current illegal growers into a new legalized market.”
Current illegal growers (whether the ‘family’ business is run by a mom’n’pop or a cartel) will have to suffer the same fate as all other Prohibition Profiteers – a decrease in income or a change of employment.
No legalization bill should be bound by the prerequisite that ANYONE currently benefiting from Marijuana Prohibition have their preferred means of employment protected. Not police & prison guards, not drug-testers & drug-sellers, nor the many makers of any food, fiber or fuel which would compete with Hemp. And not those within the now well-established ‘Medical’ Pot industry.
Just because this new stakeholder in the War against Marijuana USERS claims to support legalization (while actively campaigning against it) does not mean it is a part of any legitimate movement to free PEOPLE.
This is not about their POCKETBOOK, or even the PLANT itself – but about the PERSONS benefited by it, and the PERSONS harmed by it’s prohibition.
Many Growers up north, in cooperation with many Dispensary owners/workers and Doctors – who make up a very small segment of California’s Cannabis USERS, much less the country’s and the world’s – poisoned the first & best chance at legalization we’ve had in a long time. Scaring patients and other users alike to vote against their own best interests, these ‘I got mine’ Gray Market masters have weakened our long-term struggle for their short-term gains. Period.
“The results from the so-called ‘Emerald Triangle’ … show us that legalization has to be framed to appeal to small time marijuana growers.”
You cannot please all of the people all of the time. Instead of appealing to them (as only money does), we can discount them. Be prepared for the same arguments next time from a possibly even more numerous and entrenched group – unless their influence can be countered starting now. Perhaps you’ve softened your view since Nov. 2nd, but I do believe boycotts are the most effective way to send a message to those who think only in terms of money.
“Putting aside the immorality of profiting from the misery of prohibition …”
This cannot be put aside. It is the crux of the matter, and it is what separates the sides in this war.
“… the fact is that many small time growers are paying their mortgage and feeding their families from profits on illegal marijuana.”
Looks like they picked the wrong place and time to live off of an illegal commodity. ‘Cannabis farmers’ will be no worse off than any other farmers and workers in this country after legalization – in fact, they may well be in the best position to capitalize on the hemp revolution to follow.
“Nobody is going to vote to reduce the price of weed from $300/oz to $60/oz when that takes food out of their kids’ mouths.”
Exactly. So why would we trust them to do it the second time around when these same results can be expected, no matter how it’s ‘framed’?
“The next initiative needs to create a level playing field for small businesses to compete in marijuana cultivation.”
What corporate/political/legal fantasy-land is that going to happen in? ‘Level playing field’? I’m sorry, for a second there I thought that the Marijuana Legalization effort was SEPARATE and DISTINCT from reforming the Corporate and Economic realities in which we live, or that holding it up for these even less attainable goals is dangerous, foolish and wrong.
“By emphasizing small, local grows, we can increase the grower vote while also soothing pot smokers worried about ‘WalMartization’ and non-tokers worried about pot becoming as ubiquitous as alcohol they see advertised daily nearly everywhere.”
By all means, emphasize and sooth. But know that no bit of legal mumbo-jumbo will do much to counter the free-market ways of our non-free nation. And no soothing will come to the willfully ignorant through footnotes and references – that will happen AFTER legalization, not before.
Finally, everyone should recognize that no Company, Government or Religion has ever succeeded in removing Cannabis from the planet or keeping Marijuana from the mind of man. Walmart weed may come to be, but I and many others would gladly pay a premium for the best … it seems a true grower would know that, and just keep supplying it.
[Russ responds: Very well written. To an extent, I agree with you. What I’m trying to get at is that legalization initiatives need to be careful written not to directly antagonize the existing grower network and work to get them on the side of legalization for their own benefits as well. When I say “putting aside the immorality” I don’t mean to ignore it or forgive it, I mean to put it aside as we look at the cold hard numbers of getting votes.
It could be that we just ignore the Emerald Triangle if we can flip Los Angeles County.
You’ve given me plenty to think about – thanks for taking the time.]
Thanks everybody for some great info. I agree that we need to bring hemp into the picture, for all the wonderful things it can do as well, it will give the American farmers another choice in crop rotation. Educating the public should be one of the top priorities, not just about marijuana, but hemp as well. But , I think one of the biggest drawbacks, was personal cultivation, how can you regulate something we are growing at home. I would think regulating the number of growers would appeal more to the general public. They did it with tobacco here in the south, if you didn’t have an allotment you didn’t get seeds, I’m sure most growers out there are cloning but with new strains they will need seeds. With hemp being grown, the cannabis growers would inevitably be forced indoors to prevent cross-pollenization.
Anyway you look at it our cause and support for legalization is the most beneficial thing we can do for our country and well being, we just have to show the non-believers we are right and they are wrong, and education is the best way to do it. Remember “Ya gotta feed the monkey to watch him shit”
re; #8 The “stoned drivers” scare is one of the few effective bits of
–rhetoric–
our opponents have left, along with “what about the children”?
-(you ‘SAY’ it is rhetoric, but are still willing to SWALLOW it, hook, line, sinker, fishing pole, and the ENTIRE BOAT)
i guess you forgot to read;
#5. We must stop painting the marijuana as a bad thing that needs to be controlled.
smoking pot does not cause significant impairment.
driving on prescription pills is just as bad,
and driving while tired is as bad as driving DRUNK.
unless you advocate EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW, you are 100% wrong.
as #6 says; “The way to solve the roadside testing problem is to move away from drug testing towards functionality testing. After all it is the ability to drive and not what you are taking that matters.”
-YOU LAUGH IT OFF AS BEING “incredibly reasonable. Thus, completely unsuited for American political discourse.”
the pigs did JUST FINE catching drunk drivers, before breathalizers were invented.
OBVIOUS IMPAIRMENT should be the standard.
keep the PIGS OUT OF MY BODY. IT IS MINE.
MY BODILY FLUIDS ARE MY PERSONAL PROPERTY.
the ” blood testing, cheek-swab saliva testing, epocrine gland (armpit) sweat testing” you advocate
-GIVES THE PIGS OUR FUC*ING D..N.A., !!!
AND IS THEREFORE WAY WORSE THAN WHAT WE HAVE NOW.
THEY CAN’T TAKE D.N.A. without a COURT ORDER, (unless they have a REAL CRIME TO CHARGE YOU WITH, like murder)
we have allready DEFEATED so many of their LIES, we need to KEEP DEFEATING THEM, NOT GIVE IN TO THEM.
re; PIGS that say; “what about the children?”
i have to say “FU*K THOSE PIGS”,
and “the PIGS NEED TO STOP FU*KING THE CHILDREN”
-THATS the answer to; “what about the children ?”;
“the PIGS NEED TO STOP FU*KING THE CHILDREN”
ALL EVIDENCE PROVES;
“FU*K THE CHILDREN” is what THEY ARE ALL ABOUT. (ARREST THEM, LOCK ‘EM UP, or their PARENTS, just as harmfull)
-WE ALL KNOW PROHIBITION HAS BEEN A CATASTROPHY,
AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER FOR EVERYONE,
-(except the PIGS and politicians and cartels)
-ESPECIALLY THE CHILDREN !!!
repeat after me, as many times as needed;
1. “PROHIBITION DOES NOT HELP CHILDREN”,
2. “PROHIBITION DOES NOT KEEP CHILDREN SAFE.”
3. “PROHIBITION HURTS CHILDREN.”
4. “IF prohibition helped children, ALCOHOL and TOBACCO would both be PROHIBITED.” goto 1.
anybody that PLAYS the “what about the children?” card,
-JUST TO INCREASE THEIR OWN POWER, WEALTH, and for personal AGGRANDISEMENT,
-with NO ACTUAL REGARD FOR THE CHILDREN,-
should, IN MY OPINION, be EXECUTED AS A TRAITOR.
THATS the answer to; “what about the children ?”.
This is an outstanding, well-reasoned analysis. However, is there no reason or room to promote the idea that we refer to ourselves as the Land of the Free? That we have subjugated our precious freedom to a bogus security interest? Inclusion of this rationale for prohibition of prohibition has universal appeal, and even resonates with the TEA partiers among us, who profess a love of liberty and a libertarian viewpoint. Most people are aware that the harms of prohibition exceed the harms of the substance itself; thus, we should ask why, in a nation that extols freedom as the highest virtue, adults cannot partake in a relative harmless diversion without endangering that precious freedom.
I think you have done a good job at finding out why 19 didnt go the distance. My question is what can be done in states that done have the Initiative process to get this on a ballot.
How do we go about this process when we cant get anything like Initiatives going.
In Virginia it doesnt take a seed to send you to jail (just an empty bag with residue) is considered paraphanila. Just a question.
re; Russ responds; notwithstanding other laws
For example, an (existing) law making SMOKING POT in front of a school illegal, would be overturned by a (new) law which says “notwithstanding other laws, SMOKING POT is legal.”
If the word “notwithstanding” was not there, then SMOKING POT in front of a school would still be illegal even though SMOKING POT itself would be legal at any other location.
OR;
For example, an (existing) law (420 / 219) making “99 PLANTS, AND 8 OZ., IN AN UNLIMITED AREA” legal, would be overturned by a (new) law (prop 19) which says “notwithstanding other laws, ONLY A 25 sq. FT. GARDEN, AND ONE OZ., is legal.”
THANKS FOR THE CLARIFICATION !!
THANK YOU FOR ADMITTING THAT I WAS RIGHT !!!
(takes a big man to admit when he is wrong)
P.S., google it, i did. i gave the legal definition exactly as listed; notwithstanding; In spite of, even if, without regard to.
-and-
“Radical” Russ Belville said;
Standard disclaimer: I am no lawyer… hell, I’m not even a college graduate.
funny, a national organization can’t get a LAWYER to tell us the meaning of the LAW.
I don’t go along with promoting in body drug tests for drivers or workers! Even the blood and saliva tests are unnecessary, unreliable, privacy violating, unconstitutional warrantless searches of our most private possession, our own body. DON’T FEED THE BEAST! IMPAIRMENT tests make sense and people are plenty smart enough to vote for that if they are given the facts.
All the facts are on our side, no matter what marijuana issue you want to look at. I tell people all the time that marijuana DOES NOT CAUSE DANGEROUS DRIVING OR DANGEROUS WORKERS! Even people in the marijuana policy reform movement tend to shy away from that fact. STOP IT! If Rx morphine is safe enough to only have a warning on the label that says, “don’t drive or operate dangerous machinery until you determine how this drug effects you”, then marijuana absolutely should not have more scrutiny than morphine and other far more dangerous legal drugs. If you are too impaired to drive or work safely EVERYONE wants you off the road and out of the workplace. How IMPAIRED someone is, is what matters, NOT how much of something they have in their body, or what they used 45 days ago!
The SAFER CHOICE message is effective because people don’t go along with something that is nontoxic and far less dangerous being illegal. Be sure you say, “the effects of marijuana are NOTHING LIKE ALCOHOL”, then explain the differences. Alcohol is the reference point most people use to compare with, use it to your advantage.
Would you want a stoned Dr. doing brain surgery on you? YES! If he/she is an experienced marijuana consumer, I would prefer it! Marijuana tends to make people slow down a little and be a little more cautious! It does NOT cause them to be careless or dangerous!
Speak the truth and don’t be afraid to confront the lies head on! Voter education will end marijuana prohibition but if we in the movement get soft on the facts and try to appeal to the critics, we kill our own arguments. Get tough on prohibitionists. Get tough on untruthful and misleading drug war propaganda and fear mongering! Attack, attack, attack! The truth, science and thousands of years of data are all on our side! You want a cleaner environment? Hemp! You want to end our dependence on far more polluting fuels? Hemp! You want a SAFER substance than alcohol to help you relax or enjoy activities? Marijuana! You want safer medicine? Marijuana!
Years ago, I talked to all my federal, state and local public servants. It immediately became clear to me that NOTHING good is going to happen until the majority of the voters know the truth about marijuana. They need to know why and how marijuana became illegal. They need to know it is SAFER THAN MANY FOODS WE COMMONLY CONSUME! THEY NEED TO KNOW THE MANY BENEFITS OF HEMP AND MARIJUANA! THEY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE HARMS AND WASTE OF THE DRUG WAR! THEY NEED TO KNOW EVERYONE IS HARMED BY MARIJUANA PROHIBITION, NOT JUST THOSE THAT USE MARIJUANA! $70 billion tax dollars are wasted on the drug war every year and Constitutional rights and freedoms for everyone are trashed enforcing this unconstitutional prohibition.
The more voters that learn the truth the better! After they learn the truth about marijuana and the drug war 80% support rationally regulating marijuana like alcohol and tobacco instead of prohibiting it. That 80% figure comes from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, consistently, after “LEAP” presentations to law enforcement personnel. That’s cops, judges and others on the front line in the war on drugs supporting legalizing and rationally regulating drugs rather than prohibiting them. If we can win over that many in law enforcement with honest facts, we certainly can do that well or better with the general public! All it takes is getting the truth out loud and clear with no concessions!
Most homes in the USA have far more dangerous substances than marijuana in their kitchen cabinets and garages, if adults can use those safely and keep their kids safe, then they can certainly do the same with nontoxic marijuana!
Virtually all the drug war propaganda is nothing but pure lies. Marijuana does not cause aggressive behavior. Marijuana does not cause dangerous driving, Google: MARIJUANA DRIVING STUDY. Marijuana does not cause cancer, brain damage or any serious health problems. Marijuana prohibition does not keep kids away from marijuana, illegal dealers don’t ask for ID. Drug prohibition funds criminals, gangsters and terrorists with hundreds of billions of tax free dollars every year. When you fund something you get more of it. Ending alcohol prohibition is EXACTLY why you no longer see shootouts on our streets between alcohol dealers and all the other harms and corruption that were DIRECTLY CAUSED by alcohol prohibition.
Anyone that wants marijuana is already getting it, so legalizing and rationally regulating marijuana is not adding another harmful intoxicant to society, legalizing gives people the legal opportunity to make the SAFER CHOICE! Alcohol and tobacco are both deadly, marijuana is not: http://www.saferchoice.org/content/view/24/53/
The laws prohibiting marijuana are NOT a result of any harm from marijuana. They are the result of racism, lies and greed. Read the well documented proof of that and a lot more marijuana TRUTH in these two articles, “WHY IS MARIJUANA ILLEGAL, Pete Guither” and “MARIJUANA AND HEMP THE UNTOLD STORY, Thomas J. Bouril”, click the links to those articles on the webpage below:
Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
Proposition 19 and the medical marijuana ballot items failed because we got soft on the prohibitionists and their untruthful propaganda. We tried to make the ignorant feel safe about kids, safe on the roads and safe in the workplace, when the truth is, they have nothing to fear from drivers, workers or anyone else that uses marijuana and prohibition makes marijuana easier for kids to get than alcohol or tobacco.
Hundreds of millions of miles are driven safely and hundreds of millions of jobs are worked safely every year with NO ACCIDENTS OR EVEN CLOSE CALLS caused by drivers and workers engaging in those activities while under the influence of marijuana! I have known hundreds of people that used marijuana while doing dangerous jobs including professional drivers, Dr.’s, lawyers, white collar workers that successfully handle large sums of money and help their clients make sound financial decisions, even hunters with loaded guns! I have known meat cutters, roofers, and a host of construction workers, even several that painted water towers while hanging from ropes, right after using marijuana, no accidents! The fact is, marijuana tends to cause people to slow down a little and be a little more cautious. It does not make people dangerous, stupid or turn them into zombies. Unlike alcohol, people that use marijuana are more cautious, NOT more dangerous. Driving that truth into the heads of the fearful and backing it up with proof will destroy the drug war propaganda fear mongering. If we act like marijuana CAUSES people to be more dangerous we are shooting ourselves and our movement in the head! Just be HONEST and share the brutal HONEST truth across the board. We are our own worst enemy when we try to win the masses by making them feel safe when they have NOTHING TO FEAR and when we propose penalties and drug tests for using something that does NOT cause dangerous behavior! If someone is too impaired to be safe that’s who driving and workplace efforts should be confined to. Proposition 19 hit the nail on the head about workplace Impairment! Impairment is what matters when it comes to driving and working, not drug tests that prove nothing about impairment levels. If we force impairment testing marijuana SAFETY will be self evident.
http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-four/
“In the 1920s and ‘30s, Hearst’s newspapers deliberately manufactured a new threat to America and a new yellow journalism campaign to have hemp outlawed. For example, a story of a car accident in which a “marijuana cigarette” was found would dominate the headlines for weeks, while alcohol-related car accidents (which outnumbered marijuana-connected accidents by more than 10,000 to 1) made only the back pages… This same theme of marijuana leading to car accidents was burned into the minds of Americans over and over again in the late 1930s by showing marijuana-related car accident headlines in movies such as “Reefer Madness” and “Marijuana – Assassin of Youth.”
The best way to fight this battle is with the truth! Loud and clear! MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE DANGEROUS BEHAVIOR!
While it is true that adjustments need to be made to make legalization more attractive in 2012, I really think wording allowing urine drug testing as a reason to fire someone is a bad way to go. I’m not saying no compromise on the “have to have a reason to test” issue…just the type of test done. Let’s say you look funny to the boss. If there is a test that determines soberness during the last four hours, that could be requested and would by many be considered a valid expectation. If the test routinely produces results that originated prior to an accepted period of time, then it should not be an allowed test. It is not that difficult to set boundaries on the accuracy of a test within defined parameters. Likewise, Bodies of Power should have defined limitations against its citizens.
Really, employeers just want the option of having the right to request a test. If company policy states one cannot have partaken of MJ in the four hour period before arriving at work, then that is a valid expectation that certainly allows for a defined test if a violation is suspect. After all, how can a person give of themselves to a business if they are being told who they have to employee despite concerns regarding soberness while at work.
And as for having MJ removed from Schedule 1…I am still trying to solve that puzzle: the component THC is the reason for the classification, or so I am given to understand. Marinol is 100% THC (just like generic drugs, etc., doesn’t matter if it is synthetic or not), which makes me want to say something like, duh! The government also sends MJ cigs to persons, possibly person by now, that a government program began…essentially recognizing its medical value, even if smoked. How can there not be an admission of medical value when those two factors are so public?
re; [Russ responds: Indeed, the debate over whether we pursue medicalization or legalization may be answered by technology; there may be no more medicalization to pursue once Big Pharma gets it.]
thank you !!!
this is the soros, mon san toh, corperate-controlled, every-possible-variety-patented, buy more GMO-terminator-seeds every year, sue-you-for-patent-infringement if you don’t buy our insanely overpriced seeds, JUST LIKE IS HAPPENING WITH CORN, con-spiracy theory, that the anti-prop 19 people were worried about,
-and YOU MADE FUN OF.
soros is considered an evil villan in england by-the-way…
he made a fortune, crashing their currency…
–just sayin’–
thanks again for your verification and validation !!
re; 3. “We must find a way to integrate the current illegal growers into a new legalized market.”
answer; full legalization !!
Q. what does FULL legalization mean to me ??
A.;
#1. an ADMISSION that the LIES were just lies.
and an apology for the lies.
and a promise they will never again be told by ANY gov’t. agency. (not that i would believe it, but just to get it on the official record)
#2. SET MY PEOPLE FREE !! release all pot prisoners from jail / probation / forced treatment, and their criminal records cleaned.
#3. TOTALLY REMOVE POT FROM THE ‘SCHEDULE’ SYSTEM;
not schedule 2, or 3, or 4, or 5. alcohol is not scheduled, nor is tobacco, so pot has no buisness being on there, either.
#4. MUST specifically include industrial hemp.
#5. i can; (or ANY ADULT can)
grow AS MUCH AS I WANT,
smoke, (or eat), AS MUCH AS I WANT,
buy, AS MUCH AS I WANT, (from any grower / source i chose)
sell, AS MUCH AS I WANT,
share, AS MUCH AS I WANT,
possess AS MUCH AS I WANT,
for recreational / medical / religious use,
-with NO PENALTY, and no fear of search and seizure or arrest.
(SALES tax for commercial buisness should be no more than on any other LEGAL product, NO TAX on homegrown or medical. -though i personally think it should ALL be tax free, given that we have overpaid so much for so long. -1,000% or more in $$, plus fear of arrest)
under LEGALIZATION, ALL POT MUST BE 100% LEGAL !!
if it is illegal AT ALL, IN ANY WAY, it is not truly LEGAL.
example; if it is legal under one ounce, BUT illegal over one ounce, that makes SOME POT LEGAL, AND SOME POT ILLEGAL,
-and the PIGS will STILL have EVERY legal right to stop you, to search you, and to determine WHICH ONE YOU HAVE.
just like legal medical mj. did not stop all arrests and searches, just because SOME pot was legal.
the PIGS will NOT give you the PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE, -only the PRESUMPTION OF GUILT.
(presumption of innocence -supposedly- happens in COURT, but nobody is pretending it happens on the STREET)
when alcohol went from illegal to legal, it was not ‘decriminalized’ in ‘baby steps’, with very low limits, it was INSTANTLY 100% LEGAL.
and the EXISTING LAW WAS COMPLETELY INVALIDATED,
-NOT LEFT IN FORCE, with some ‘exemption’ or a ‘work-around’, COMPLETELY INVALIDATED !!
that’s EXACTLY what we need to shoot for.
Is it really reasonable to expect that growers are going to see any interest in legalization? Wouldn’t it be easier to sell the idea that legalization would actually serve to suppress distribution that is facilitated by the black market? Are there really more pot growers than there are prohibitionists who might be won over if it could be shown that legalization really means the end of the Age of Glamour for cannabis consumption? When you talk about growers, you are talking about organized crime. What good does it do to reconsider a strategy for legalization that includes appeasing organized crime and ignoring the arguments of prohibitionists?
And by the way, if public perception of “medical marijuana” is changing, then whose fault is that? When was “medical marijuana” anything more than a license to get high? And when does everyone finally realize that medical marijuana has to come from somewhere and that nobody really knows where it coming from? The med clinics are nothing more than legal fronts for more organized crime. Isn’t this a compelling argument to prohibitionists? With legalization comes the end of “medical marijuana”. The minuscule minority of people who really need pot for medical purposes will still be able to get it. Everybody else will flock to the legal outlets, at least everyone who is not growing it themselves or getting it from their neighbors who are growing it themselves.
I think the prohibitionists can be won over if the pot advocates can confront the reality that once pot is legal, then everybody’s atitudes and consumption habits are bound to change. Smoking pot will just not be as exciting, or daring or adventurous as it once was. Prohibitionists don’t have to worry that it will be become like Budweiser beer. Smoking pot isn’t anything like drinking beer, the most socially stimulating thing about it now is the conspiracy of smokers who dare to do it without getting caught.
There are those who support medical marijuana and will not support legalization? These are two groups of people. There are the dope dealers who like medical marijuana and know that legalization is the end of their cash cow. And also there are the prohibionists who have been convinced, at one time, that there was some overwhelming need to get marijuana to cancer patients who couldn’t get it otherwise. I know that there are prohibitionists out there that supported the legalization of “medical marijuana”. We can’t sell legalization to the dope dealers. We can sell legalization to the prohibitionists who were duped into supporting medical marijuana. They in turn can sell legalization to the pohibitionists who were smart enough to smell what was going on with “medical marijuana”. The rest who sincerely believe that pot is poison are a small minority of no consequence in the polls.
Medical marijuan has at least demonstrated one thing. It has demonstrated that people can be turned loose with legally supplied marijuana in large numbers to be used recreationally without it wreaking havoc on society. Sure the clinics are a nuisance, but notice that nobody is complaining about the users. Nobody is running around stoned on a medical license robbing banks or mugging little old ladies. Imagine if crystal meth were available the same way. It would be a nightmare, a real nightmare. But pot deserves to be legalized. It’s working now, it will work. It’s time to cut the black market out of the picture.
The problem is the big brother! If the gov regulates cannabis then it will always be bad for the single cannabis grower that tries to make something for himself on the side when the times are tough. We need one of Us, the unheard small individuals that the bill effects. Why would we take away from the most important part of the economy? The middle class gets harrassed enough for their taxes already and you want to take away our only loop hole? Close the loop holes and write a bill that gives to the growers that put their heart into what they grow. crack down on the “commercial growers” who take away from the small guys while giving a bad rep for all cannabis growers everywhere. If prop 19 can be reformed to help the people rather than the ” save our economy” slogan which everyone knows won’t happen without the support of those small individual growers. The idea that the bill would pass this year was definitely not gonna happen. In order for it to pass you have to give an incentive to both sides. It’s bigger than just trying to make money…it’s about the people who matter most, the honest growers and canna users that aren’t trying to get rich over night. Keep the growing where it should be. In the hills away from the masses of people. Or another way would to have only 1..A single commercial producer per county to supply only the dispensaries within the area. The size of the commercial production should be variated by medical cannabis prescriptions per county. keep cannabis for those who want it and want to use it and make them pay the 100 bucks or whatever. Norml needs to follow those who it would effect the most the people in the north not the chaos of the south……coming from those in the placer foothills where the doorway to the valley of grass is
Alot of good points mentioned, but still I feel it is seriously flawed.
There seems to be a disparity in the medico-scientific community regarding the facts about Cannabis.
Ref. The Report. Cannabis: The facts, Human Rights and the Law. (see democracydefined.org)
This document is written in legal pretence, which collates studies carried out by world-respected academics, scientists, psychologists, sociologists etc., which exonerates Cannabis and vindicates all cultivation, trade, possession and use. It presents irrefutable Legal Grounds for Restoration: Relegalisation, Amnesty and Restitution.
According to this document, studies have been carried out that prove Cannabis causes NO impairment (in fact it increases your driving ability), something which NORML’s referrenced studies say otherwise.
As well, it proves and shows studies of Cannabis being prophylaxic, i.e Preventive Medicine for countless ailments and diseases, thereby renedering ALL use of Cannabis ‘Medical’.
A reason for his could be that (according to The Report) ‘THC’ is not Cannabis. THC is a toxic substance, and it is this substance that has been found to cause impairment and all other ‘harm’ related problems. According to the study, ‘THC’ is not Cannabis just as much as Hydrogen is not Water, and when THC combines with the other substances in the Marijuana plant, we get Cannabis, the benign substance free of all ‘harm’. Perhaps this single factor could be the cause for the disparities in the medico-scientific community regarding the facts around Cannabis.
Another very important thing The Report brings to light is the CBEE: The Cannabis Biomass Energy Equation.
According to this Report, Cannabis IS the solution to Global Warming, amongst other things. For all Mankind’s macroeconomic requirements, energy derived from cannabis is cheaper than energy from coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, wind and wave power, geo-thermal, pressed-seed vegetable oils, hydrogen-from-water electrical separation, etc. Cannabis is the most economical resource to fuel and energy known to Mankind. Cannabis-Methanol provides fuel which is pollution-free.
Besides fuel, products (all fibres, paper, building material, staple food, plastics and other polymers etc.) derived from Cannabis are far superior to almost all products on the market out there today, and when Cannabis is produced solely for the it’s medicinal flower-tops, all these other other things come production free, and the therefore the production of this plant will ameliorate the standard of living for ALL. The CBEE alone will do well to gathering support from the pro-prohibitionists.
I’m no scientist or lawyer, but after reading this I realised there was a disparity in the Marijuana community regarding the TRUE facts about the plant. With the facts in this book however, I found it uncovered, in a more profound way, how prohibition affects EVERYBODY, and even the most hardened pro-prohibitionists in my circle of friends converted to our side of the cause (full Restoration of the plants former status) after reading the book.
Please do try to find out about the empirical studies in this book NORML, as I believe it is vital to us achieving the FULL re-legalization of marijuana.
Typo in the 3rd last paragraph*
When Cannabis is produced solely for it’s medicinal flower-tops, all these other things come production-COST-free.
I have to say I have never been more offended then by the medical movement. I despise doctors and chose to self medicate, therefore total legalization is the only way. I sympathise with the fellow suffering from hypertension. How ’bout suffering from the ignorant masses of nosey lookyloos. this really boils down to if this were a free country more people would mind there own business. I have smoked many types of “weed” since high school “no pun intended” within a vast aray of the social demographic. At one point I smoked with three generations at the same time, the yungest 11 the oldest late 60’s “one family” I’ve heard people try to say it is a gateway drug. Really then why do I refuse to try the dirty brown ” hey ron”. I’ve used cocaine in all its forms, mushrooms, acid, xtc, and every pain pill and muscle relaxer you can imagine. I had no problem not useing with out the help of rehab. How? I like living. My only true addiction is tobacco. I can tell you from experience that marijuana should be the least of our worries.Prohabition is a sham. I can also tell you from experience that nobody, especially polititions, and law enforcement cares about you me or any one but themselves. not doctors, lawyers, or even soccer moms. Of course they claim they do, but they don’t. Not even the preacher cares about our well being before themself. If there is anyone in this whole world that really does care, they are a fire fighter or an EMT. I could make the exception for mother theresa, Mahatma Ghandi, and the Dali Llama. In conclusion, Don’t be fooled thinking any one with any power has your best interest in mind. We are all born under the same sun and I don’t believe anyone should have the right to tell anyone what to do with thier life or body if they didn’t squeeze you out of thier vagina. keep fighting the good fight, even if it is for self serving purposes, I’ll help for my own reasons. PS: ever hear of natural selection.
“We’re dealing with an American public that accepts warrantless wiretapping, full-body scanners, and mini-shampoo bottles at the airport to keep safe from the ‘terrists’; it’s gonna be a while before we can get them to accept not drug testing drivers on the freeways.”
yes, I think the American Public is inured, but that doesn’t mean they would opt to continue it if it were put to a vote: especially if you exposed some truth to it. For example, that study that showed that work place drug testing has basically no effect on work place safety. People would also become very hostile over the idea that companies only implement work place drug testing to get insurance deals, of which the resulting cost savings is not extended to those who have to maintain the cleanliness of their urine.
Jakob Says:
November 8th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
I also strongly agree that hemp should be included in the next initiative! All potential uses and benefits of the plant should be legal.
[Russ responds: I disagree. Keep the initiative to one subject: Should we continue to lock people up for use and cultivation of cannabis?
Now if you pass that legalization for cannabis that has psychoactive levels, haven’t you just legalized the non-psychoactive hemp as well? Hemp doesn’t even need to be mentioned; legalizing pot legalizes it for all uses – medical, spiritual, and industrial.
Putting hemp in there just creates a side discussion that distracts from the focal point of ending prohibition. It’s not that I don’t agree about hemp’s importance; I just don’t want to give opponents the opportunity to cull the hemp-only supporters from our herd.]
Wouldn’t Prop 19 only have legalized cultivation of 25 square feet of cannabis? How does that legalize hemp?
cant drop the medical aspect because it exists…because those with serious neuro conditions etc can actually live a life in a bit of peace now and then…you are right, why would a medical user care about the full legalization at this point other than to lower pricing? as it is, the very people messing up the medical side are those who have no reason to be using it as medical marijuana.
but hey, yeah…blame the people with the major conditions who use this in place of a MAJOR pharm drug.
How about not having Marijuana on the ballot during a mid-term election.
You really think a bunch of stoned slackers are going to put down the game controller long enough to go out and vote in a mid-term?
I think many commenters are missing the point regarding the roadside sobriety testing for cannabis.
I’m not saying it’s good, accurate, or necessary for public safety. I’m saying if we’re going to say “treat it like alcohol” the public is going to answer “where’s the breathalyzer”.
My point about “don’t treat cannabis as the harmful thing” still applies. It’s driving under the influence of cannabis which is proven to be impairing and leads to higher incidence of collisions. If we try to play the “driving high is no big deal” game, we are sunk before we’ve begun.
Get pot legal first. Once it is legal, we can tear down drug testing and reap industrial hemp. That’s the point.
looks like your showing pennsylvania as a decrimanlized state …being yellow. Although this is not the case. I do think that there are initiatives in philadelphia….care to explain
The war is far from over. It’s just getting started. So the establishment won this time, so what? It always takes people a while to accept what is right. Marijuana is not legal in CA right now because not enough people gave enough $$$ to the cause. It’s that simple. Money makes things happen in this country unfortunetley. You could gather a million good men with good souls and good intentions, and I assure you, the establishment can afford twice as many evil men to shut all the good men up. it’s when good men STAY silent that evil is allowed to take absolute control. We will keep fighting. We will keep fighting for what is right, and we WILL win. No matter how long it takes.
In the not too distant future- Your children, and your children’s children will enjoy mariujana without the fear of being thrown in jail and raped or beaten. Your children will be able to smoke marijuana without fear of having their reputations sabatoged and their futures forfit. For we now all know that marijuana laws do 10 times more harm then the drug THC itself! Prohibition, NOT pot, ruins lives and we’ve had enough. Legal marijuana is coming to America. That is my promise to the establishment. Legal marijuana will be American policy someday. It might take time, but it will happen. It is time for the prohibitionists to lay their arms down and accept what is inevitable. Defeat at the hands of rightous men and women. America belongs to the righteous.
re; #15; workplace drug testing is something everyone has to endure, they all hate it.
re; #18; warrantless wiretapping, full-body scanners, and mini-shampoo bottles (and INSANE searches) at the airport.
all of these “leave a bad taste in people’s mouths”, and works in our favor, as more people WAKE THE FU*K UP to the fact that the gov’t. is TOO BIG, TOO POWERFULL, TOO INTRUSIVE, and pays NO attention to the will of the people, at all !!
-and it doesn’t matter if dems. or reppies are in charge.
TRUST IN GOV’T. is at an all time low.
-so they are less likely to keep “buying” the endless lies about pot, and VOTE LEGALIZATION, just to PISS OFF THE POLITICIANS.
re; #88; I also strongly agree that hemp should be included in the next initiative!
[Russ responds: I disagree. Keep the initiative to one subject: smoked cannabis.
please remember your history, russ !!
1. alcohol prohibition was REALLY about preventing home-brewed alcohol from competing with gasoline.
2. the ‘smoking pot’ prohibition was REALLY about preventing INDUSTRIAL HEMP from competing with OIL-OUT-OF-THE-GROUND based FUELS, PLASTICS, FERTILIZERS, PAINTS, etc., and TREE PAPER.
3. THE PIGS DON’T CARE !! grow some INDUSTRIAL HEMP, and you will STILL be arrested. current law makes NO DISTINCTION, so why should we ?? keep it simple.
4. if smoking pot is legal, BUT, INDUSTRIAL HEMP is illegal, that makes SOME ‘POT’ LEGAL, AND SOME ‘POT’ ILLEGAL,
-and the PIGS will STILL have EVERY legal right to stop you, to search you, and to determine WHICH ONE YOU HAVE.
-(IF you trust the PIGS to say “you have the legal variety here, you are free to go about your buisness”, go talk to the people who were arrested for having LEGAL medical mj.)
5. the BASTARDS are REALLY more concerned with keeping INDUSTRIAL HEMP suppressed than keeping ‘smoking pot’ suppressed.
-BUT OF COURSE, they cannot ADMIT that publicly, without admitting the con-spiracy.
so, just list ALL 3, SO THERE IS TOTAL CLARITY;
“notwithstanding existing law;
-MARIJUANA / CANNABIS / INDUSTRIAL HEMP-
IS HEREBY LEGAL for adults to grow, buy, sell, posess, gift, share, and use, for recreational, medical, industrial, and religious uses, and cannot be patented.”
re; Wouldn’t Prop 19 only have legalized cultivation of 25 square feet of cannabis? How does that legalize hemp?
-it wouldn’t. 25 square feet is WAY TOO SMALL to be worthwhile for INDUSTRIAL HEMP. that is part of why it failed.
RE: Stoned driving, and medical marijuana effects in other states.
Here in Iowa, our local news went to California, found people on the street “hawking” (as the news put it) marijuana as medical, and winking. They then showed the Iowa Board of Pharmacy stating that California is a model of what goes wrong if medical marijuana programs aren’t strictly controlled.
As far as stoned driving, regardless of previous DOT findings, a recent study shows that public perception matters. Thomas Fiegan, when he was running for the Democratic bid for US Senate (he lost to Conlin, who lost in the election to Grassley) told me that he would support medical marijuana only when roadside sobriety tests were invented. As I understand it, those tests are in the works but are expensive.
Anyway, here’s a link to a recent study that shows that, in order to increase support for legalization, the public wants sobriety tests similar to breathalyzers for alcohol…..
Dangit. I can’t find the study…I just had it pulled up. I’ll post it when I find it again.
I’d like to be a human being please. We should all be sensible adults and realize that if this many people can find a positive use for a plant, than why not legalize? The “nay-sayers” should end their childish games of “who has more money invested where and hemp will cripple me because of it” and understand that people shouldn’t be treated this way.
On another note, there is no such thing as a political career. This “social madness” should stop.
Hey Russ, thanks for the response. I hope I did not come off as overly antagonistic, at least toward you or your position.
I respect that what you suggest is the right thing to do now, to get the right thing done later – legalize. But I wonder whether that is what this new ‘faction’ will ever want?
It boggles my mind that this actually happened. I voted YES on 19; voted for the 1st time @ age 34 on Nov. 2nd; helped my 28 y.o. cousin to do the same exact thing; mutually convinced through discussion with a 40-something co-worker; discovered that my boss of 50-something was voting YES – a wide spectrum of ages, races and stations. This is California. This is 2010. THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN! I just knew it.
Then I heard about the ‘stoners’ and ‘Pot-preneurs’ AGAINST a beginning to legalization … after almost 100 YEARS of prohibition induced misery and death.
These persons whom I had just been taken under the ‘care’ of by a ‘doctor’ through some serious marketing were not only charging me prohibition induced prices – a serious financial hardship – but now also encouraging me to help bring down the law that would START the true HEALING process.
Everyone around the globe that had a stake in this (other than MONEY) was waiting for this to begin now. I don’t want revenge. I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again next time.
Everyone making money off of marijuana DURING PROHIBITION is suspect. Even those within the MedPot Industry made that same basic argument in accusing Richard Lee of getting this off the ground for similar, vested interests!
Please tell me – anyone – how my 2nd vote will count here if this group keeps getting so much money from myself and my fellow citizens?
Its to my belief that in order to ensure victory we must target those who are to be the future citizens. IF we play the same games the DARE program and other after school specials and TRUTH campaigns is that fear motivates more than anything. The Average child watches close to 1700 minutes of television while spending close to 50 minutes per week in meaningful conversations with their parents. Showing the real evils of prohibition could help them realize this. There are a slew of real world examples of people who had a future and lost it all; scholarships, Jobs, Proper medication because of prohibition. Why do we only hear these pleas in court when trying to pass a bill? What is needed is exposure on a mass scale. Partners who will work with us on the legal and monetary front. And proper targeting of the topline supporters to reach out and virally spread the word that we are here and were not giving up our freedom cause we are scared. What should be feared is a world where doctors and Businessmen and Engineers are not being blockaded by the limitation of Marijuana, but the law itself that prohibits them.
I agree that we would do better dropping the anti-drug-testing component (much as I hate to do so).
May I suggest NORML help organize a consumer boycott of companies which urine test their employees? If even a quarter of pro-19 voters participated this would have a big effect on companies’ bottom lines.
RE: Russ Belville, NORML Outreach Coordinator Says:
November 9th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
“I think many commenters are missing the point regarding the roadside sobriety testing for cannabis.
I’m not saying it’s good, accurate, or necessary for public safety. I’m saying if we’re going to say “treat it like alcohol” the public is going to answer “where’s the breathalyzer”.
My point about “don’t treat cannabis as the harmful thing” still applies. It’s driving under the influence of cannabis which is proven to be impairing and leads to higher incidence of collisions. If we try to play the “driving high is no big deal” game, we are sunk before we’ve begun.
Get pot legal first. Once it is legal, we can tear down drug testing and reap industrial hemp. That’s the point.”
—————
Russ,
The point we need to address with brutal honesty when stating our case for legalizing marijuana and discussing driving is: What’s the real life truth about driving under the influence of marijuana? Can we approach this question with irrefutable proof that marijuana use DOES NOT cause danger for the user or those around them?
When we destroy the myth that marijuana CAUSES dangerous driving, we win, end of conversation. Anything less invites no-good, inaccurate, unnecessary for public safety, privacy invading, unconstitutional, drug testing for marijuana.
If we say “treat it like alcohol” we are shooting down our own legalization efforts! What we must say is the brutal truth, “the effects of marijuana are nothing like the effects of alcohol and MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE DANGEROUS DRIVING”.
You are exactly right when you say “don’t treat cannabis as the harmful thing”. Based on many well documented studies and the observations of virtually everyone that has observed users over long terms and those that have long term personal use experience, marijuana is SLIGHTLY IMPAIRING but IT DOES NOT LEAD TO HIGHER INCIDENCE OF COLLISIONS or higher incidence of ANY injuries to the user or those around them.
Anyone that’s read even a few marijuana studies will come across a couple of common threads. 1. Marijuana does cause users to be SLIGHTLY impaired. We all know that but the ONLY thing that matters when discussing driving is: Does that SLIGHT impairment lead to accidents or any real danger on the roads? Clearly it DOES NOT! The 2nd common thread you will find is “UNLIKE the effects of alcohol, marijuana users are well aware that they are SLIGHTLY impaired and they ADEQUATELY COMPENSATE by slowing down a little and being a little more cautions! This is the brutal factual TRUTH that we need to stand absolutely firm on!
The only reason we are “sunk before we’ve begun” by playing the “driving high is no big deal” “game” is IF we buy into the misinformation drug war propaganda that claims driving under the influence of marijuana “leads to higher incidence of collisions”. Unfortunately many (most I’d say) in the legalization movement have been brainwashed into believing marijuana causes accidents and dangers on the road. I have this discussion often with pro-legalization activists but after they get over the “truth shock” virtually all of them admit that they have driven safely for years under the influence of marijuana ONLY, with NO accidents or even close calls. The fact is MARIJUANA MAKES PEOPLE MORE CAUTIOUS NOT MORE DANGEROUS. Be honest with yourself and think about marijuana use ONLY, not marijuana use combined with alcohol or any other drug(s) and I will be very surprised if you don’t come to the same conclusion.
If we kill the “marijuana CAUSES dangerous driving” myth, we win, hands down. I’m not a person that spreads misinformation or tries to win an argument based on untruths or distortions. What I am saying here are honest facts, please don’t shy away from the truth, that helps promote the lies of the drug war. When you do that you hurt our movement and you hurt it severely because you have a loud voice that reaches many. Our movement has a bad habit of being “the nice guy”. We give concessions that we should not give. The nice guy finishes last scenario has proven itself over and over when it comes to marijuana policy reform. We must kick this bad destructive habit and kick it immediately or we are going to be living under marijuana prohibition forever!
Think about how ridiculous we all know marijuana prohibition truly is. Think about WHY marijuana prohibition really is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous because marijuana is nontoxic and its use does not cause harm to marijuana consumers or anyone else. No one, of any age, in all of recorded history, anywhere on planet earth has ever died from the ingredients in marijuana and they NEVER will! Yet we tolerate marijuana prohibition, allow unconstitutional laws to trash our lawful Constitutional rights, allow paramilitary SWAT teams to kick in our doors, kill people, take our children, even though the children are in NO DANGER WHATSOEVER and a host of other illegal actions that I’m sure you’re more familiar with than I am.
Marijuana prohibition will NEVER end if we buy into ANY of the drug war propaganda lies and try to be the nice guys/girls in an effort to win over the ignorant. The ONLY way we will win this war is by standing on the BRUTAL truth and using the BRUTAL truth to educate the masses of ignorant voters. We must get in their faces like we have never done before. We must disprove the lies over and over again until the majority accepts the honest FACTS about marijuana.
You said: “Get pot legal first. Once it is legal, we can tear down drug testing and reap industrial hemp. That’s the point”. I use to think along those same lines but during my work to try and help get proposition 19 passed I came to understand that the arguments of some of those that said they were pro-legalization yet against 19 should be considered and included in future legalization efforts. Especially if we found ourselves, as we did, in a post November 2nd world still living (at least at the state level) completely under marijuana prohibition.
It will take far more than twice the time, money and effort to train the public wrong and then try and train them right later. Why not kill the beast all at once instead of one toe at the time? The strongest arguments for prohibition are public safety (particularly regarding driving and the workplace) and “what about the kids”, both of which we need to address head on with brutal facts. We’ve just about killed the kid card by proving that marijuana is nontoxic (even for children), that arrest is far less effective than proper parenting and far more harmful and by pointing out that illegal dealers don’t ask for ID. A large number of marijuana ignorant voters still need to be educated but as always, the facts, science and history are all on our side.
The last real stronghold of legalization resistance lies in the ignorance about driving and working under the influence of marijuana. Don’t feed the beast and don’t try to subdue the beast by shooting it in the toe! Go for the death shot!… right between the eyes! State the brutal truth straight out! MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE DANGEROUS DRIVING OR DANGERS IN THE WORK PLACE! Then back up your statement with facts that are well documented in numerous studies and by those with long term “real life” marijuana working and driving experience and through the observations of non marijuana consumers, who when they stop and thoughtfully consider their personal observations virtually always admit that they have never seen anyone under the influence of marijuana alone cause any danger to their self or others.
Regulations about driving and working safely must be based on impairment levels NOT drug tests. We’re in for a needlessly prolonged war if we dilly dally around and try to make ignorant people feel safe because of drug tests. We’ll be far better off all the way around to confront the safety issue head on with brutal facts and kill the fear mongering about safety once and for all!
The proof is overwhelming, MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE DANGEROUS BEHAVIOR ON THE ROAD, AT WORK OR ANYWHERE ELSE! Marijuana CAUSES people to be more cautious and while under the influence marijuana consumers constantly, consistently and adequately compensate for their SLIGHT impairment by slowing down a little and being a little more cautious.
I included a few links from the first page of a Google search for “marijuana driving study”, which showed “about 2,010,000 results”, read until your heart and mind are content, consider the sources, compare what you read with your own experiences and observations and please SHOUT THE TRUTH LOUD AND CLEAR… MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE DANGEROUS DRIVING OR DANGEROUS EMPLOYEES.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/jun/04/marijuana_study_finds_minimal_ch
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/03/990325110700.htm
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/05/study_marijuana_doesnt_affect_driving_performance.php
Notice how the results of the same study are twisted into fear mongering and the ever present need for “more studies”. http://www.wfsb.com/health/23818577/detail.html
To further illustrate my position I offer the statements below, which can be found on this page: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/misc/driving/dot78_1g.htm and are excerpts from the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION DOT HS 808 078 NOVEMBER 1993 MARIJUANA AND ACTUAL DRIVING PERFORMANCE CONCLUSIONS:
* Drivers under the influence of marijuana tend to over-estimate the adverse effects of the drug on their driving quality and compensate when they can; e.g. by increasing effort to accomplish the task, increasing headway or slowing down, or a combination of these.
* Drivers under the influence of alcohol tend to under-estimate the adverse effects of the drug on their driving quality and do not invest compensatory effort.
* The maximum road tracking impairment after the highest THC dose (300 ug/kg) was within a range of effects produced by many commonly used medicinal drugs and less than that associated with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08g% in previous studies employing the same test.
* It is not possible to conclude anything about a driver’s impairment on the basis of his/her plasma concentrations of THC and THC-COOH determined in a single sample.
Now take a look at this NIDA sponsored so called “research”. Notice the blending of alcohol into the equation and the many other obvious distortions of the true effects of marijuana alone. THE LINK BELOW REPRESENTS PURE ANTI-MARIJUANA, TRUTH DISTORTING PROPAGANDA AND FEAR MONGERING! THE BRUTAL TRUTH BLOWS THIS NONSENSE RIGHT OUT OF THE WATER EVERY TIME! http://archives.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol11N1/Marijuana.html
I hope you will reply to this post Russ and let me know if I have swayed your plan of action at all. I hope I have caused you and many others to take a drastically different approach about marijuana and safety. If not, I have wasted my time.
[Editor’s note: NORML has been publishing credible information and science concerning cannabis and driving, as well as cannabis in the workplace, for decades. You don’t need to convince anyone at NORML about the comparable safety of cannabis to that of alcohol use in regards to the operation of a motor vehicle. However, it is beyond foolish to believe that elected officials are ever going to sanction impaired driving or impairment in the workplace regardless of the drug–legal or not.
Cannabis law reformers and consumers have to accept the fact that if the basic grievance of cannabis consumers is that they’re not treated legally like alcohol consumers, then they have to accept similar rules and regulations to that of alcohol and pharmaceutical products on the road and in the workplace.]
JUST GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTTS, AND VOTE. Don’t lay around thinking that enough people will be voting, so you don’t have to, YOU DO HAVE TO. I got out and voted, and I have stage 4 prostate cancer, diabetes, emphysema, skin cancer, high blood pressure, and I’m 66yrs old. Just what the hell is so wrong with you that you didn’t?
The police, and employers need a accurate way to test for impairment. They need to stop testing for metabolites, and find a way to test for THC in a persons system at the time tested. When they have that it should be fairly easy to determine the amount of THC that impairs the average person. As I have said before “If I had the choice of driving on the highway with 1 drunk, or 100 stoners, I would take the 100 stoners every time” The truth of the matter is that I would realy prefer that everyone on the highway was stone cold sober, but I’m afraid that would only happen in a perfect world, and we don’t live now where near perfect. I have no problem with drug testing as long as it’s done properly, and that alcohol is pursued just as zealously. Alcohol is after all the most lethal drug in the country, and that’s official.
Stoned driving, and medical marijuana. I have a script for Hydrocodone 10. If I have to consume so much of that medication that it impairs my driving, then I am endangering lives, and deserve to be treated like ANYBODY who drives while impaired. The warning on the label tells me not to drive, or operate heavy machinery while taking it. I’ll have to go to the store and check, but is there such a warning label on alcoholic beverage labelsss? If not, WHY NOT?
I can stick my finger with a tiny needle, and using a machine determine my blood sugar. Extremely simple procedure, and almost painless. I can simply place my finger in a small machine, and determine the oxygen saturation level in my blood. Extremely simple procedure, and utterly painless. I can buy a simple home drug test kit, but it only test for metabolites which give no proof of impairment, only use within the last 30 days. The closer we get to full legalization, the more frightened the medical comunity, and especialy the cancer treatment comunity gets. It’s not just the fed that may be dragging its feet.
jon you speak of bringing illegal growers into the legal market, but say that everybody should be able to grow, and sell as much as they want. There goes your legal market. People can make alcohol as much as they want, but can’t sell a drop without a license. I think it should be the same for cannabis. You speak of Hemp, and this bit of fed crap is realy hard to explain. They like to say that they keep it illegal because it looks like the evil killer weed marijuana, and they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Just exactly what kind of IDIOTS are they. Do they really believe that a farmer with a thriving industrial hemp farm is going to risk loosing it because of the obscene profits he could make from selling a few killos of recreational grade cannabis, that is legal already? He might be better served if he started making illegal beer, and stood on the street corner trying to sell it. When is the last time you saw ANYBODY standing on the corner trying to sell a six pack of beer? There would no longer be any obsene profits from cannabis because it’s LEGAL. I don’t believe we keep electing these same people back into office every time they come up for re-election. Just how far over do they have to bend you before you learn?
Supplying, or selling cannabis to anyone below the age of 21yrs who does not have a medical recomendation. This should be the same as the law regarding the same infraction. The only entities that can sell cannabis to a patient below 21yrs should be a medical cannabis dispensary.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful and proactive blog post Belville. Whether other NORML editors agree with me or not, I am a realistic libertarian (that is, not a full libertarian anarchist nut, but a mixture of D and R with a limited government). The fact of the matter is that we need to be convinced that a legalization bill will not give too much control to the state where a “tobacco” type industrial government-sponsored oligopoly ensues.
Now I have NO INFORMED OPINION on prop 19 because I am not a resident of California, and I was busy with my graduate studies and researching NH politics, where I reside. But it is my suggestion that my concerns be addressed for the next initiatives. I am not saying they weren’t for prop 19 necessarily. Us libertarian-hybrid youth might not be anywhere near a majority, but we are a swing vote.
That said, your blog was very well thought out and restored a lot of my faith in your organization. I just wanted to thank you.
Lastly, as a relatively impartial observer of prop 19, who understands the arguments of both “sides,” I do not understand why anyone who is pro-legalization voted NO, unless you directly profit from the continued psuedo-prohibition in California. If you just simply disagreed with the written language of prop 19, you should have abstained from that single vote, while still voting for your legislatures. Voting NO was a vote FOR the prohibitionists. There is a HUGE difference between not voting on prop 19 in protest and voting NO.
Re 100,
Hey Cire,I doubt you will get an answer from the pro-prohibitionist bunch on this postboard. I’ve rarely gotten answers from most of them on direct questions–only more rhetoric.
I was myself quite naive in my original belief that Prop 19 was defeated by old conservatives. While I do believe that a huge percentage of old conservatives did in fact vote against Prop 19, I now understand that there were others responsible for its failure.
I read with shock and anger, on another website, right after the vote, the extent to which many of the Med Clinics and growers fought against Prop 19. I hadn’t realized that until I saw it on that other website. The notion that our cause–Legalization!!!–was in large part defeated by OUR OWN, other smokers, really bothered me. Many of these same type of people we have seen on this website, those who bleat on and on about “freeing the plant,” and “freedom from govt,” etc etc etc., are the very ones who sided with the government prohibitionists and cops–and stabbed us in the back.
Obviously, despite all their rhetoric, they are more beholden to the almighty buck–and their own greed and selfishness–than any true notion of “freedom.” “Freedom” is a word they bandy about readily; but now I understand that to many of them it is in fact nothing more than a “word.”
You have touched onto one of my pet peeves that nobody seems to have picked up on.
We always hear about how the $50 per ounce tax proposed by Tom Ammiano would raise $1.4 billion based on $14 billion in sales. Do the math! That is only 10%, and the $1.4 billion is simply normal 10% sales tax.
Let me start by saying that $50 per oz. is much too high and invites noncompliance. However, based on $50 per oz., that means that the tax on 1 lb. would be $800 per lb. California produces 8.3 million lbs. of cannabis per year. Multiply 8.3 million by $800 per lb., and I get $6,880,000,000.
If I’m wrong, tell me why.
Expose more lies in the media. This is working and will finish them off.
The entire country is going broke. Expose the truth in the media about how local law enforcement agencies are stealing money from us to use against us. They get grants from the feds, based on how many “drug busts” they make. This grant is based on how much money the “bust” was worth (here is where law enforcement can leagally lie). The locals can claim the value on any marijuana plant (seedling/male/ditchweed), no mater how small, is worth the value of the biggest possible plant, as if were the most potent plant available, and claim it at street (per gram) value (almost as much as medical value including taxes). So something you couldn’t give away on the street is worth “millions” to your local law enforcement efforts. BTW if any buisness pulled this type of accounting they would be criminal. Even if your local area does not want marijuana laws enforced, the local cops are out searching your woods for grows in the fall beacuse they know they can get federal dollars for their local job (this seems ok to some people beacuse “someone else is paying the bill” but this is why we’re going broke). So during the grow season while theft is on the rise because everyone knows the cops are in the woods every fall looking out for themselves, remember we want them on the street looking out for us. That’s what we pay them for.
Expose more lies in the media. This is working and will finish them off.
Expose the reality around work-place “drug” testing. Has the billions of dollars we are spending on work-place testing made my office a safer place to work (really)?
Does the general public know that the only “drug” they can find on Monday is Marijuana, but it’s too late for finding narcotics, the test only proves past use for pot (maybe when that person was on vacation in a place where it’s perfectly legal).
Another reason we’re going broke.
Expose more lies in the media. This is working and will finish them off.
Show some real live testing of peoples’ ability to perform physical and mental tasks while “impared”. I love the guy who challenged a friend to a competition where the other guy had to drink too much while the challenger had to smoke too much (we all know that’s impossible, but…). They both had to go mow the lawn…if you don’t know the rest, the “pothead” finishes his half and the drunks half after the drunk passed out.
Expose more lies in the media. This is working and will finish them off.
Show people like Bill Reilley the Columbia Missouri SWAT video, live, and then ask him “what about the children?”. Did we save the 15 yr old in the video?
What about the child, Rachel Morningstar Hoffman, who was killed in an informant (read: plea bargan, to be forced into dangerous posision without the creature comforts that the real cops get (bullet-proof vests etc.) sting gone bad.
How many children do we need to kill to save them from “drugs”?
More exposure to the corruption that has crept into every aspect of our everyday life, maybe by design.
It’s OK if I search your car, isn’t it? You have nothing to hide right? The next generation won’t know this is against their rights.
If you act as an informant for us (read: plea bargan, to be forced into dangerous posision without the creature comforts that the real cops get (bullet-proof vests etc.) we MIGHT reduce the charges. Unless it’s a mandatory minimum sentince then your screwed but hey, we just enforce the law…
Speaking of mandatory minimum sentencing. The brilliant “hard on drugs” era made us do this stupid stuff. Even if no-one cares about possesion (there are no unicorns in jail) there are still laws on the books, like here in Washington State, that require (cannot be reduced by a judge) a mandatory minimum sentence of one day in jail for possesion of pot. To make room for these harmless potheads to serve their minimum, some other criminal must be let out or at least the child-predator-with-a-ankle-bracelet-in your-neighborhood thing.
Automatic inferences to manufacturing, dealing if you accidentally have over a certain amount of pot. This is so that law enforcement can:
-Take your property and sell it for their personal gain.
-Claim exagerated value again (see above where law enforcement is out in the woods every grow season looking to increase their grant money from the feds).
-Force the rest of us to pay for a longer stay in jail/prison for the poor bastard that got caught with half a gram too much. We all know it’s still a unicorn.
Zero tolerence, unless you have a badge. How many schools are in your area? How close together are they? Is there any legal spot for a dispensary even if they are legal? Of course not. By design the distance from any school to where a unicorn is makes john laws job way more profitable.
I could go on 4ever.
Fox News is the key. FoxNews is the most watch news network. While it has Judge Napolitano, Hiraldo Rivera, and John Stossel believing in our cause, it has the morning crew scoffing at it and making jokes and snarky comments. MOST of America watches this program while getting ready for work.
We need to educate the conservative right, through the Tea Party, and I am one of them, of what individual freedom and states rights means. We need to educate them on the costs of running this war, the inverse affect it has caused versus what it is supposed to do, and who we are. They need to understand that we are normal people who work and pay taxes. We are your Lion’s Clubbers, your Freemasons, your Rotatians, your (insert build a better community male or womens club). We are your Jews, Baptists, Catholics, (insert your religion here.) You will find out election votes spread across all parties. We need to educate them on what doctors do and what police do and urge them to stop listening to medical advise from police. We need to educate them that you can’t stop the flood of illegal aliens without ending all prohibition and allowing with regulation the product internally. We need to educate them that this IS the big government issue and if they want a smaller, less intrusive government they need to end the DEA. And we need to educate them that this federal war against our citizens is unconstitutional.
You know I have to laugh a bit. When billions of $$$$$ are involved just exactly what did you expect the MMJ people would do when a yes vote would take away a great deal of that money? I am a drug manufacture. I manufacture Penicilin. You are going to make it legal for people to buy Penicilin over the counter, you are even going to make it legal for them to manufacture thier own Penicilin. NO YOU ARE NOT. I will fight you tooth and nail to put an end to your attempt. Every time you try for full legalization the MMJ people will fight hard to stop you. Politics, and compromise will soon become second nature to all of you. Have Fun.
If medical marijuana/cannabis is inextricably linked with legalization as it is in 14 states, why isn’t the work of researchers from around the world published instead of legal versus illegal? The findings of real science only support the validity of consuming it while the discussion of legal versus illegal only plays into the federal scheduling game where they hold all the cards. Schedule I is defined as having no medical value. The only stories we read are negative. It’s up to us to show the other side, the real side of the value of this plant and the people it helps and get beyond the politcs, the game we can’t win.
18 years old MUST be the legal age. Tobacco sales are legal to 18 year olds– we can save lives by allowing the healthy alternative.
Cannabis, Hemp, Ganja, pot. Whatever you call the noble herb, its prohibition is THE crime. Abolish it.
-Richard Paul Steeb, San Jose California
We, as a movement, cannot afford to lose our momentum. I believe that on April 20, 2011 everyone who wants pot-hibition to be repealed should wear an armband with the image of a cannabis leaf on it. In Nazi Germany Jews were required to weara Star of David and Homosexuals wore a pink triangle. If, literally, millions of us do it the media will not be able to ignore it. It will also send a clear message to the politicians that the time has come to repeal prohibition. Local groups could make and sell these at a minimal price and still be raising funds to do their work with. Please join me in getting the word out to as many people as we can. If each of us contacts 5 people there will be millions of us on 420.”
Thank you for your “Editor’s note to comment #103 but it looks like NORML is missing my point. NORML DOES publish credible information and science concerning cannabis and driving and workplace use but unfortunately, NORMAL (as well as most other pro-legalization organizations and activists) fails to directly, loudly and clearly confront and debunk the drug war propaganda lies, which claim marijuana causes dangerous behavior. The science and facts proving the safety of marijuana are presented but then NORML and most other activists kill the safety argument by supporting unnecessary regulations and drug tests.
I don’t believe I need to convince NORML of the SAFETY of marijuana while driving or working. Comparing marijuana to alcohol, proving the vast degree of marijuana SAFETY, then recommending that marijuana be regulated as if it was JUST AS DANGEROUS as alcohol is what I am trying to get NORML and ALL other pro-legalization activists to STOP doing.
Since marijuana DOES NOT cause people to wreck their cars or have accidents in the workplace, why in the world do legalization activists act as if it does? In this article Russ was exactly right about proposition 19 and the same will be true for ALL future legalization efforts, if we continue to make the MISTAKE of acting like marijuana causes dangerous behavior and penalties and drug tests are warranted. Russ: “The drug testing language gave opponents a wedge to separate business owners, managers, and responsible workers from supporting us.”… That’s EXACTLY MY POINT!
In comment #91 Russ said: “It’s driving under the influence of cannabis which is proven to be impairing and leads to higher incidence of collisions.” I submit that driving under the influence of marijuana is SLIGHTLY impairing but because drivers adequately compensate by slowing down a little and being a little more cautious, their slight impairment DOES NOT cause higher incidence of collisions and from what I have read, most driving studies back up my statement.
Just because someone has an accident and traces of marijuana show up in their system, that no more proves marijuana use caused the accident than the same person having many other substances in their system, which are known to cause slight impairment, (many with far stronger impairment than marijuana) yet they have been proven not to cause danger on the roads.
Even Rx MORPHINE has a warning on the label that says “ don’t drive or operate dangerous machinery until you determine how this drug effects you”. Why do legalization activists promote marijuana consumers being drug tested and restricted more than users of Rx morphine and other far more mind altering substances? Educate the public correctly about marijuana SAFETY and the fear of marijuana use dies and so does the resistance over safety concerns from every voter you educate.
If NORML (or anyone else in the marijuana policy reform movement) believes elected officials are ever going to end marijuana prohibition without the public demanding it, that is being foolish. Safety issues MUST be addressed just like we address every other anti-marijuana platform… with HONEST PROVEN WELL DOCUMENTED SCIENCE AND FACTS.
Impaired driving and working that is slight enough not to be a danger to others or the impaired person is common and routinely accepted for other substances, why should marijuana be any different?
We The People are the driving force behind what laws we will tolerate and which ones we will not. Elected officials are put in office to represent the will of the people. They are not our masters, they are our employees. Educate the majority of voters about the SAFETY of marijuana and the laws will change but if we keep acting like marijuana is “the killer weed”, why should we expect marijuana prohibition to ever end?
The basic grievance of cannabis consumers should be that cannabis has no business being treated as if its slight impairment causes dangerous results! Prove how much SAFER marijuana is than alcohol and then demand that it be regulated like substances with similar impairment and danger levels. Suggest that it have a warning that truly fits the facts: ‘don’t drive or operate dangerous machinery until you determine how this drug effects you”. Promote IMPAIRMENT testing for drivers and workers and point out the futility of conventional drug tests.
Educate the public about the HONEST FACTS! When drug policy reformers act like marijuana is dangerous the public believes us because we are sending the exact same message as the prohibitionists.
Think about how many ignorant people would have been educated properly forever about marijuana SAFETY while proposition 19 was getting all the media attention it did, if we had been saying, “MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE DANGER ON THE ROAD OR IN THE WORKPLACE” and then backing up that claim with well documented facts.
Because we tried to make the ignorant feel safe when they had nothing to fear, we wasted millions of dollars worth of free advertising that could have educated the public to the truth and we are much worse off because of that mistake.
If you want to see marijuana prohibition end in 2012 then don’t shy away from the HONEST SAFETY FACTS and don’t train the public wrong and think you can fix it later! If you continue to do that you will be living under marijuana prohibition forever!
Why did the picture of the stoner getting held at gunpoint by SWAT NOT make it to a Pro-Cannabis bilboard? Maybe you could’ve thrown in a mother and a child, or a wounded dog or something… It’s all been done before; the advertisement wouldn’t even be an exaggeration.
There have been at least two studies that looked at the effects of driving while under the influence of cannabis. Both said that it made little difference, other than that the drivers drove slightly more slowly and more cautiously. Why do we keep having to cede the driving argument? We need to push for more studies. It’s ridiculous.
here is one link: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/jun/04/marijuana_study_finds_minimal_ch
“minimal change in driving performance.” Think about all the times you were late for work, angry at something, distracted, or tired, and driving. These are all worse than “minimal change”.
2 problems, one is logistic – the pro 19 people do not vote because of various reasons, work, school, unaware of where the voting booth is, cant get there, not registered, etc.
we need a move to register and recommend MAIL IN Ballots for these people, we need to start now and do this for the next two years, we need to go to existing pro 19 people who either did or did not vote and get them to do a mail in ballot, it is much easier
other problem, we need a computer technician like Obama had to flood the internet with pro legalization emails now, with enormous circulation, for the next two year
case in point – if we could do internet voting it would probably pass
Eric Holder and successors need to be cut off at the pass, with the voters, using good evidence to diffuse them
“The ‘stoned drivers’ scare is one of the few effective bits of rhetoric our opponents have left, along with ‘what about the children’?”
Too true. And unfortunately, this is a problem fomented by truly irresponsible users of marijuana. And they both come from the same people, in my experience. Those most likely to drive stoned are also those most unconcerned about exposing children to the stuff. I myself, on more than one occasion, have seen people give marijuana to their kids. All the times I’ve seen this, I’ve raised objections only to be met with hostility until I found a strategy that always worked. Just explain to the kids sitting right there that they don’t have to smoke the stuff if they don’t want to. This always works, given the option, the kids always turn the stuff down and there’s nothing their parents can object to. However irresponsible they are, they are not going to force their kids to smoke pot. Their arguments for doing this are always a response to the fact that they are outlaws for smoking the stuff themselves. Since they are criminals and they are obviously not doing anything wrong — and they aren’t really, of course — then giving it to their kids must be OK too. Legalization puts it all the right perspective. These same people, as foolish as they are, would never have given their kids alcohol and express shock at the suggestion. The hysteria against marijuana drives a lot or irresponsible behavior.
The same problem incites a lot of people to drive stoned. But confronting this is even easier than the childhood exposure issue. Nobody who smokes pot will tell you that there is no such thing as smoking too much pot. Everyone will tell you that there is such as a thing as overconsuming marijuana. They have to admit that there is a point where it is possible to be too stoned to function to do anything. The comparison with alcohol is what elevates marijuana to a safe drug to use while driving. You drink to much and you pass out and get sick and this can happen behind the wheel of a car. But smoke too much pot, and what happens? This deserves some exposure and this would do a lot to tame the arguments of prohibitionists who simply have no perspective on what marijuana is or does to you and what its risks for consumption are. Pot smokers who struggle for legalization need to confront what limits on consumption are to show that responsible consumption is possible and it is possible to police behavior when you go over the limit.
I’m from AZ and prop 203 has passed. As for the growers of the Emerald Triangle and their lack of support, I say treat them as they just asked to be treated. Boycott them. I understand the need to feed your family, I also understand that as a society of semi-free people we need to be morally responsible.
I’m also wondering what the hell has happened to our country when we are the people serving on a jury. If I’m going to be tried in a court of law I want my jury made up of half supporters of legalization and half not supporting it. I know I would never find someone guilty of smoking as long as they were responsible.
Good points, keep up the good work at Norml. One question; why do police need a way to test for marijuana during roadside stops? If they smell it in most states, they can search. If not, they can charge the driver with whatever the initial stop was actually for, assuming they had a right to stop the driver for a legitimate offense (as I am sure no one has ever been illegally pulled over without cause…). So in what case do they think a drug test for marijuana is necessary if they do their jobs as intended???
[Russ responds: *I* don’t think we should have drug tests at all – they tell you nothing about impairment or skills. I believe in testing for impairment. However, this post was about lessons learned to get a legalization bill passed and I suggested that if you’re going to say “treat it like alcohol”, the response from the public will be “where’s the breathalyzer”? Not in so may words, but that’s what we learned from the success of the “Stoned drivers” rhetoric from the other side.]
Ad’s that support cannabis need to be run constantly throughout the year not just near election time. People must be educated constantly or they will all forget very quickly. It’s like everyone has ADD so they need constant reminders. If advertisements were run on a regular basis with pro and educational messages that would be a huge benefit to swaying opinion. I think you are exactly on target with the #4. People are AFRAID of pot. Bottom line.. they still think it turns people into zombies, or makes them lazy, etc.. the propaganda from the DEA and media is still alive. Finally, we should push for some kind of law saying DEA can’t use taxpayers money for propaganda anymore. That’s a waste of taxpayers money only to fuel lies that keep the DEA in power.
I think that some special effort needs to be done to show older people that MMJ can help them in their later years, for relief of all kinds of ailments. If they had any idea of what it could do for them, they would be the biggest supporters!
One more angle that needs to be hammered on, especially in the Tea Party era: “Government interference in markets causing irrational product values.” And tie all the bad to the irrational product value.
Even if the value of pot collapses when legalized, the Emerald Triangle is still sitting on a gold mine of tourism. They’re just gonna have to shift gears. If they don’t, they’ll end up losing everything anyway, when they get busted.
We need positive prohibition commercials depicting a seemingly righteous bust (cops style) first appearing to be catching users and dealers in the act – only to find out it was NOT cannabis, but alcohol they were using and dealing – as if the 18th amendment repealing cannabis prohibition, not alcohol. Cannabis being legal since 1933. Alcohol illegal since Anuslinger needed a job.
Just writing to say I’m an avid NORML supporter and preach these topics on a regular basis to all my co-workers and friends. I believe in legalization to be an awesome stride in our own awareness as who we are as a population. We the people control the government and as long as we keep busting the myths and controversy about Marijuana we will eventually make marijuana use legal.
Marijuana for medical use has a host of benefits to help the prescribed patient in an area the doctor feels is necessary in the treatment process. Not only does marijuana have a positive side to medical treatment, but there are also numerous pros for recreational use as well.
We need to inform those people who find marijuana to be taboo and instruct them on the real facts about marijuana rather then the myths and controversial information the government and officials want us to think.
Help send out an international call for legalization by re-posting and passing along the following in person.
In Nazi Germany (before the camps) Jews were required to wear a Star of David and Homosexuals to wear a pink triangle. On April 20, 2011 everyone who wants pothibition to be repealed should wear an armband with the image of a cannabis leaf on it. If literally millions of us are wearing our feelings on our sleeves that day the mass media will not be able to ignore it. The business world will regard us as a financially significant demographic. It will also send a clear message to the politicians that the time has come to repeal prohibition. This will be most effective if you just go on with whatever else you would have been doing, i.e. if you were going to a smoke-in, burn one for us. If you were going to go plant a zillion seeds, go for it! If you were going to work, go. Just be sure you’re wearing an armband with “Legalize Now!” on it. Local groups could sell these armbands at minimal price to raise funds to do their work with.
50 years ago a gay couple walking down the street holding hands was at serious risk of being physically attacked. Today gay marriage is legal in some places and on the table in others. What brought about this change?
It was the extreme courage of the many gay folk who risked losing everything they had, including their families, by “coming out.” When the general public learned that who they’d been despising and discriminating against was their neighbors, their friends, and their own families, things changed.
The Armband Proposal is meant to be a massive coming-out of us–the people who want an end to pothibition. The idea is for everyone to see that we too are their family, their friends, and their neighbors. Be one of the pebbles that starts our avalanche.
Please help yourself by joining us in getting the word out to as many people as we can. If each of us contacts 5 people there will be millions of us on 4/20 Anything you can think of to help make it clear that wearing wearing the armband only means you want an end to pothibition, not necessarily that you, yourself, are a consumer. http://thearmbandproposal-edu.webs.com/
Thank you for the time you put into this. Many people I talk to have heard, and liked your show. Thanks for the many valid points you laid out here.
One correction
Your post states: ” In Arizona they passed a flawed medical marijuana initiative (it used “prescription”, not “recommendation”) with 65% in 1996. In 2010, it got just below 50% of the vote. ”
I have good news for you. Arizona’s Medical Marijuana Act, Proposition 203 did pass by a margin margin of 841,348 in favor to 837,008, or 50.13%.
smoking marijuana shouldn’t be the only thing addressed in my opinion. the cannabis plant has so many applications to it. this can lead t jobs and even more so… Innovation! if the general public understands this maybe the next law could stand a chance
I think to properly steer the conversation in that direction we need to not just make advocates aware of everything about cannabis, but to actually educate them about it in the frame of why it should matter to a prohibitionist. The drug war is irrelevant to them as a negative until something really terrible happens to them that cannabis could solve. Whether its cancer treatment, cheap fabric, or taking the fall for someones misplaced stash.