CA prop 19 doesn't pass... sorry A51....

Voted no. Too many rural Californians depend black market profits. And they ain't all hippies - farmers, ranchers, ordinary people. Probably around 80% of the rural residents in some neighboring counties rely on this since timber fell on its sword. The same thing's become true for cities too ever since indoor lighting has arrived.

California would never have realised the tax gains that were expected too. There is too much incentive to stay black market and the gov. never has a chance of stopping cultivation, especially indoor.

Then there is the driving issue without a realtime test for measuring blood levels of THC.

Also, I heard the measure is written to favor the medical clubs. It was sponsored by one seller in Oakland. These club guys are sharks. They are in it for their bank accounts and a lot of pro-pot people don't want to support their racket.

Add to that all the usual misinformation about gateway, addiction, class warfare, health costs and you've got another loss for pot. But it'll be back and eventually there will be a measure that makes sense. Also, we can look forward to efforts to get pot off the schedule one list of the feds. That's certainly the most important and most sensible thing to do first.

^
That's exactly right. On our honeymoon, my wife and I ended up in Amsterdam. Our car was broken into the first night we were there. Amsterdam has a few problems that I think are related to pot. When only one small area makes the stuff legal every Tom, Dick and coRky flock there. It is innevitable that a criminal element is included. California being so big I don't think individual crime would climb at all, but the Mexican gangs would concentrate on growing in Cali in order to supply the rest of the U.S. We already have enough of a problem with them and don't need any more. Some growers have already taken to vigilante justice, patrolling the national forests and elsewhere because the authorities don't have the resources to control these maggots. Here, the sherrifs office and the mom and pop growers are on the same team...most of the time. The feds are a joke, with a reputation of being hard-assed pansies who like to fly around in choppers, never do much work and are quick to shoot.

There's one story going around about a recent raid in the hills. One guy watched the operation from saddleback. A chopper was hauling weed down to the valley floor for burning. But the chopper also made several drops in another nearby direction. The theory is that someone met the chopper there and took the weed for the officers retirement fund . I don't know if that's true but it wouldn't surprise me. Also heard that when you fly over these remote areas practically every valley has big gardens visible from the air. The situation is so far out of control that... Anyway, where was I? The Amsterdam affect. That's what I call it. In fact, I'm surprised Amsterdam doesn't have more of a problem than they actually do. One city in all that area - it's bound attract flies.

And I've been to Copenhagen too. Scandanavia is my favorite part of Europe, especially liked Oslo. Even ate whale meat in Norway so I sure as hell must not be a liberal .

nycstripes said:

I don't care what "responsible adults" do but when juvenile minded adults celebrate pot to the extent that it is, kids just want it more. It would be nice if kids today actually learned how to negotiate math and read before leaving high school...but another 200 billion should rectify that....ahhh, probably not.

It would be better if kids learned how our government is supposed to work and who represents us...and why. Too many dangerously undereducated folks running to the election booths. Most of them are probably just too stupid from many years of smoking pot.

Click to expand...

If pot had been legal all these years adults would treat pot similar to alcohol. Leno wouldn't be making jokes about it nonstop. You see, Larry(?), in part, it's the illegality that makes it uber attractive. It's like speeding. Everyone knows it's illegal but they do it anyway and they brag about it. There is definitely a taboo attraction to illegality for many people, and especially for young people. It's a big part of the pot culture. - sticking it to the man, etc. If pot were legalized nationally I think there'd be a sizeable increase in use among responsible adults who now don't partake out of fear. Teens I'm not so sure about. They tend to do the opposite of adults. In Europe, with it's more liberal attitudes among adults, kids tend to be anti-pot. But there are other cultural differences too. It's hard to say what would happen. But you don't know until you try...and trying means a good twenty-year experiment. A short bit of drug education should be mandatory no matter what the legality.

I don't expect it to be legal nationally until after I'm dead. Whatever. But the fact that cannabis is a schedule one drug tells me that government is completely without knowledge when it comes to pot. Teens see the other drugs on the same list (opiates, cocaine, etc.) and they logically assume that the government has their heads up their asses about those too. When a young person figures that out they react accordingly. Even alcohol has it's inconsistencies. Teens find out they get a headache from alcohol but not from pot, they throw up from alcohol but not from pot, scirosis of the liver, cancer, etc? What are they to think about our legal system when facing these realities? Drug policy has so many fails it makes the head spin. It's as if the laws were made by people who had never even tried any of these substances, even in low doses. It's as if Cindy Sheehan were running the Pentagon.

BTW, the Kawa dude was 19. Nice looking kid too. His posts on Facebook give the impression that he was a street racer though. Makes me assume his wisdom was smaller than his adrenaline thirst. Looks like a rather typical result of young carelessness. Hey, why aren't motorcycles illegal if pot is? Never heard of one person crashing a joint.

Here's another lovely story from the weekend:
Man hunting with son is accidentally shot to death
Bird hunting with a shotgun at 11 years? And I couldn't shoot a deer until I was 12?
Yeah, we've got some mixed up rules and regulations, for sure.
FYI, if anyone's interested, the son was standing at the back of the pickup, a bird flew by, the son rotated to shoot, the dad stepped out of the pickup and was blasted right in the back of the head. Tragic. Hope someone is loving that kid right now.