The Dane
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For those of you who don't know, Prop 19 is:
This is the first article I've come across which paints the proposition in a negative light. The rest of the articles I've found have been overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition. Usually, I don't take interest or issue in marijuana politics because usually its never close to being legalized and for some reason or another people think hemp has ENDLESS uses. This proposition is different. It has ALOT of support and has a very good chance of passing.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/07/can-california-legalize-marijuana
If this law passes, you are going to see marijuana's price drop 80% in California, while it still remains the same price in every other state. The question is then, will California become the nation's largest exporter of marijuana?
Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, is a California ballot proposition which will be on the November 2, 2010 California statewide ballot. It legalizes various marijuana-related activities, allows local governments to regulate these activities, permits local governments to impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorizes various criminal and civil penalties.[1] In March 2010 it qualified to be on the November statewide ballot.[2] Tax Cannabis 2010 is the official advocacy group for the initiative.
Even if the proposition is passed, the sale of marijuana will remain illegal under federal law via the Controlled Substances Act; however, both the willingness and the de facto ability of the Federal government to enforce such a law without the support of the government of California are questionable.
This is the first article I've come across which paints the proposition in a negative light. The rest of the articles I've found have been overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition. Usually, I don't take interest or issue in marijuana politics because usually its never close to being legalized and for some reason or another people think hemp has ENDLESS uses. This proposition is different. It has ALOT of support and has a very good chance of passing.
The federal Controlled Substances Act makes it a felony to grow or sell cannabis. California can repeal its own marijuana laws, leaving enforcement to the feds. But it can't legalize a federal felony. Therefore, any grower or seller paying California taxes on marijuana sales or filing pot-related California regulatory paperwork would be confessing, in writing, to multiple federal crimes. And that won't happen.
True, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. has announced that the Justice Department will not prosecute people who are selling medical marijuana in compliance with California's law. But that's an entirely different matter....The feds can afford to take a laid-back attitude toward California's medical marijuana trade because it's unlikely to cause much of a trafficking problem in the rest of the country. Because dispensaries' prices are just as high as those for black-market marijuana, there's not much temptation to buy the "medical" sort in California and resell it out of state.
By contrast, the non-medical cannabis industry that would be allowed if Proposition 19 passed would quickly fuel a national illicit market....As a result, pot dealers nationwide — and from Canada, for that matter — would flock to California to stock up. There's no way on earth the federal government is going to tolerate that. Instead, we'd see massive federal busts of California growers and retail dealers, no matter how legal their activity was under state law.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/07/can-california-legalize-marijuana
If this law passes, you are going to see marijuana's price drop 80% in California, while it still remains the same price in every other state. The question is then, will California become the nation's largest exporter of marijuana?
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