California Governor Signs Marijuana Decriminalization Bill

If P19 passes, it would be legal to sell only if you have a license to do so.

If P19 passes, it creates new crimes. If P19 passes, who is going to come in and inspect your grow area to give you the ok? How much will taxes be? If taxes are a lot, does it not stand to reason that there will be a lot of tax evasion? Where will California's money be then? And remember, tax evasion is a federal offense. Remember too, that P19 STILL does nothing to make it federally legal to consume marijuana. We would still be criminals in the eyes of our government. Get it out of the classification it's in...now that is something worth voting for. It shouldn't be a schedule I drug. That would solve the problem across the board would it not? Would the efforts to do that, not be better spent?

We don't need yet another bad law. Please understand this. There is no reason not to wait for a good law.

I'm a cannabis patient, I'm not some sort of profiteer. I've read the proposition, it's not a good law. No on 19.

Prop 19 also allows the state to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana which is important for our state's economic recovery. So Prop 19 is still important.

YES, Decriminalization?.  A stimulus plan for the Mexican Drug cartels!  Proposition 19 is more relevant now than ever.  Arnold just gave the Zetas a hundred million dollar bonus.  Allowing increasing demand without allowing a legal supply chain is stupid and dangerous for California.  I agree people should not be caged for abusing their own body, but giving cartels millions in new revenue, by keeping cannabis gardening criminal is STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.  Proposition 19 allows responsible, regulated and legal California businesses and every individual to shut out the cartels by growing cannabis here in California.  Decriminalization does not! YES on 19!  YES for ending the cartels.  YES for making California safer.

You call yourself George Washington, but that great man would have burned down any government that would have interfered with a man growing and cultivating a plant or that would prevent a man from smoking, injecting, consuming, or sniffing whatever and whenever and wherever he wishes. Additionally, George was smart enough to realize that criminalizing something is a sure way of making it extremely profitable for a select few - i.g., elements within certain governments benefitting from the war on drugs as well as the Big Pharma, which are using their congressional puppets to now demonize the private use of herbal medicine in a bid to control the market and/or destroy any access the general public has to a natural source of healing rather than their nightmarish mountain of fake dope.

prop 19 allows recreational use with no backlash from the law unless in violation of another law. Only a dumb stoner would assume that decriminalization meant legalization for recreational use. Read prop 19 plz.

Incorrect.  Where do you think the "dumb stoners" get the marijuana from?    Non-medical marijuana is grown, distributed, and sold by criminal groups, in some cases very bad people indeed.

 Prop 19 would have the same effect as repealing prohibition of alcohol did on the gangsters of Chicago in the 20s.  It would take their monopoly and put it into the hands of legitimate business, who typically don't shoot each other quite as much. 

Not only is that not good enough but it's created an even worse situation than before!

Less punishment on marijuana may lead to an increase in use, and because sales of the stuff are still illegal that'll mean *more* money going to the Mexican drug cartels and a subsequent *increase* in their violence and the number of innocent people they kill.

Since we can't stop people smoking we MUST legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults with after-tax prices set too low for the cartels to match. We *have* to eliminate the cartel's marijuana incomes and end the incentive and ability to continue murdering innocent people!

You miss the point of 'Tax Cannabis Act'. What drug is your excuse for such ineptness/laziness?

The Governor passed this with a signing statement. It can be withdrawn with another one by him or any subsequent Governor. Would you not rather have this be a matter of law? Laws must be repealed by a majority vote.

I'm not a Californian, but if I was I would vote for Prop 19. No, I don't smoke. It's a matter of personal liberty.

Prop 19 puts marijuana in a regulated market like alcohol. Anyone 21 and over could legally buy (and grow) marijuana. There would be no $100 fine if caught with pot. I think maybe you should look into what Proposition 19 actually is before you call people who push it "dumb stoners".

 "Those misdemeanors would become infractions under the new law"

ITS NOT OBSOLETE.

we desperately need it as the FIRST REAL STEP to ending drug the useless drug war! 

only an idiot would think it was obsolete now--you've fallen right into the trap that they hoped you would. you have to have more than an ounce at some point to get people less than that. they can still bust the farms where it grows. this law still allows Mexican drug cartels to control marijuana sales. 

if you don't like prop 19, because it makes it a felony to smoke around a minor, then you really are an idiot.

One thing we are all passing up is if in fact it becomes legal they cant test for it and i know for myself that's a blessing......

Your naivete is hurting millions of suffering cancer & serious sick people!!!!!!!!!!

HOW DARE YOU. Take your nonsense & move east.

It helped me with my cancer tremendously.

Stoners are smarter than you apparently!!!!

EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE PLEASE BEFORE RUINING THIS GREAT SOURCE OF MEDICINE.

  To Mr. George Washington,

  Seems to me that you've had a bad experience in your life that has made you hate the herb that comes out of the ground that so may of people like myself like to smoke. It also seems that you need to calm down and smoke a fatty yourself =) Only someone relying on pure air would call someone a "dumb stoner" Where do you get off on calling my fellow Americans dumb? Not to mention that you automatically think that your smarter than half the population of America when you say that.  If Prop 19 would've passed, this country of "ours" would not be in the position that we are in right now. Marijuana is a cash crop! It will never go away. And people will never stop smoking it. In 1919 through 1933.... Do you know of this era??? Mr. I call the stoners dumb =) This was the era of the prohibition, When Wilson passed the act he didn't know what he was doing, he thought that he could sober up America by putting his name on a piece of paper. When really all he did was make certain people wealthier than he could ever be in his life as president. By the end of the prohibition they realized that they were wasting their money and time trying to uphold this act of law. Marijuana has been illegal since about 1913 I believe and our country wastes more money on trying to uphold this law than they should. They could use that money for so much more! Our country needs the money, and by having it illegal, we are making other countries money by having to import brick weed. Especially when the Christmas Buds in some parts of the country run out. Anyhow there some information from one of your countries "Dumb Stoners".

                                                         Sincerely,

                                                              St. Bartholomew

                        PS, You need to be nice to people!!!         =)

Where did the federal government get the power to impose marijuana prohibition, anyway?  It took a constitutional ammendment to ban alcohol, and I'm pretty sure one was never passed for cannabis.  California has the right to nullify unconstitutional federal laws within its borders.

Because the Constitution says so.

The product is being grown and sold locally, therefore the Federal Government has no say thanks to the 10th Amendment.

Of course Franklin Rosevelt had his puppet Supreme Court rule that any thing that COULD effect Interstate Commerce could be controlled at the Federal Level.

So a court decided that the 10th Amendment doesn't count when it comes to farming.

This is what Democrats give us. Tyranny.

The better question to ask is this: How does the federal government have the right to enact any drug laws at all? When alcohol was prohibited, it required a constitutional amendment.

According to tax law, earnings from illegal enterprises are subject to income tax. At the federal level, drug dealers are required to pay taxes. The law allows them to deduct their cost of goods sold, but nothing else.