Marcos Breton at the Sacramento Bee says he "might be wrong to oppose Proposition 19," and he's right about that at least. What follows is a frustrating editorial that offers some good reasons to support reform, before becoming overwhelmed by doubt and uncertainty.
Herein lies the problem with Prop. 19 – it's built on fantasy and untruths.
Pot advocates condemn alcohol addiction but are in complete denial about marijuana addiction.
Yet, Breton himself admits being a former user. So do the President and the Governor of California. The vast majority of marijuana users never get addicted, so arresting these people and forcing them into treatment for a problem they don’t have makes little sense. How many people did we have to arrest to reduce tobacco use?
They say California will make tons of tax money on Prop. 19, when there is nothing in the law to spell out how to tax a plant grown anywhere.
You can't tax it because it comes from plants? Sure you can. California already makes millions taxing medical marijuana. I repeat, California already makes millions taxing medical marijuana. How does it work? The same way taxation works in every other industry: people prefer to buy things in stores and they pay taxes when doing so.
They claim Prop. 19 will strike a blow against Mexican drug kingpins, when marijuana will still be illegal in 49 American states and most countries throughout the world. How does that put them out of business?
So we should vote against Prop 19 because it won't completely put the drug kingpins out of business? The drug war hasn't put them out of business either, so what's your point? Prop 19 will make it harder for drug cartels to make money in California and that's a good start. I promise, If Prop 19 passes, we'll be working on those other 49 states forthwith.
As for addressing the disparity in the prosecution of blacks and whites who are arrested for marijuana possession, let's reform the real problem – police practices and sentencing guidelines.
Yeah, we've been working on police practices and sentencing guidelines for kind of a while now, actually. Didn't work. Our marijuana laws were literally designed to stop black people from getting high, so no one should be surprised that their impact has fallen harder on some communities than others. Resolving widespread patterns of racial inequality throughout the criminal justice system is a noble goal, and the first step is to reform laws that have consistently exacerbated the problem.
As always, the debate over marijuana legalization is defined by incessant back-and-forth bickering and speculation that could seriously go on forever. We're all guilty of it, but so long as our current marijuana policy continues, huge numbers of Americans are going to object bitterly and that will remain the case until the problems with our marijuana laws are addressed in some way. If you have doubts about Prop 19, that's ok, but at least it opens up the possibility of learning something new. Isn't that reason enough to give it a chance?
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