Schwarzenegger signs decriminalization bill

Schwarzenegger signs California marijuana decriminalization bill

They may yet go for full legalization. So regardless of the November elections, at least there will be no silly court appearances. Now it's just a $100 ticket.

Even that is silly, though.

What are the prospects? Will this pave the way for better things on legalization front?

 

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You can brew your own alcohol. You can't grow marijuana.

Even beer distributors, in a hypocritical move, were opposing marijuana reform because they were afraid of their workers being "high" on the job. WHAT?

Oh, let's just contribute to automobile accidents and spousal abuse and health problems and violent crimes, but DON'T LEGALIZE MARIJUANA! THAT'S THE GATEWAY TO HELL!!!!

So, while this is an improvement (wish we had this in my state) it is still silly to have to pay $100 ticket for possession.
A modest regulating tax would be just fine for them.

 

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What cop is going to bust anyone when he knows all they will get is a fine? Seems that it would be a waste of time to most police wouldn't it? :shrug:

 

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? Alcohol producers and distributors oppose marijuana decriminalization because they're worried about losing business as people opt for weed over booze. Pretty straightforward stuff.

 

You gotta point there. They'd probably confiscate it. But it seems with California as in the hole as it is, they have much bigger things to worry about. You would hope.

But it's certainly moved down the peg a bit. That will probably result in savings on court costs, and reduce overall police action.

They need to go further however.

 

Yes, and since the fine has been $100 for like 35 years now, cops long since stopped wasting much time trying to track and arrest weed smokers. It comes up when they bust people for other things and find pot in the process, or when people are just too stupid not to smoke in obvious places with cops around.

The only thing this law changes is that you do not have to get arrested and then appear in court to pay your $100 fine. Instead it's just like a traffic ticket, where they write you a citation and you pay it by mail. The size of the fine itself has not changed, and this will make little difference to the impunity with which Californians smoke weed. It just cuts the associated court costs.

 

It's a start. Many people I know would love dearly to have this same attitude in my state.

It's also a step towards hemp culture. The idiots who run this country can't differentiate the two, it seems.

 

The start was back in 1975 when the penalties were set at the current level ($100 fine, no jail time). This is an incremental step aimed at cutting the bureaocratic costs of imposing the fines. It is a step up for users in that it eliminates the possibility of actual arrest (which would appear on your criminal record) and need to appear in court.

But it may actually be a step backwards, since it is believed that Schwarzenegger went along with it (he's strongly opposed to both decriminalization and legalization) largely as an effort to head off the success of Prop 19 (a measure on next month's ballot that would outright legalize marijuana in CA). If this ends up resulting in the failure of Prop 19, it will be the single biggest step back away from legalization in CA in my lifetime.

I don't see how. It's the federal ban on hemp cultivation that's relevant there, and I don't see how this will have any positive impact on that.

 

So it's basically a crafty compromise? I don't see how it could undermine legalization. Unless somehow it makes people more apathetic to going all the way.. like, "see you already have what you want, now go away"

 

It's a way to cut wasteful spending during a time of fiscal crisis, mostly.

Yeah, that's the idea. A certain amount of pro-19 voters are not so much pro-pot as anti-spending-resources-to-punish-users, so to the extent that pot users will not be arrested any longer, they may not be motivated to vote. But the real motivator here has always been the promise of tax revenues from the production, distribution and sale of marijuana, so it will ultimately pass or fail on those grounds.

The real mind-fuck here is that the strongest opponents of legalization are not crusty religious moralists or police organizations or whatever, but the growers/distributors/dealers/medical dispenseries. This is because they make vast profits due to the (semi-)illegal nature of the business. Legalization would pretty much wipe them out. From what I can tell, the cops would be happy if they could just stop worrying about pot entirely.

 

Also the liqueur industry will suffer and they are also putting up money against its legalization, lots O' money.

 

He mentioned that in an earlier post.

Hemp Legalization is all the rage. It's on the ballot in a number of states.

You can see the shift in public attitudes when people like my parents--staunch conservatives--want all "soft drugs" decriminalized altogether. They finally see it from the right perspective: It isn't the government's job to legislate morality and then spend billions on enforcement.

~String

 

Marijuana has no effect on alcohol consumption.

 

Just legalize it all ready! Its illegal because of oil companies anyway. Dont believe me? Look it up. Before the 20's many things that are now made out of patrolium (sp?) was made out of hemp and stems from marijuania plants. The oil compainies bought out lobiest and politicians and now here we are.

 

There is a proposition that wants to legalize marijuana? I guess I should go vote in November after all.

 

Anything made from hemp instead of petroleum would still need sophisticated processing methods that could not be done by the average person so there would still be an industry surrounded by it and most likely the same people would\would have been involved. Doesnt mean hemp technology should not be looked into but most likely hemp is limited to what other plants can do. But i am not 100% certain about that last part.

 

In California it does. From what I observed, once everyone turned 21, Mary Jane became the drug of choice. I can't speak for the social norms where you live, but I can tell you for a fact that people tend to light up more, rather than drink where I live. It seems that more people were inclined to chill out at home, instead of going out to a bar, and risk getting a DUI. Most bud coniseurs smoke everyday of the week, unlike alchohol which is usually reserved for weekends and special occasions.

 

Lastly, the Republicans are against legalization in California. According to the latest polling data 66% of conservatives are against. I guess they're to stupid to realize it's the drug cartels number one source of income. Their idiocy never ceases to amaze me.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N05210230.htm

 

Yup, that kills me too...that it provides criminals with a good living, while the rest of us have to get up and go to work every day.

 

not to mention prohibition doesn't work.