Marijuana Legalization Resonates with Voters

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Septembre 27, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

            Five weeks from California’s midterm election Nov. 2, Prop 19, the marijuana legalization initiative, shows growing momentum.  Tired old arguments stemming from the 1938 government propaganda film ‘Reefer Madness” are beginning to fade, where even seniors are seeing the logic behind legalization.  Fourteen years of Prop 215, California’s medical marijuana initiative, hasn’t proven destructive of today’s society as promised by lobbyists from the law enforcement and prison guard unions, too worried about emptying out California’s courts and prisons of marijuana-related offenders, currently costing the state around $100,000 a year per inmate.  Prop 19 now cuts across the ideological spectrum, appealing to all voters concerned about California’s fiscal health.  Finally comes a measure that promises to save tax dollars and generate revenue to the battered state.

            California, once again, leads the nation in changing public opinion about the pros and cons of legalization.  While opponents dredge up old slogans, Prop 19’s advocates, led by Oaksterdam University [an Oakland-based institute for cultivating marijuana businesses] founder Richard Lee, responsible for funding the signature drive putting Prop 19 on the November ballot, inform.  Apart from the 14-year track record of medical marijuana, Lee believes that legalization will stimulate jobs in a state racked by the nation’s highest unemployment.  Creating a new industry should attract new jobs in what amounts to an expansion of California’s biggest cash crop.  While citrus, avocados and almonds yield bumper crops, marijuana cultivation offers a new gold rush to entrepreneurs, looking to expand new businesses beyond the lucrative wine industry, draping the state’s golden hills.

            Beverage industry folks were among Prop 215’s worst critics back in 1996, before realizing that the last 14 years showed no change in California’s thirst for wine and beer.  Today’s Prop 19 finds some of its fiercest opposition from Northern California’s boutique marijuana growers, currently supplying the bulk of medical marijuana to over 1,000 dispensaries around the state.  While most medical marijuana users value the pure and potent pot obtained at dispensaries, some smokers will find it more convenient to go to the local Seven-Eleven.  Legalizing marijuana also helps break the illicit Mexican drug trade, whose marijuana sales account for about 60% of their drug business inside the U.S. If nothing else, 14 years of Prop 215 showed no substantial increase in marijuana smoking.  Remaining steady, Prop 215 neither increased pot smoking nor detracted from beer and wine sales.

            Recent polls suggest that more informed voters seek the financial rewards of legalization.  Whatever one thinks of pot smoking, the cost savings and revenue to the state seems undeniable.  California’s fiscal crisis sharpened voters attention on revenue-generating ballot measures like Prop. 19.  California’s prestigious and reliable Field Poll indicated that Californians are looking for ways to deal with the illicit drug trade, favoring legalization 49%-42%, a growing margin from their early July poll showing opponents to legalization winning 48%-44%.  As the election draws near, Californians are looking more carefully on how Prop 19 benefits the state.  With the state running a $20 billion deficit, slashing budgets to public education, community colleges, state universities, University of California and vital state services, voters are beginning change their minds on Prop 19.

            When the Field Poll asked expected voters to consider revenue-enhancing options to deal with state’s fiscal problems, a whopping 56% thought marijuana legalization was the right choice.  Even the state’s unpopular Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose approval ratings of 22% are the worst in the state’s history, indicated Prop 19 should receive serious consideration.  His bitter enemy in the California Assembly Rep. Tom Ammiano agree finally on one thing:  Prop 19 is good for the state.  Bound to boost real estate sales in California’s rich farmland and create thousands of new jobs, legalization promises to be a booming industry, eventually spreading to other states.  Places like Lee’s Oaksterdam University are now taken more seriously for entrepreneurs looking to get in on the ground floor of a promising new industry.  Opponents plan legal challenges should the measure pass Nov. 2.

            Spreading logic over old propaganda, California’s Prop 19 promises to cripple the Mexican drug cartel, funnel potentially billions of tax dollars into the state treasury and add thousands of new jobs.  When a Republican governor and bitter Democratic rival in the state assembly finally agree on Prop 19, you know there must be something good about it.  Breaking the illicit drug trade, emptying prisons of marijuana-related offenders and generating untold billions in tax revenue provide only an upside to legalization.  Fourteen years of medical marijuana proved that no measurable harm comes to society from cannabis use.  Dredging up old scare tactics about marijuana destroying society no longer influences a more educated electorate.  Prop 19 finally says no to law enforcement and prison guards’ unions whose current budgets take too much money from education and other vital state services.

About the Author  

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.