Long time lurker guys, hope this isn't a repost but this will affect me greatly since I live in CA. Learned alot about prop 19 on
http://stop19.com/ten-reasons-to-vote-no/ Pretty interesting stuff that I never heard before.
Hope we have some open minded folks here, I'm not here to debate, just sharing some info I found helpful in my quest to vote the right way.
Ok. Well let's break it down piece by piece.
1. Proposition 19 isn’t really legalization. It only allows possession of up to one ounce of cannabis. Under current California law, an ounce or less of pot isn’t an arrestable offense. And soon this amount will be a simple civil infraction. Prop 19 doesn’t make any improvements to decriminalization or prop 215.
One ounce is the minimum ceiling for the entire California. Prop 19 allows cities and counties will be allowed to set as high of a limit as they want. If your cities makes it legal for you to have 50 pounds, then you'll be able to have 50 pounds. Pretty sweet right?
Of course cities and counties won't do that unless we all actively petition them to do so. But with a little hard work, it's very doable.
Unlike the author of this list, I can provide you with proof. From section 5 part A of prop19:
(a) Amendments to the limitations in section 11300, which limitations are minimum thresholds and the Legislature may adopt less restrictive limitations.
2. Prop 19 creates several new cannabis related crimes with extremely severe penalties. Don’ t mistakenly pass a joint to a 17 year old, you will be looking at 7 years in state prison, seriously
That claim is an outright lie. The
maximum penalty under prop 19 for
knowingly giving cannabis to someone under 21 is 6 months in jail and a $1000 fine. Section 11361 c:
Every person 21 years of age or over who knowingly furnishes, administers, or gives, or offers to furnish, administer or give, any marijuana to a person aged 18 years or older, but younger than 21 years of age, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of up to six months and be fined up to $1,000 for each offense.
That means the police have to prove to a jury that you knew in advance that person was a minor and you still provided them with cannabis anyways. Even in that situation the maximum penalty is 6 months and $1000.
Who ever wrote this list is either grossly misinformed or an outright liar.
3. Prop 19 is solely designed to allow large scale cannabis production by politically connected corporations. Oakland has already granted a license to the Prop 19 Cartel.
A bold claim which they completely fail to back up. There is absolutely
nothing in prop 19 that gives favor to "big cannabis" corporations. There is nothing that excludes the average Californian from opening up their own shop.
This list is basically a combination of misinformation and scare tactics.
4. Most legal experts agree that Prop 19 is poorly written and will leave police and judges to enforce it at their discretion. For example, consuming cannabis would be illegal in the same "space" as a minor. Police and judges are free to interoperate the word "space" to mean the same room, house, or entire apartment complex.
That's a good point. Well not the apartment complex part, that's not reasonable, but it is correct that it doesn't distinguish between between a room or a house. Definitely a flaw in prop19. The courts will decide that and a precedent will be set, then it will be clear. But it's a good point. They should have made that more clear.
5. There is no need to rush into a law that will be difficult to change. There are better full legalization laws, including one set to be on the ballot in 2012.
I call bullshit. To my knowledge there is no legalization law that has gathered enough signatures to make it on the ballot for 2012. There may be people who have written a ballot measure, but that's much different than making it on the ballot.
6. Prop 19 will lead to the walmartization of the cannabis industry. And unfortunately, this will result in lower quality and fixed prices. Limited competition and government control will allow large scale growers to determine prices and dictate quality standards (or lack thereof).
Again, there is absolutely
nothing in prop19 that does this. Complete misinformation. I challenge anyone to find something in the text of prop 19 that proves this bogus claim.
7. Local governments will control the taxation, production, and distribution on cannabis. This is a touchy political issue; most local politicians won’t risk a backlash by allowing dispensaries in their city. This means many people will have to travel long distances or break the law to purchase cannabis.
This is pretty much true. I don't think most cities, but yes, there will be several who don't want recreational cannabis dispensaries. How is that different than it is now though? It doesn't make things worse. And there is a solution to this. Write a petition, get registered voters to sign it, bring it to your city counsel. If the people who elected them want this, they will have to at least listen.
8. Prop 19 will supersede prop 215, adversely affecting medial cannabis users by dictating grow size, possession amount, patient to patient sales, and location of use.
This is an outright lie. Prop 19 covers recreational cannabis law. It has absolutely nothing to do with medical cannabis law. Either who ever wrote this list is completely ignorant to how the law works or they have their own agenda and are outright lying.
9. Unbiased cannabis activists do NOT support Prop 19. This includes the late Jack Herer and the co-author of prop 215, Dennis Peron.
Sort of true. Not
all unbiased cannabis activists are against prop 19. But it is true that Jack Herer was and Denis Peron are against it.
10. The federal government has decided to not prosecute medical cannabis users. This will not be the case if Prop 19 passes. Many people believe that the passage of Prop 19 will bring an aggressive response from the feds, perhaps putting medical users at risk of losing access to medicine.
Pure speculation. "Many people believe"? wtf is that? Who are these people? I've never heard anyone of credibility or anyone who has the authority to do such a thing come out and say anything like this. A reversal in policy by the Obama administration on medical cannabis seems unlikely.
Who ever wrote this list won't even sign their own name to it. It's completely anonymous. Just because some dude with interweb access makes a list, that doesn't make it true. It's not supported by either facts or evidence. For the most part it's pure speculation and outright lying. Nothing on that list is sourced and none of the claims about prop 19 are backed up with quotes from the text of the measure to show where he got that information.
Just because someone says something, that doesn't make it true. Think before you believe these lies and verify it for yourself. If someone says something to you like "prop 19 supersedes medical law, they should easily be able to prove it. If they can't they are probably full of shit. At that point you should read the law yourself or at least search it for the keywords you're looking for.
Here is a link to the text of prop 19 so anyone who wants to can do this for themselves.
http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/initiative/
