Analysis: Prop. 19 wasn’t supported by minorities

 Legalization, Marijuana News, Media
Nov 122010
 

Who killed Proposition 19? It’s a question that cannabis legalization proponents will be asking themselves for weeks to come, Robert Gammon observes in the East Bay Express. Was it the Tea Partiers who came out in droves this year? Was it apathetic young voters who stayed away from the polls? Or was it the marijuana-producing counties of Northern California, which feared losing market share of their main cash crop? Each of those story lines have already received plenty of attention. But a closer look at election results and exit polling data points to a different [...]

Time columnist makes doctor’s case for legal cannabis

 Health and science, Legalization, Media, Opinion
Nov 102010
 

Dr. Scott Haig is an assistant clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His Doctor’s View column on cannabis appears in Time magazine: =============== We don’t really know how many people smoke it. Some sources say 10 million Americans, others say 35 million. But a lot of people smoke pot and they don’t seem very sick. Marijuana just won’t go away. Everybody talks about it—many quite fondly. About everyone I know under 55 has smoked it. And they’re all right. A few have that pothead “oh wow” personality, but [...]

Prop. 19 may boost 2012 bid for legal cannabis

 Advocates, Legalization, Marijuana News
Nov 082010
 

Despite Proposition 19′s loss at the polls last week, marijuana legalization advocates in California are already working on their comeback plan for 2012 and are almost giddy about their prospects. They see the election as a trial run that could lead to a campaign with a better message, a tighter measure and more money. Both the winning and losing sides say California’s voters rejected this specific initiative, but remain open to legalizing the easily obtainable drug. The proponents have a huge head start compared to where they were two years ago, John Hoeffel reports in [...]

Sequel to Prop. 19 could come as early as 2012

 Legalization, Marijuana News
Nov 082010
 

California voters likely have not seen the last of efforts to legalize marijuana despite last week’s defeat of Prop. 19. Legalization advocates are weighing a return to the ballot in 2012. And the author of an unsuccessful Assembly bill to legalize pot intends to introduce similar legislation early next year, Jim Miller reports from the Sacramento bureau of the Riverside Press-Enterprise “We had a debate that was just heard around the world. The conversation has only begun,” Dale Jones, a yes-on-Prop. 19 spokeswoman, said after Tuesday’s election. But the initiative’s critics said proponents of legalizing [...]

Prop. 19 defeated; Sacramento medipot taxes pass

 Legalization, Marijuana News, Medical marijuana
Nov 032010
 

In a landmark ballot measure that tested the boundaries of the public’s acceptance of pot, California voters decided Tuesday night they’re not ready to legalize marijuana smoking as a leisure activity. With more than one-fifth of votes counted, Proposition 19 was losing by 56 to 44 percent. (The figures changed to 54 percent to 46 percent with 97 percent of votes counted Wednesday morning by the state elections office.) The initiative would have allowed adults over 21 to possess up to an ounce of pot and cultivate small amounts of marijuana at home. The pot [...]

Prop. 19 falls in voter-rich Los Angeles County

 Legalization, Marijuana News
Nov 032010
 

After taking a serious look at legalizing marijuana, Californians voted Tuesday to reject Proposition 19, which would have made the state the first to allow the drug to be sold for recreational use. The measure drew strong support from voters younger than 25, as the campaign had hoped, but those voters did not turn out in unusually high numbers, according to a state exit poll. The initiative also failed to win over the moderate voters who make up the state’s decisive swing vote, John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times. The San Francisco Bay [...]

Prop. 19 falls short; local medipot taxes passed

 Legalization, Marijuana News, Medical marijuana
Nov 032010
 

When Californians put an initiative on the ballot to legalize recreational marijuana smoking, the whole nation tuned in to see whether the state would lead a new marijuana law revolution. After all, California voters pioneered medical marijuana more than a decade ago. But Tuesday they doused Proposition 19, rejecting the country’s first effort to legalize marijuana. As of this morning, the no votes totaled nearly 52 percent, John Woolfolk reports in the San Jose Mercury News. The defeat came even as voters in San Jose and other Bay Area cities embraced local regulation and tax [...]

Riverside County voters reject Prop. 19

 Legalization, Marijuana News
Nov 032010
 

Proposition 19 failed to ignite in California, as the state’s voters failed to become the first in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana use and sales. Inland Southern California voters didn’t stray from that trend. The ballot initiative also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, secured 44 percent of the vote with 24 percent of precincts reporting, six points shy of the majority it needed to pass. It was leading in just seven of the state’s 58 counties, all of them in Northern California. Inland Southern California voters fell in line with [...]

L.A. Times: Prop. 19 heading to defeat

 Legalization, Marijuana News
Nov 032010
 

After taking a serious look at legalizing marijuana, California voters in early returns Tuesday appeared to be rejecting Proposition 19, which would have made the state the first to allow the drug to be sold for recreational use. According to a state exit poll, the measure drew strong support from voters under 25 years old, as the campaign had hoped, but those voters did not turn out in unusually high numbers. The initiative also failed to win over the moderate voters who make up the state’s decisive swing vote, John Hoeffel reports in the Los [...]

SacBee: Exit polls show no increase in youth vote

 Legalization, Marijuana News
Nov 022010
 

Age is a major indicator of support for the measure to legalize marijuana for recreational use, according to the first wave of exit polling conducted for The Bee and other media outlets by Edison Research. Though voters ages 18 to 39 generally support Proposition 19 by slim margins, the measure is trailing among voters 40 and older. Respondents 65 and older also reported voting no, the Sacramento Bee reports. The first wave of 1,500 voter interviews did not show unusually high turnout among young voters. Predictions from some observers and campaign operatives that the measure [...]

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