cannabisnews.com: Don't Rush Recreational Marijuana in California function share_this(num) { tit=encodeURIComponent('Don't Rush Recreational Marijuana in California'); url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/27/thread27769.shtml'); site = new Array(5); site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit; site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit; window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500'); return false; } Don't Rush Recreational Marijuana in California Posted by CN Staff on December 27, 2013 at 16:44:05 PT By Kerry Cavanaugh Source: Los Angeles Times California -- On New Year’s Day, Colorado becomes the first state to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana, and Washington will begin permitting pot shops a few months later.It’s only a matter of time before California follows. There are four potential initiatives to legalize marijuana being considered for the November ballot, according to the Sacramento Bee. A recent Field Poll found 55% of California voters support legalization for the first time. In reality, marijuana is already practically legal in the state. California’s medical marijuana law allows pretty much anyone to get a prescription for pot and fill it at a storefront dispensary. We just make people pretend they’re “patients” going to get their “medicine.”But just because legalization in California is inevitable doesn’t mean we should hurry.Look at the goofiness and confusion that continues to surround the medical marijuana industry in the state. Dispensaries are legal in some cities, not in others. Cities pass ordinances regulating pot shops, courts overturn the rules. Voters passed the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and the legislature authorized dispensaries in 2004, yet the regulatory environment is still hazy.Legalization proponents should let California sit on the sidelines for another year or two, while the sales and recreational-use experiment plays out in Colorado and Washington. Postpone the ballot initiatives to 2016. California does not need to be a leader on legalized marijuana.Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)Author: Kerry Cavanaugh Published: December 27, 2013Copyright: 2013 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/f679mRt7CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #6 posted by Ryannn29 on December 29, 2013 at 23:39:32 PT: NEVER THERE IS NO HURRY? MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS PRACTICALLY LEGAL? Excuse my language, but f$$k off and die. Just because it's easy to get a rec doesn't mean we should kick back. There are so man fallacies in the medical marijuana program. LEGALIZE IT NOW. The benefits of full legalization are endless. You who say wait don't know a thing about the potential legalization holds, and every year we wait, we lose out on what could be.It's been 80 years of prohibition, NOW is the time. If you wanna wait, then you don't want it legalized. Choose your side and support the cause. Don't hinder our actions with your silly reasons. We almost legalized in 2010 with a bs prop 219, but with CCHI 2014, it's time to do the deed that's been waiting to be done for decades, the right way. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by runruff on December 28, 2013 at 09:00:19 PT re: The Kapt. Yeah, what he said. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on December 28, 2013 at 05:41:53 PT: I love it when they beg Usually, the prohibs are full of bombast and arrogance. Contemptuously, sneeringly, they unctuously told us that if we didn't like the laws, to change them...thinking that they'd be able to maintain the status quo eternally. But guess what? Their little ploy to try to keep their precious DrugWar gravy train going, courtesy of the propaganda effort called DARE, has backfired.The 'kids' were expected to be good little anti-drug robots when older, voting as their less-educated and more easily manipulated parents were.But those kids knew they were being BSed, and in a (thoroughly predictable) act of supreme irony, BSed their BSers, telling them exactly what they wanted to hear. False information the prohibs used to plan future increases to their bureaucratic empires and the taxpayer funding required to maintain them. But now? The 'kids' have grown up, and one of the first things many of them did in exercising their sovereign franchise as citizens was to vote for legal cannabis. The intended new 'marks' in the con-game called drug prohibition realized that was the scheme and their role in it...and they want none of it. Worse for the prohibs, those who are replacing their parents as taxpayers, the ones the prohibs tried to sucker, will not want to pay for drug prohibition with those tax dollars. That money is desperately needed elsewhere. And they WILL let their pols, some of whom are from the same generation and hold the same ideas, know that. And one thing the Town Halls (the ones that Obama and Co shucked and jived and snickered at) made plain is that this generation views ending cannabis prohibition as a litmus test for pols. Which is why the more intelligent of them are incorporating ending cannabis prohibition as part of their campaign strategy.From 2012 on out, any pol who votes in favor of prohibition is voting for their own unemployment, as that latest generation rises to its' social and political majority. It will not tolerate 'business as usual', as such trust in the system led to the fiscal catastrophe we presently suffer...and has endangered their own singular futures. So...the prohibs are reduced from demanding to whining piteously as a megaton-weight sledgehammer is falling toward their rice bowl with ever-increasing speed. Given what they have done to countless others, and how those others begged and pleaded for mercy that was missing from prohib hearts, that whining is sweet music to my ears. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by boballen131313 on December 28, 2013 at 04:21:28 PT: Prohibition is Good! Let's not change things too quickly! My job is in the balance! Law Enforcement is begging, "Please let me continue busting and jailing for just a little bit longer!" Prohibition is patriotic and besides, Nixon was right to launch the war on drugs and everything un-American! The prison staffs aren't ready to find other work! What are we going to do without Prohibition? So just slow down, at least until we can find other ways to keep our good pensions. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by The GCW on December 27, 2013 at 20:04:11 PT Is the turtle crawl too fast for Cavanaugh? Things have been moving at a turtle crawl. If california RE-legalizes cannabis this month, it will not be soon enough. Earth's been waiting 8 decades...2014 is the charm. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by knowhemp on December 27, 2013 at 19:02:37 PT: Hurry? HURRY? We've been waiting far to long already. All the author here is saying is, 'wait, guys... i'm scared and my buddies like it the way it is. Let's think about it first, okay?' Practically legal? No. It's not legal until it's legal on a federal level and not until hemp is back. Don't lose any steam now!! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment