Pubdate: Mon, 4 Oct 2010
Source: AlterNet (US Web)
Copyright: 2010 Independent Media Institute
Website: http://www.alternet.org/
Author: Norm Stamper
Norm Stamper is former chief of the Seattle Police Department, and an 
advisory board member of NORML and Law Enforcement Against 
Prohibition (LEAP). He is the author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's 
Expose of the Dark Side of American Policing (Nation Books, 2005).
Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19)

POT LEGALIZATION IN CA POLLING OVER 50%

THIS THING COULD REALLY PASS

Everyone From Former Law Officers to Single Parents and Young Adults 
Are Pushing for California to Legalize Pot This November.

A few short months ago, California's Proposition 19, the Regulate, 
Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, seemed likely to fade away in 
a puff of smoke. After more than three decades on the front lines of 
the disastrous "war on drugs," I feared this best-hope-to-date 
chapter in the battle for sane drug laws was a lost cause. But 
something has changed in the public's consciousness, and in its resolve.

On September 30 the Public Policy Institute of California published 
the results of its new poll. It shows Proposition 19 winning, by a 
resounding 52-41 margin. Other polls are similarly encouraging.

What, apart from a smart, well-run campaign, explains this big swing 
in momentum?

For one thing, more and more police officers have decided that the 
40-year drug war is a farce and a failure. These cops have been 
eyewitnesses to the ruinous effects of drug arrests on the lives of 
the people they've been hired to protect and serve, and they're 
finally speaking out. Members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, 
in particular, have been reaching out to service clubs, civic groups, 
and fellow cops throughout the state. They've been especially 
persuasive in countering the escalating fear-mongering 
misrepresentations of anti-19 forces.

Parents, including multiplying ranks of formerly resistant single 
moms, fed up with violence in their neighborhoods, with marijuana's 
ready availability in schools, and with the heartbreaking realities 
of their teenage children's criminal records, are at last speaking 
out against the absurdity of the state's marijuana laws. (And they 
won't be dissuaded from voting for Proposition 19 simply because of 
their governor's cynical, last-minute but long-overdue gesture in 
reducing penalties in simple pot possession cases.)

Surprising numbers of conservative Californians have joined forces 
with civil libertarians to create a formidable bloc of states' rights 
advocates opposed to indefensible government intrusion into our everyday lives.

Human and civil rights advocates, such as the NAACP, have taken 
official positions in opposition to the deep-seated racism reflected 
in drug law enforcement, and in support of Proposition 19.

And, of course, Golden State voters are increasingly motivated by 
reliable estimates that California, buried under a mountain of debt 
and forced to slash vital services, stands to capture up to $1.4 
billion in new revenues, along with substantial savings in law 
enforcement and other criminal justice costs.

But perhaps the biggest boost to the pro-19 campaign may be found in 
the vast army of young adults working for its passage. A natural 
anti-prohibition demographic, young Californians not only oppose 
their state's marijuana laws they are investing substantial time and 
energy to the cause of replacing them. They've organized, mobilized, 
gone door to door, rallied their friends.

Cynics take note. These young people will show up at the polls. And, 
in all likelihood, they will cast the decisive votes that will 
restore adult possession of marijuana as a basic freedom.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake