Pubdate: Thu, 04 Nov 2010 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Douglas Quan, Postmedia News Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) POT LEGALIZATION BOOSTERS REGROUP AFTER PROP. 19 SNUFFED OUT The failure of California's marijuana-legalization initiative, Proposition 19, now raises an inevitable question: if not in the left-leaning Golden State, then where? Backers of legalization on both sides of the border insisted Wednesday that the fight was far from over. "We may be disappointed. We're not discouraged. We're certainly not defeated," said Steve Gutwillig, California state director of the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance. Like it or not, Prop. 19 has placed the issue of ending prohibition squarely in "mainstream" American politics, he said during a news conference at the downtown Oakland Yes to Prop. 19 headquarters. In an opinion piece posted Wednesday on progressive website, The Huffington Post, the alliance's executive director, Ethan Nadelmann, wrote that support for legalization had reached 50 per cent or more in several western states, including Oregon, Washington and Nevada, "so it's reasonable to expect ballot initiatives on the issue in those states in coming years." "The debate is shifting from whether marijuana should be legalized to how," he wrote. But Tim Rosales, who managed the campaign against Prop. 19, said in an interview that the "yes" forces were "delusional" if they thought they still had momentum on their side. California has a very progressive electorate yet they still rejected the measure, he said. "This is not where we want to go." If the ballot measure had passed, California would have become the first state to allow people aged 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to 2.25 square metres of marijuana. Local governments also would have been given the authority to tax and regulate the drug's cultivation and retail sale. The state already allows marijuana for medicinal use. Canadian pot producers were likely watching the vote results closely Tuesday night. The spectre of legalization in California had prompted speculation in recent weeks that a "yes" vote could deal a blow to the Canadian economy, particularly in B.C., because so much of the underground marijuana business is reliant on demand from south of the border. But when all the votes were tallied, 54 per cent of California voters rejected the measure, while 46 per cent supported it. The campaign's supporters admitted that some California pot growers had opposed the measure because they feared legalization would drop their prices. They also said they could have done a better job of touting the tax-generation and job-creation benefits of legalizing recreational marijuana use. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake