Pubdate: Sun, 16 Mar 2014
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2014 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Dan Morain
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DEBATE TO LEGALIZE POT IS ABOUT TO GET INTERESTING

Two weeks ago, Gov. Jerry Brown, no fan of marijuana legalization, 
mused on "Meet the Press" about the world's many dangers and the need 
to stay alert, "if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads 
might be able to pull together."

Last week, Brown's own California Democratic Party held its annual 
convention and voted to fully embrace marijuana legalization.

And Brown's often nettlesome understudy, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, told 
a convention audience that he is all-in on the side of legalization.

Newsom's Republican opponent, Ron Nehring, a former California 
Republican Party chairman, is an adamant, though thoughtful, foe of 
legalization. As he mounts his long-shot challenge, Nehring is intent 
on focusing his campaign on the question of legalization.

There won't be a legalization initiative on the ballot this fall. 
Supporters will have to wait until 2016 for that. But the 
legalization debate could turn more interesting.

First, a few numbers; no, not that kind.

The Public Policy Institute of California issued a poll last 
September showing that 60 percent of likely voters support 
legalization. Support is spread among all age groups, but is 
particularly strong among younger voters, a fact not lost on Newsom 
who aspires to higher office.

But there is another segment of the Democratic base that is far less 
enamored with Newsom's notion.

Latinos, fundamental to the Democratic base, overwhelmingly oppose 
legalization. In the PPIC poll, only 36 percent of Latinos favored it 
and 62 percent opposed legalization.

Younger people generally are the most supportive. Not so among 
Latinos. The poll showed that only 35 percent of Latinos between 18 
and 34 supported legalizing the drug, and 64 percent opposed it.

Even Latinos who identify themselves as Democrats and call themselves 
liberals oppose it. Moderates were particularly opposed, 67 percent. 
The gap narrowed among likely Latino voters. Still 52 percent of 
likely voters oppose making weed a legal substance.

"You have to see the devastation that drugs bring," Sen. Lou Correa, 
a moderate Democrat from Santa Ana, told me. Correa is carrying one 
bill to establish standards for driving while stoned - it has stalled 
- - and another bill supported by police chiefs to strictly regulate 
medical marijuana.

"Parents are really concerned about their kids and safety," Correa 
said. "It is a family issue. They see it as, 'Here comes another 
challenge for our kids.' "

Nehring, a businessman and political junkie who is steeped in such 
data, knows the GOP must win back Latino voters if it is to become 
competitive again in California.

Nehring comes to his anti-legalization opinions the hard way, having 
grown up in a house where the parents were alcoholics. He says he has 
never taken a drink or smoked a cigarette, much less a joint. He 
recalls his mother regularly getting drunk and passing out in the 
afternoon, and getting in screaming fights when his father came home. 
His mother died at age 52 and his father at 62.

"Both lost their jobs. The household finances were in the tank. That 
was my life for seven years," he said.

Not that Nehring favors criminalization. He embraces the view of the 
organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, run by former Obama 
administration drug policy adviser Kevin A. Sabet and Patrick J. 
Kennedy, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's son. The organization opposes 
legalization and criminalization, and supports further study of 
marijuana, and treatment for abusers.

Nehring lists some of the problems with legalization: higher 
insurance rates, a tougher time recruiting workers, and, worst of 
all, the industry will market to kids, knowing that they would be the 
most long-term and therefore profitable customers.

"Venture capitalists who want to invest in marijuana are not going to 
target the 50-year-old users," Nehring said. "They are going to 
target young folks in the same way as Big Tobacco does."

Newsom frames the issue differently. In his convention speech, he 
said, "This is not a debate about stoners." He has three kids and has 
no interest in promoting marijuana use, he says. But Newsom said that 
since President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs" in 1971, 37 
million people have been arrested for what he called nonviolent drug 
offenses, and 200,000 college students have lost federal aid because 
of drug convictions.

"You can be pro-regulation without being an advocate for drug use," 
Newsom said.

Perhaps. But Newsom did not prognosticate about what might happen 
once marijuana becomes regulated and taxed, as his Democratic Party 
seeks in its platform.

Among the issues left undiscussed: How could the state stop 
corporations that get involved in the marijuana industry from 
advertising heavily? And as has happened with gambling money since 
Indian casinos became legal, politicians will become intoxicated by 
green entrepreneurs' campaign money.

In the 2014 campaign, Newsom has little to worry about. There hasn't 
been a Republican lieutenant governor since country music mogul Mike 
Curb won the office and made sport of poking at young Jerry Brown.

California won't have another Republican lieutenant governor any time 
soon, given the Democrats' hold on the state. And Newsom, not 
Nehring, is on the right side of marijuana politics, if not the policy.

Newsom also likes a stage, a crowd and a debate. Nehring would be a 
worthy foil. Both candidates care about an issue that needs serious 
discussion, and should engage in that debate. Along the way, they 
could help inform the electorate about an issue that is far more 
nuanced than many advocates on both sides would have you believe.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom