Source

Youth vote falters; Prop. 19 falls short

John Hoeffel, Reporting from Los Angeles

November 3, 2010|12:39 a.m.

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.

The San Francisco Bay Area was the only region to tilt toward the measure, but it did so just slightly. In Los Angeles County, where a quarter of the state's voters live, the initiative lost.

Despite a potential double-digit loss, marijuana-legalization advocates said the proposition had transformed talk about legal pot from a late-night punch line into a serious policy matter.

"This has been a watershed moment," said Stephen Gutwillig, the California director for the Drug Policy Alliance, which waged an extensive ad campaign for the measure. "Even in defeat, Proposition 19 has moved marijuana legalization into the mainstream of American politics."

Tuesday's vote was just the first round, say legalization advocates, who are aiming measures at the 2012 ballot in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and very likely California. But it's also the second time in two years that California voters have rejected an initiative to soften penalties for drug crimes.

"The cover of the book looked nice, but it didn't read very well," said Roger Salazar, the spokesman for the opposition campaign. "This specific initiative was massively flawed."

Richard Lee, the medical marijuana entrepreneur who spearheaded the initiative and spent $1.5million on the historic campaign, pledged to work with the initiative's critics to draft a new one.

"We won tonight. We won for the last six months, the last year, all the years we've been fighting. We're going to keep fighting," Lee told supporters who gathered inside and outside Oaksterdam University, the Oakland medical marijuana trade school he founded.

California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative, the first in the nation, has led to more liberal attitudes toward pot nationwide as similar programs spread to 13 other states and the nation's capital. On Tuesday, voters in Arizona and South Dakota were deciding whether to approve programs; voters in Oregon were weighing whether to allow storefront dispensaries.

Proposition 19's backers had hoped voters worried about the economy would embrace the measure as a way to raise new taxes. In 10 cities, including San Jose, Sacramento and Long Beach, voters appeared to be overwhelmingly approving taxes on medical and recreational marijuana.

Passage of Proposition 19 would have vaulted the state into unmapped territory, invigorated the movement to legalize marijuana and set up a dramatic confrontation with the federal government.

The initiative would have eliminated all criminal penalties for adults 21 and older who planted marijuana in a plot of up to 25 square feet or possessed up to an ounce for personal use. It also would have allowed city councils and county supervisors to authorize commercial cultivation and retail sales.

But the opposition was broad, according to the poll conducted by Edison Research for the National Voter Pool, a consortium of the major television news networks and the Associated Press. Men and women opposed it. Voters of every race opposed it. The campaign had hoped black and Latino voters would see the measure as a way to end disproportionate arrests of minorities caught with marijuana.

The measure drew intense interest. Foreign leaders weighed in. All the top statewide candidates opposed it. The federal drug czar denounced it. And the U.S. attorney general pledged to "vigorously enforce" federal narcotics laws whatever California did.

Americans tuned in to the Proposition 19 debate. More than four decades after the war on drugs was declared, the country is almost evenly divided on whether to legalize marijuana.

In California, half of the voters consistently tell pollsters they favor legal marijuana and a tenth are unsure. In September, support for the initiative crept above the halfway mark, triggering euphoria among advocates. But voters became skeptical about the details.

Opponents exploited their doubts by mocking it in radio ads and suggesting that it would create an epidemic of dope-addled teenagers, motorists and nurses. Proponents said it would control marijuana as alcohol is controlled, allow police to focus on serious crimes, curtail the black market and raise billions in taxes, but they opened themselves to criticism by overstating those claims.

Lee once hoped to raise $20 million for the campaign, but big-money donors stayed out until the end. Proponents raised about $4.2 million, almost a third in the last two weeks.

john.hoeffel@latimes.com

maria.laganga@latimes.com

Source

Legalize-marijuana measure loses in California

Posted 11/3/2010 7:54 AM ET

By David Crary And Lisa Leff, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Californians heeded warnings of legal chaos and other dangers and rejected a ballot measure Tuesday that would have made their state the first to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

The spirited campaign over Proposition 19 pitted the state's political and law enforcement establishment against determined activists seeking to end the prohibition of pot.

It was by far the highest-profile of the 160 ballot measures being decided in 37 states. Other topics included abortion, tax cuts and health care reform.

On a night of conservative advances in much of the country, Massachusetts voters spurned a chance to cut their taxes -- rejecting a proposal to lower the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent. Critics said the cut would have forced the state to slash $2.5 billion in services, including local aid to cities and towns.

In Colorado, voters decisively defeated an anti-abortion "personhood" amendment -- similar to one rejected in 2008 -- that would have given unborn fetuses human rights in the state constitution.

California's marijuana proposal would have allowed adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of pot, consume it in nonpublic places as long as no children were present, and grow it in small private plots. It would have authorized local governments to permit commercial pot cultivation, as well as the sale and use of marijuana at licensed establishments.

Proponents pitched it as a sensible, though unprecedented, experiment that would provide much-needed revenue for the cash-strapped state, dent the drug-related violence in Mexico by causing pot prices to plummet, and reduce marijuana arrests that they say disproportionately target minority youth.

However, every major newspaper, both political parties, the two candidates for governor and all but a handful of leading politicians came out against it.

"Today, Californians recognized that legalizing marijuana will not make our citizens healthier, solve California's budget crisis, or reduce drug-related violence in Mexico," said the White House drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske.

Instead, he said, legalization would lead to more addiction, driving accidents and emergency room admissions.

Federal officials also said they would have continued enforcing laws against marijuana possession and sales had the measure passed.

Prop 19 supporters blamed the outcome on the older, more conservative leanings of voters who participate in midterm elections and pledged to try again in two years.

"It's still a historic moment in this very long struggle to end decades of failed marijuana prohibition," said Stephen Gutwillig, California director for the Drug Policy Project. "Unquestionably, because of Proposition 19, marijuana legalization initiatives will be on the ballot in a number of states in 2012, and California is in the mix."

Tim Rosales, who managed the No on 19 campaign, scoffed at that attitude from the losing side.

"If they think they are going to be back in two years, they must be smoking something," he said. "This is a state that just bucked the national trend and went pretty hard on the Democratic side, but yet in the same vote opposed Prop 19. I think that says volumes as far as where California voters are on this issue."

In South Dakota, voters rejected a measure to legalize medical marijuana -- a step already taken by California and 13 other states. A medical marijuana measure also was on Arizona's ballot, and Oregon voters were deciding whether to expand the state's current medical marijuana law by authorizing state-licensed dispensaries.

Among other notable ballot issues on Tuesday:

_Arizona voters approved a measure banning affirmative action programs by state and local governments based on race, ethnicity or sex.

_Washington state's voters repealed taxes on candy, soda and bottled water adopted by lawmakers last year -- a move that could eliminate a projected $352 million in revenue over five years. Voters rejected a proposal to impose a state income tax on any income above $200,000, or $400,000 for couples.

_In the littlest state, voters chose to keep the longest formal name -- opting to stay as Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, instead of just Rhode Island.

_In Illinois, where the two most recent former governors have been convicted on federal charges, voters approved an amendment that enable future governors to be recalled by popular vote.

_Oklahoma voters approved a proposed amendment aimed at nullifying the segment of the new federal health care law requiring people to have health insurance. Similar measures were on the ballots in Arizona and Colorado.

In Oklahoma, voters overwhelmingly passed three measures that had dismayed some progressive and immigrants-rights groups. One makes English the state's "common and unifying language," another requires a government-issued photo ID in order to vote, and the third prohibits state courts from considering international law or Islamic law when deciding cases.

_In Colorado, voters rejected three measures that would have banned borrowing for public works, cut the income tax and slashed school district property taxes. Opponents said the proposals would have cost the state $2.1 billion in revenue and eliminated tens of thousands of jobs.

_For the first time since the 1990s, there were no measures to ban same-sex marriage. But in Iowa, voters ousted three state Supreme Court justices who joined a unanimous 2009 ruling that legalized gay marriage there.

___

David Crary reported from New York.

Arizona's medical pot passes?

Arizona's medical marijuana Prop 203 passes again?

Arizona's medical pot measure appears all but certain to pass

Arizona's medical marijuana bill pretty much sucks because it only legalizes pot for very, very, very sick people. It's not like California where you can get medical marijuana for a headache or a busted toe nail. But still it is great the law passed because it is a step in the right direction.

The "War on Drugs" is a war on the Constitution and a war on the American People and it's nice to see the beginning of the end of that war. The "War on Drugs" is also a huge jobs program for overpaid police officers who use the war on drugs to steal our money and micro-manage our lives.

Source

Arizona pot measure pulls ahead by 4,421 votes

by Bob Christie - Nov. 12, 2010 07:57 PM

Associated Press

A measure that would legalize medical marijuana in Arizona pulled ahead for the first time Friday, with both supporters and opponents saying they believed the proposal that went before voters on Election Day would pass.

Proposition 203 was ahead by 4,421 votes out of more than 1.63 million votes counted. The measure started out losing by about 7,200 votes on Nov. 2 and the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days.

Only about 10,000 early and provisional ballots remain to be counted in the state, and all are in Maricopa County.

If the measure passes, Arizona would be the 15th state with a medical marijuana law.

"We were optimistic that this is what the result was going to be today, and we're thrilled that it came to reality," said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. "Moving forward it's our responsibility to help implement a program that Arizona can be proud of."

Opponents of the initiative, including all Arizona's sheriff's and county prosecutors, the governor, attorney general, and many other politicians, came out against the proposed law.

"All of the political leaders came out and warned Arizonans that this was going to have very dire effects on a number of levels," said Carolyn Short, chairwoman of Keep AZ Drug Free, the group that organized opposition to the initiative. "I don't think that all Arizonans have heard those dire predictions.

"Election night and this entire week has been a very exciting time for us -- we just didn't know we had actually lost," Short said. "I am incredibly proud of our small but dedicated army of volunteers who worked very, very hard for months to educate voters about Prop 203."

Backers of Proposition 203 argued that thousands of patients faced "a terrible choice" of suffering with a serious or even terminal illness or going to the criminal market for pot. They collected more than 252,000 signatures to put the measure on the ballot -- nearly 100,000 more than required.

The measure will allow patients with diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and any other "chronic or debilitating" disease that meets guidelines to buy more 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks or grow plants.

The patients must get a recommendation from their doctor and register with the Arizona Department of Health Services. The law also allows for no more than 124 marijuana dispensaries in the state.

"Our law is written to be incredibly restrictive. We're talking only about seriously or terminally ill patients," Myers said. "There are 14 medical marijuana states, and for political reasons they decided to narrow in on (problems in) California because they don't believe that marijuana is medicine at all."

The measure began Friday losing by about 1,500 votes.

The vast majority of outstanding votes were in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, on Friday morning. About 30,000 provisional ballots during the day, and those went heavily for medical marijuana backers. The county also processed 5,024 early ballots.

Maricopa County has 8,000 early and 2,000 provisional ballots still to count, and all other counties have finished their counts. Outstanding ballots will be counted through the weekend despite a state law that generally says all vote tallying must be completed by Friday.

Teams made up of members of the Republican and Democratic parties are overseeing elections workers tasked with reviewing the early ballot. Those ballots have some problem that prevents a vote-count machine from tallying them, typically because a voter used a marker to fill in the oval and it bled through to the other side or otherwise is unreadable.

The teams are examining the ballots, determining voter intent and filling out new ballots that the machine can read, Purcell said.