Pubdate: Sun, 09 Nov 2014
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Kurtis Alexander

MOMENTUM TO LEGALIZE GROWS IN CALIFORNIA

Pro-Pot Votes in Other States Propel the Effort

After Tuesday's election, just one piece of the West Coast remained 
unwelcoming to recreational pot: California.

But with voters in Oregon and Alaska legalizing the use and sale of 
marijuana-joining Washington and Colorado in inviting retail spreads 
of cannabis-infused tea sand brownies and joints- advocates see fresh 
momentum behind the slow shift in how the public regards the green 
stuff and those who enjoy it.

California residents rejected legalization in 2010, with a 54 percent 
vote against it, but supporters of recreational marijuana are growing 
more confident about reversing that result in the 2016 election.

"I see a parallel - not a perfect parallel, but a parallel - with 
marriage equality," said Ben Tulchin, a San Francisco-based pollster 
who has watched sympathy for both same-sex unions and marijuana 
climb. "The first battle you may lose, like in California, but you 
start a conversation and get the dialogue going.... And you 
eventually see a very big shift."

California, alongside Arizona and Nevada, have legalization measures 
in the works for the 2016 election, when the presidential race is 
expected to deliver younger voters to the polls who tend to be more 
supportive of pot. Proponents are considering other states as well.

"I got to believe that the wins this week, coupled with the wins in 
2012, will provide momentum," Tulchin said.

The increasing support for the drug is the result of a number of 
factors, say marijuana supporters, who for decades made little progress.

Electorate has changed

"The bottom line is that people are no longer fooled by the 
anti-marijuana propaganda," said Chris Lindsey, legislative analyst 
for the Marijuana Policy Project, which filed paperwork this fall to 
raise money for California's legalization measure.

Echoing what has been seen as a winning talking point for cannabis 
proponents in recent years, Lindsey said, "Voters are increasingly 
savvy to the fact that marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol and 
really should be treated that way."

The electorate has fundamentally changed to include more Millennials 
who are tolerant of the drug, alongside Baby Boomers who grew up with 
it in the '60s.

Another factor is that more than 20 states as well as the District of 
Colombia now permit marijuana to be prescribed for the sick, meaning 
many communities have grown accustomed to the drug.

Even without legalization, many law enforcement agencies have made 
busting pot users a low priority - as a trip to most any outdoor 
concert venue will prove. Critics have long said that most medical 
pot users obtain their "medicine" for recreational purposes.

"The sky didn't fall. Usage rates and abuse didn't change. All the 
doom-and-gloom scenarios that we were told would happen didn't come 
to fruition, and people are seeing that," Lindsey said.

Voters in Washington, D.C., who on Tuesday approved a measure 
allowing adults to growand possess marijuana but didn't lay out a 
framework for enabling retail sales, had another impetus for going 
forward: racial injustice.

More blacks arrested

A report by the American Civil Liberties Union said black people in 
San Francisco were 4.3 times more likely than white people to be 
arrested for pot possession in 2010- even though black and white 
people use pot with similar frequency. In Washington, D.C., the 
number spikes to eight times.

"Here you have a city where the majority is black and the majority of 
them are poor, and they don't use marijuana anymore than the hipsters 
or yuppies who live in the northwest, yet they're the ones more 
likely to be arrested," said UC Santa Cruz sociology Professor Craig 
Reinarman, who has written about drug policy for 30 years.

Supporters of decriminalization note that because more than half of 
the nation's drug arrests are for marijuana, a shift would cut prison 
costs and free up police to pursue other crimes.

Also Tuesday, voters in a handful of cities and counties, from Maine 
to New Mexico, passed measures similar to Washington, D.C.'s, 
reducing or eliminating penalties for marijuana possession. In 
California, Proposition 47 down graded the possession of most drugs 
to a misdemeanor.

For Washington, D.C.'s, measure, one hurdle remains. It has to be 
approved by Congress, because U.S. lawmakers hold constitutional 
powers over the capital.

Whatever decision the legislature makes, the debate draws the federal 
government into an issue that it's tried to stay clear of. Marijuana 
remains illegal under federal law, even for medical use.

If there is momentum for legalization, there is also a continuing 
deep concern about the shift from broad segments of the population.

Opponents argue that legalization will increase marijuana use among 
adults and children, and that the social costs, including addiction 
treatment, will run high.

Kevin Sabat, president of the anti-legalization group Smart 
Approaches to Marijuana, doesn't think the momentum will carry. 
Advances made in the election last week, he said, came because 
marijuana supporters outspent their opponents.

"This wasn't about voters being turned off. It was about voters 
hearing only the legalizers' message because theywere the only ones 
with real money," Sabat said. "We're certainly going to put our best 
effort forth to defeat the initiatives in 2016. We already won once 
in California, and I think we can win again."

Backers in California acknowledge that victory won't come easy. 
Although polls show a majority now supports the idea, selling voters 
on a specific plan gets tricky.

Concerns about how the drug will be taxed, and who can sell it, 
helped sink Proposition 19 four years ago. Even leaders in the 
medical marijuana community decided they didn't like the details of 
the rollout and came out against the initiative. A lack of funding 
for the 2010 campaign was also an obstacle.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a supporter of the 2016 push for legalization, 
is chairing a task force to study the issue in a bid to head off problems.

"Alot of things weren't thought through with Proposition 19," said 
Newsom, who will be termed out of his office in 2018 and doesn't see 
support of pot as hindering his political future. "We want to make 
sure we have the answers to the tough questions."

Many Californians are waiting for those answers, including Kevin 
Reed, the founder and president of The Green Cross, a medical 
marijuana dispensary in San Francisco's Excelsior. He said he's not 
sure if his customers and his business will benefit from legalization.

Just a matter of time

Since opening 10 years ago, he said, he's taken pride in serving 
patients who need his product- and he doesn't want the value of that 
mission diluted.

"The context disappears with legalization," he said. "It just becomes 
getting high."

Reed, though, also understands why people want to use the drug 
recreationally, and thinks it's just a matter of time before the laws change.

"It's going to be a different world," he said. "It's not really the 
world I signed up for. But I'm gonna take the ride."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom