Pubdate: Mon, 23 May 2016
Source: Daily Californian, The (UC Berkeley, CA Edu)
Copyright: 2016 The Daily Californian
Contact:  http://www.dailycal.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/597
Author: Roger Morgan
Note: Roger Morgan is the founder of Take Back America Campaign and 
has spent 20 years in drug prevention work.

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA IN CALIFORNIA WOULD BE HARMFUL, NOT BENEFICIAL

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a proponent of the legalization effort, should 
be reminded that his most important responsibility as an elected 
official is to protect the people from all enemies, foreign and 
domestic. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act is rumored to be bankrolled 
by billionaires who do not have California's best interest in mind. 
New York billionaire Sean Parker has purportedly been recruited to 
augment money that will flow from George Soros and the Drug Policy 
Alliance. They didn't earn billions because they are dumb, but 
apparently they think we are. Their stated benefits of legalization 
are frankly an affront to one's intellect.

It is a lie to say this will protect children. Proponents of this act 
want to tax and regulate marijuana and teach our kids not to use it. 
Absurd! Expanding the availability and access will increase 
adolescent use as it has in Colorado and Washington. Ability for 
anyone to grow 6 plants in a home will endanger children living there 
and provide even easier access for kids and their friends, while 
serving as a magnet for home invasion robberies.

Adult use only is unattainable. Today's highly potent pot can cause 
permanent physical changes in the brain, especially in those under 25 
years old. Marijuana use peaks at age 18 and tapers off rather 
rapidly, so the focus from a marketing standpoint is on young people, 
just like Big Tobacco. Gov. Jerry Brown has stated, "...How many 
people can get stoned and still have a great state?" Actually it's 
worse than just getting stoned. Diminished intellect, mental illness, 
worsening of psychotic breaks, depression, suicidal tendencies and 
addiction are life-long chronic conditions, while brain impairment 
leads to traffic deaths.

It is not possible to regulate. If the government was capable of, or 
cared about, regulation, surely they would have demonstrated it by 
now. California has a multitude of cultivation sites producing pot, 
then illegally selling to the rest of the U.S. market. In the 
meantime, the pot plantations are inflicting irreparable harm on our 
precious ecosystems.

The state will not reap exclusively positive economic changes. Nor 
will the black market go away: cartels don't pay taxes so they have a 
price advantage. Many California communities already have bans or 
moratoriums on marijuana cultivation because they don't want this 
junk in their communities.

The medical marijuana program will be retained. The existing program 
which allows anyone over 18, for any purported illness, to access all 
of the pot they want for personal consumption or to sell, doesn't go 
away. We already have de facto legalization, producing more pot than 
Californians can consume. Obviously they are planning to sell more 
outside of California, which could trigger federal enforcement.

Marijuana is a dangerous drug, with proven ability to inflict 
irreparable harm on our natural resources and pose a public health 
and safety problem. Anyone who aspires to be governor of this fine 
state needs to demonstrate that protecting people, the planet and our 
tax dollars are of higher priority than pandering for drug money for 
his or her personal campaign. Newsom states on one hand that he 
doesn't want marijuana anywhere near his kids, but is part of the 
effort to make it available.

In the interest of public safety, environmental protection and the 
future for our children, defeating full legalization isn't adequate. 
We need to roll back what exists and tell Newsom and his out-of-state 
billionaires to go packing.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom