Chart of marijuana-related ballot initiatives for 2008: big wins
Here's a chart from the Marijuana Policy Project that summarizes the nine (out of 10) marijuana-related ballot initiatives around the country that passed in yesterday's election, and the one bad initiative that was defeated. The margins were pretty big, too.
Massachusetts Question 2: Remove the threat of arrest or jail for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana, replacing it with a $100 fine, which could be paid through the mail without lawyers or court appearances, just like a speeding ticket. WIN 65%-35%Chart of marijuana-related ballot initiatives for 2008: big wins
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hail eris! and blessings to the MPP an NORML for all their hard work over the years for this worthy cause! hemp can save us and the planet! really. http://www.jackherer.com/
Not only that, no CORI record from said fine.
Correction: 2 out of 10 lost. California prop. 5 also lost. Too bad.
Man, I can't wait for Thanksgiving bonus to come out. I want to do some Christmas shopping.
@#3 GAGA-
Prop. 5 was the ONLY one that lost. Prop 6 proposed expelling people from public housing if they were found guilty of possession and it got defeated.
The proposal's opponent's website(not updated since the vote) offers major rofls: http://noquestion2.org/
I was proud to help vote Massachusetts Question 2 in yesterday - even though I don't smoke the stuff myself.
9/10 is great. Another thing to celebrate, for sure. I like the ones about adult pot crimes being at the bottom of the priorities of the police. Arkansas & Hawaii ftw.
Whose ass are we gonna have to kick to get pot legalized? Sorry, this outburst could have been avoided if I'd received my Marijuana today.
I, too, voted for Mass Question 2, even though I've never tried it.
Let the slippery slope begin! Legalize it, regulate it & tax it, just like booze & tobacco.
Finally, sensible drug laws are coming around. Maybe the fact that America has more then 2 million people in jail has finally opened people's eyes to how stupid it is to put people in jail for a long time for selling a naturally occurring plant to people who want to buy it.
I live in Boston.
I was walking to work this morning, happy as baked clam (but seriously folks, I haven't smoked MJ in 6 years), when I ran into a complete idiot I have the displeasure of knowing (and no-ing).
she said she voted no on 2. Why?:
"It sends the wrong message to kids that pots ok".
WTF and WAFI (what a fucking idiot). I explained to her that for the most part this will ensure that the poor sap who gets busted at 18 wont drag around the Scarlet (green, really) letter M on his CORI for the rest of her life. She couldn't seem to realize that that could damage a life far worse than smoking pot ever could.
I've talked with other people who opposed #2 as well, and they are full of #2. Their argument:
"think about the children"!
No logic or rerason, just idiotic emotional appeals.
though some are more honest at least: "It's just wrong to smoke pot"
California Prop 5 was the only proposition on which I went back and forth a bit. While I am a big fan of the key points it intended to address... rehabilitation over imprisonment and so on... I did not like the way it was structured. It was much more baroque than the earlier Prop 36 from a decade or so ago, and felt that it had enough weak areas that it could eventually be retroactively cited by pundits as reasons not to reform our drug policy.
On a more positive note, I seem to recall Obama once saying that were he to be elected, he would not use federal resources to muck about in the medical marijuana organizations in individual states. I realize that hasn't been a strong talking point of the campaign, but does anyone have any further information along those lines?
A friend of mine pointed out that Mass. question 2 (decriminalize marijuana) would have paired nicely with Mass. question 1 (eliminate income tax), and that if they'd only taken question 2 a bit further and made it completely legal and taxable, they'd have enough money to make question 2 an actual option.
If I may suggest; as BB has a high international readership, could we hope that SI units could be used in brackets to clarify things? Without googling, I have no idea how much one ounce is.
Admittedly, doesn't mean much here, as it's probably some smallish unit, but would be nice to understand texts in full. After all, you often talk of pounds and euros, and convert those to dollars. I expect similar percentage of your readership would like to know how many grams or kilometres the mentioned ounces and miles are, too.
It's great because now in Massachusetts, there's a legal definition for "one toke over the line".
@#12 It is because of my kids that I supported Question 2. If they make some stupid mistake it shouldn't follow them around for the rest of their lives. (Btw my 15 y/o son was against #2. I guess DARE works.)
SALO @15: If you haven't checked already (or for anybody else outside the US reading these comments), 1 ounce is equal to 28.3495 grams.
I'm glad to see the country is finally starting to realize that marijuana is not the horrible frightening drug it's made out to be. There are far scarier effects from tobacco and alcohol, and those are fair and legal because of their large lobbies. What we've needed is a marijuana lobby that isn't made up of hippies, and I think NORML might just fit the bill.
This is great news! Well fought, to all involved.
@ #15
An ounce bag wouldn't fit nicely into most pockets, and it wouldn't be fun to walk around with an ounce bulge. It seems to be a reasonable limit, most people have less than half that on them if they're not selling.
Best part of the Fayetteville Arkansas' one is the letter that must be sent every year until the drug war ends. Of course the police chief has stated that this won't change anything, but I believe he is an elected official.
full text
http://sensiblefayetteville.com/full-initiative-text.php
Legalize it, tax it, fund the national debt.
The "make it the lowest priority" props bug me. I appreciate that they may be a practical move to put the U.S. on a slippery slope toward full decriminalization, because after a decade of putting pot behind bicycle license fines it will be clear that society has not disintegrated and the climate will be more friendly for getting the damned stupid laws off the books entirely.
But a law that is "not enforced" is really a law that is selectively enforced, and you can bet that every rich white kid pulled over for speeding will be let go if they have a joint in their pocket because that would be a lower priority for the cop than getting back on the road and catching more speeders, but every poor black kid will suddenly become a "risk to society" if they are allowed to drive off.
And any gay couple... well, leave pot in the hands of gays and who knows what might happen. They might run off to Canada and get married, and then when they come back all their neighbour's heterosexual marriages will be damaged or destroyed.
I too am proud to say I voted yes on question 2 in MA and I also don't smoke. I'm frankly still shocked it passed by such a large margin, I just thought there would be too many people buying the whole "gateway" drug spiel to have it pass.
While I agree with the others in that it should be legal, I also say have a little patience, it's not going to just be made legal overnight, but this win is a big step in that direction.
Everyone I know who voted for Prop 2 on MA did do it 'for the children'.
Their own otherwise law-abiding, pot-smoking, adult children.
@ #13
I'm almost positive that J. Biden was the man who created the position known nowadays as the "Drug Czar."
Let's see how that plays out for our new President elect. . .
http://www.counterpunch.org/gardner09062008.html
Question Two is an important first step for those of us who think WAY too much of adult behavior is criminalized. One DA is treating the proposition as if it has already become law:
http://michaelannland.blogspot.com/2008/11/marijuana-decrim-local-das-will-follow.html
Holy smokes. Talk about the news that didn't make the news. Thanks for posting this.
I totally don't remember voting for this . . . dude.
For the metric crowd; If you buy an ounce of pot that is the same as 20 grams. At least around here. Yeah, bastards smokin for free off my stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpBzQI_7ez8
OK, so an ounce and under will just get you a fine in Massachusetts now . . . but how many lids is that?
ya i was arrested and prosicuted last night for class D marijuana possesion i was wondering how long this would take to be in effect bc im getting absolutley screwed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/obama-must-end-the-war-on_b_165785.html