I don't believe that President Obama should be in jail. I don't believe that he should have had his future career nipped in the bud. I also don't think that the same should have happened to me in my college days.
Why don't President Obama and I have a jail record? Why don't Al Gore and George W. Bush and countless others in our society?
Because we got lucky.
For one thing, many of us started (or were mainly) smoking marijuana in college, which for some reason is not the major target of law enforcement even though probable cause is to be had by a walk through the hallways of many dorms.
I don't think that your friends and your parents and your children should have faced jail time just because, like me, they smoked marijuana in college (or since.)
Put aside for a moment all of the other numerous reasons to support Prop 19, as many including me have presented. The argument over Prop 19 can come down to this: should people like President Obama and me (any many others here) have their lives destroyed -- not by marijuana, but by the judicial response to marijuana use?
Note: This diary speaks for no campaign and no person other than myself.
There are other reasons, among which I have presented these:
I can think of little other legislation that could address so many serious problems at one time as marijuana legalization could do. It would:
- boost the state's economy through taxation
- protect the health of users through regulation
- provide a boost to industry that could then use cannabis derivatives in a wide variety of products
- give people a viable "at-home" business to pursue
- reduce stigmatization of those who use it for recognized medical purposes
- refocus police efforts to fighting actual crimes
- remove the ability of police to selectively enforce the law against minority youth and adults
- stop ruining the lives and career prospects of those convicted of using it
- end the overwhelming hypocrisy over marijuana use and thus bolster civil society
- strike a blow against conservative Puritanism, and
- strike a huge blow against gang and cartel violence, especially if Mexico does take this as a signal that it can legalize marijuana -- and cut down the stock in trade of the border cartels -- as well.
I'll be out here in Southern California circulating among the polling places today toting up who still needs to vote for Democratic candidates. I believe in my Democratic candidates, many of whom I can now call friends. But I also know that, in terms of harm reduction, perhaps the most important thing we can do this year in my state is this: end Prohibition of marijuana.
If you're in California, especially if you're a student, get your friends out to vote today for Prop 19.