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 Shaggy420
Registered: 07/06/10
Posts: 3,372
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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 US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated 
#465730 - 08/23/10 03:40 AM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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Sandra Emerson
Redlands Daily Facts
Sunday 22 Aug 2010
Inland Empire medical marijuana advocates have mixed feelings on the proposition seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
If approved by voters in November, Proposition 19, or Tax Cannabis 2010, will make it legal for adults 21 years and older to possess, cultivate or transport marijuana for personal use.
Some advocates contend the proposition will lower the cost of medical marijuana and open the door for cities to embrace the drug.
Lanny Swerdlow, president of the Inland Empire chapter of the Marijuana Anti-Prohibition project, said the only real effect the proposition may have on the medical side is price.
"The only major effect I see is in counties which allow it, it will allow for large-scale growing outdoors which should help bring the price down substantially," said Swerdlow, a registered nurse who has visited with patients who say they cannot afford to use medical marijuana.
"I never ever want to hear a 75-year-old lady in chronic pain tell me that she has to use Vicodin because she can't afford to buy the marijuana," Swerdlow said.
"The only thing on the horizon that is out there that's going to bring the price down is going to be Prop. 19, and that's why it's so important."
A Survey USA poll this month found that 50 percent of likely Californian voters would vote yes on Proposition 19 and 40 percent would vote no.
Dan Newman, a spokesman for the Yes on Prop. 19 campaign, said there will
be no impact on the medical marijuana industry.
"Proposition 19 will have zero, - zilch - nada impact on the current legal rights granted to patients, caregivers, doctors, collectives and cooperatives under California's existing medical cannabis laws," he said in an e-mail.
California's medical marijuana laws will remain intact and unchanged, he said.
Voters approved a measure in 1996 that decriminalizes the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes if recommended by a physician. Lawmakers in 2004 made it mandatory for counties to implement a medical marijuana identification card program.
Jan Werner, an operator of the Inland Empire Patients Group in Bloomington, views the proposition to be potentially detrimental to the strides made to decriminalize medical marijuana.
He said the cost of medical marijuana is already decreasing.
"Part of the problem is the way it's been suggested to the public," he said. "That it's going to make marijuana legal for everyone, and in fact it's probably going to take about five steps backwards."
There are an estimated $15 billion in illegal marijuana transactions in California each year, according to the proposition's authors. The state Board of Equalization estimates taxes on marijuana could be as much as $1.4 billion.
The proposition gives city and county governments the ability to regulate and tax marijuana sales, or prohibit them entirely.
If marijuana were legalized, the government would have more control over the distribution of marijuana, which Werner said could put his cooperative out of business.
"It's up to them who would get it, where to get it and how much to get it for. It sounds ridiculous," he said. "It sounds like they're trying to set it up for big corporations."
Aaron Sandusky, president of G3 Holistic, a medical marijuana cooperative in Upland, said he recognizes several flaws in the proposition but supports its goal.
"It's definitely a big step, but I think it's a positive step," he said. "The benefits outweigh the negatives, I think."
Sandusky said some of those benefits would include lowering the price of medical marijuana, because medical-grade marijuana is difficult to grow.
"Not anybody can grow it," Sandusky said. "Everybody will try, but it's difficult to do, and I think the quality will increase, the prices will come down and it will make it more affordable for patients to gain access."
Legalization could also lead to insurance companies covering some of the cost of medical marijuana, he said.
Some provisions that have come under scrutiny include the ability to grow within a 5-foot-by-5-foot space and legalizing possession of up to 1 ounce.
The 5-by-5 space "definitely challenges the amount that allows you to possess at most an ounce," Sandusky said. "Five-by-five grows more than an ounce. It opens doors to be prosecuted there."
It also will make it illegal to smoke around minors.
"There are some provisions that really are disturbing," Swerdlow said. "You can't smoke, can't consume in front of minors. What if you're at home and your kids are at home? Do you have to lock yourself in some kind of room? You can sit there and down a Jack Daniels, but you can't smoke a joint."
http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/sanbernardinocounty/ci_15863295
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Shaggy420
Registered: 07/06/10
Posts: 3,372
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: Shaggy420]
#465732 - 08/23/10 03:42 AM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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id give my left nut for prop 19 to pass.
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 T-Rex
Herbsman
Registered: 03/15/10
Posts: 4,920
Loc: Devils Marbles 
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: Shaggy420]
#465733 - 08/23/10 03:50 AM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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If it does pass will they let everyone in jail on bud charges out?
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Harry_Ba11sach
cannoisseur
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 11,753
Loc: Nepal 
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: T-Rex]
#465763 - 08/23/10 08:01 AM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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That would be logical, but I would be blown away if that actually happened
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T-Rex
Herbsman
Registered: 03/15/10
Posts: 4,920
Loc: Devils Marbles
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: Harry_Ba11sach]
#465771 - 08/23/10 08:16 AM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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At least the non-violent crims, or those in on possession maybe
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blissedout
Mehtastic
Registered: 02/08/10
Posts: 109
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: T-Rex]
#465835 - 08/23/10 11:56 AM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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That was the 1st thing that I thought about when I first heard about Proposition 19. I hope it gets passed, so they can begin to release the thousands upon thousands of nonviolent drug offenders that shouldn't be there in the first place. Reform the whole system.
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Lucid
Monster Plant Creator
Registered: 07/18/08
Posts: 1,082
Loc: Canada-ish.
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: blissedout]
#466014 - 08/23/10 05:17 PM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
blissedout said:
That was the 1st thing that I thought about when I first heard about Proposition 19. I hope it gets passed, so they can begin to release the thousands upon thousands of nonviolent drug offenders that shouldn't be there in the first place. Reform the whole system.
they arent going to just let those people out of jail, the law was in place when they broke it. It makes no difference if its legal now. Wish they could get out but its just not going to play out that way.
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blissedout
Mehtastic
Registered: 02/08/10
Posts: 109
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: Lucid]
#466020 - 08/23/10 05:50 PM (14 years, 3 months ago) |
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That's not necessarily true. A lot of laws like these are retroactive and affect past cases that are still active, or involve people that are still on parole/probation and still in jail.
That being said, it always takes a bit of time to enact the changes. At least it will be a step in the right direction. Is should have happened long ago.
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Quarantine
Lurker
Registered: 10/12/10
Posts: 3
Loc: California
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: US: Prop. 19 pot cost effect debated [Re: Shaggy420]
#487359 - 10/12/10 07:35 PM (14 years, 1 month ago) |
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This article (since I live in the IE in Cali, here) is posted on a locally-printed magazine called 'Culture' (www.freeculturemag.com) and they're free to take by individuals at clinics and marijuana conventions for local activists.
Lanny Swerdlow, R.N., is heard on Marijuana Compassion and Common Sense every Monday at 6 P.M. on Inland Empire radio station KCAA 1050 AM. He can be contacted at (760) 799-2055 or lanny@marijuananews.org :P
I agree whole-heartedly on this subject and is one of my main concerns for the upcoming legalization - those who can't have what's coined as 'affordable access' to get their medication may as well resort back to pharmaceutical companys' drug market dominance to managing their pain simply because their budget allows for it. I know individuals who need medication and seriously have to make a daily schedule to plan out how much they are allotted to smoke per day because it's all they can afford.
Another slight concern: What will happen to the crops we so urgently are trying to legalize if they are indeed approved for mass resale to feeding frenzy? Since such a huge initial demand for this product will be immediately evident by those more casually seeking to medicate as opposed to those who have more 'serious' medical conditions to deal with, won't the general quality and care placed into growing and distributing plants now be reduced if they give the OK on huge stretches of farm intended for patient use? I'd say that my plants probably will be more looked after/cared for by the more individual growers who own smaller operations that have more time to look at a smaller selection of plants, as opposed to a 'pot-mill' for lack of a better term.
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