« The More Things Change... | Main | When Silence can be Deafening »
September 16, 2010
A Growing Crescendo on Proposition 19
The rapid approach of November 2nd, when Californians will have a chance to vote on an admittedly imperfect "marijuana" legalization initiative is finally provoking a spate of opinions; some predictable, and others quite surprising, on whether legal cannabis would be a good idea.Given that the San Francisco Chronicle, albeit under different ownership, had been reporting on Proposition 215 since well before the ‘96 election, one would expect them to have a well-grounded recommendation, but such is not the case. Although conceding that cannabis prohibition has been an abject failure and the past 14 years have revealed a surprising level of public support for “medical" marijuana, they failed to ask themselves (or their readers) just what that support was based on. Instead, they wring their hands over imperfections in the the initiative's wording without any realization that it, like Proposition 215, can only be a beginning and not a definitive solution. The editors thus recommend a "no" vote.
Don’t they realize that defeat would simply delay the inevitable and encourage the arrest and prosecution of more pot users? What evidence can they cite that either of the two federal laws banning “marijuana” were well written or supported by studies that would pass muster as even remotely “scientific?” There is none.
On the facing page, the Chronicle carried a dissenting opinion; one more representative of the victims of the federal policy its editors are so anxious to placate. A different take,exemplifies the type of analysis any controversial “war” should be subjected to before being carelessly endorsed by the media was written by the irrepressible Michael Moore and appeared in yesterday’s Reader Supported News.
Moore Yes,! NAACP, Yes! Chronicle editors, NO!
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at September 16, 2010 06:39 PM