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Proposition 19 For Dummies
Been hearing a lot about Proposition 19 recently? Not sure of exactly what it’s going to bring to California? Read on for our guide!
What is it?
Proposition 19, formally known as “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010” is essentially a referendum (a vote on a particular issue by all the people to whom it may concern) that will be put to the people of California on November the 2nd 2010 to legalize the personal use of cannabis. In California, a ballot proposition can be put forward for a vote by the people by either the State legislative or by a petition signed by enough members. Proposition 19 was put forward as a petition by Marijuana legalization activist Richard Lee. It needed 433,971 signatures to qualify as a ballot…it gained 694,248 signatures!
So, if passed, what will prop 19 do? It will:
• Allow anyone over the age of 21 to possess up to an ounce of cannabis.
• Allow people to grow cannabis in a private area of up to 25 square feet.
• Allow people to consume cannabis in non-public areas.
• Give California state (and local government) the ability to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis, in a similar way to alcohol and cigarettes.
Benefits
There are two major benefits that Prop 19 will bring to California if passed: Firstly, the huge economic benefits, and secondly, the ability to weaken the drug cartels’ vice on drug trade in the United States, much of which passes through California…
In this year alone, the United States as a whole (both federally and at a state level) has spent roughly $33,000,000,000 on the war on drugs. Of course, this includes money being spent on hard drugs, but cannabis accounts for roughly 40-55% of the money used. Now, the money that is spent to try and prevent the use and illegal sale of cannabis has huge potential for use elsewhere. For example, instead of prosecuting cannabis use, the government could use this money to support the 9.5% of US citizens who are unemployed. Similarly, jailing people who have used small amounts of cannabis not only costs a large amount (roughly $60 per inmate per day) but makes future employment for these harmless users much harder to come by.
Taxing and regulating cannabis would generate up to $1.4 billion in revenue per year for California. Similarly, $200 million of taxpayer money will be saved, due to less inmates in local jails. It is also estimated that California will generate $12-18 billion in spinoff industries such as tourism and coffee houses. The figures would be similar to what Amsterdam currently gets! All these savings could be put towards creating jobs, as it’s estimated that if Prop 19 passes, approximately 100,000 jobs will be created. Passing it would also help fight the Mexican drug cartels and stop the 6k death toll that has occurred this year as a direct result of their actions, as it is estimated that 60% of their income comes from marijuana trafficking.
How likely is it that prop 19 will pass?
Given the benefits to the plant and its superior effectiveness over many prescription drugs for treating ailments, it’s surprising that marijuana has not been legalised yet. While support for such an act has been steadily increasing over recent years, resistance has been strong, mainly due to leftover beliefs from the “Reefer Madness” smear campaign of the 30s and 40s. Good news can be found in Proposition 215’s vote count, however – in 1996, 55.6% of citizens voted yes for medicinal marijuana. The hopes are that voters will once again come out in such force.
Domino Effect
Currently 14 states other than California have legalized the use of medicinal marijuana (Alaska, Colorado, Washington DC, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington). So, if Proposition 19 is passed and benefits California in the way that has been predicted, it is possible other states may follow… We can hope!
Happy vaping!
- The Vapeitup Team
If you want more information about Proposition 19, please visit Proposition 19 Guide and Proposition 19 Twitter.
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Tags: Marijuana
Posted in Politics · August 31st, 2010 · Comments (0)
Australian democracy is based on the British Westminster system of Government. Hardly surprising really, considering that Australia was founded as a British convict settlement. Although my family history was one of ‘free settlers’ which meant they had enormous privileges in the beginnings of this country even though life was hard. My family pioneered the New England region of New South Wales.
For the past 70 years of electoral history, Australia has not had a hung election result. The last time it happened was in the 1940’s so today we are literally breaking new democratic ground for most Australians.
All political parties accept campaign contributions. In my opinion, this is dangerous to real democracy. Over time, these contributions have lead to a system of capitalist democracy because no political party can afford to run a high profile election campaign without adequate funding for all the advertising costs involved. This in turn has led to a system of dependency on those funds being paid in return for political, usually financial, favours. Every party, of course, denies this to be the case, but it is unrealistically against human nature for it not to be so. There is no politician of any ilk who does not have a big ego and a need of funds to promote themselves or their party.
Independents campaigning though do largely pay their own way via the running of a multitude of campaign fund raisers by a proportion of their community supporters. The major political parties do this as well as receiving donations from large national and multinational companies.
This funding arrangement in conjunction with our Westminster system of Government has led to an adversarial system of lawmaking. This has rarely been to the benefit of a large proportion of Australian citizens and that is why we have so many “little Aussie Battlers”. These are people who tend to live pay day to pay day.
2010 History:
Four months ago, when we had Prime Minister Kevin Rudd from the ALP as our Prime Minister; who was elected in 2007 by an overwhelming majority; he brought in a Resource Super Profits Rent Tax on the Mining Industry.
The big multinational mining companies didn’t like this and so they began a 21million dollar advertising campaign against the ALP and the Super Profits Rent Tax. PM Kevin Rudd was sticking to his guns and wouldn’t negotiate past certain non-negotiable aspects of this tax.
During the recent Global Financial Meltdown, Australia’s fiscal policy saved Australia from going into recession and many thousands of Australians losing their jobs. During this time, it was the mining of our natural resources in conjunction with immediate stimulus packages being made available which put us into debt but saved us from a recession.
It was our finite natural resources which saved Australia. The multinational mining companies would have some Australians believe it was them that saved Australia rather than our resources. Even while the multinational mining companies were profiteering from our resources during this time to the tune of Billions of dollars, they still took the opportunity to lay-off 17% of their workforce.
Because PM Kevin Rudd would not give-in to the demands of the multinationals and accept what the Mining companies negotiated, they advertised extensively against this tax and the ALP.
Because this is an election year (Australia’s parliament only sits for 3 year terms) so Kevin Rudd was quickly ‘removed’ by the ALP as Prime Minister and Australia was given our first ever female Prime Minister in Julia Gillard. At the time, PM Gillard was Kevin Rudds deputy prime minister.
This was very unfortunate for PM Gillard because it caused a lot of ill-feeling in the Australian community. Most saw this drastic and swift removal as an unexpected execution. This decision was made by the ALP back room ‘powers-that-be’ and carried out within 24 hours; without any hint or consultation with the Australian media or people. It shocked Australia and this has continued to resonate strongly and affect last Saturdays election outcome.
2010 Has turned out to be a very important year one way or another for Australia’s political landscape. It represents an important change in our democracy and we can all really benefit from it if those we have so far elected have Australia and the Australian people’s best interests at the heart of all their decisions. How we move forward into the next decade of this new century now depends on all of us.
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Tags: australias election results
Posted in Politics · August 29th, 2010 · Comments (0)