No change in marijuana laws coming, White House says

[RainDog]

162. Prop 19 failed for a variety of reasons

One was that cannabis growers in northern CA were worried about losing their income - they are willing to take the legal risk for the higher return on their work. They lobbied against passage of the legalization bill - and they'll likely oppose any other bill, as well, unless there's some provision for them to protect their income.

Another is that the guy who started Oaksterdam was the principle behind the prop and others disagreed with the language in it - the provisions, because it allowed the Oaksterdam guy to run a huge cannabis warehouse and others were afraid of a monopoly (btw, last year, Oaksterdam was raided and the guy was so intimidated by the federales that he got out of legalization lobbying - I wonder if he was threatened with major jail time... anyway, that's Obama's AG office in action on this issue...)

The same problems with the language prevented Oregon from being one of the first legal states as well.

Colorado's amendment 64, on the other hand, is considered a much better written provision. Colorado has a strong libertarian Republican tradition - stronger than California's. The vote was bipartisan. There are a few strongholds of the religious rightwing in CO, but they are countered by the libertarians. Both "blue" and "red" counties voted for the amendment.

So, it's a bit disingenuous to point to CA and say we're not there yet because CA couldn't pass a bill that many disagreed with, even when they support legalization. Also, at the last minute, law enforcement orgs and the beer distributors industry put some substantial bucks into quashing the prop, and the prohibition talking heads were out in force.

In addition, Ahnuld decriminalized marijuana just before the vote to weaken support. One month before. This was purposefully done to harm the prop.

We're there when a governor decriminalizes by fiat in order to weaken a Proposition. We're also there when CA has had mmj dispensaries and use for more than 15 years and hell has not broken loose.

No doubt some politicians would prefer to have more states put props and amendments on their ballots to encourage voters in 2014, but this strategy ignores the need of CO and WA to have some guidance from the justice dept. as they work to implement the votes in their states.

In terms of population size, not the number of states - we are past there when you consider the combined populations of the 19 states/DC with mmj and the 2 states with legal mj law. Since CA not only has legal mmj and also decriminalized recreational marijuana on the books - they are so far ahead of the administration on this issue it's silly to claim Obama needs more motivation to take action.