Bid to legalize pot in California counter to U.S. trend

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle, Tuesday, January 5, 2010

With Californians likely to vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana, some key swing voters - Democratic and independent women - are expressing a surprising reason why they would support the initiative. The suburban "soccer moms" who are likely voters have told pollsters that the measure, which would give local governments the authority to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis to adults 21 or older, would provide a safer way for their adult children to buy pot.

"One of the scary things to some people is that their kids may be buying it from someone dangerous," said Ruth Bernstein, a pollster with EMC Research, an Oakland firm that has been doing polling and focus groups on behalf of the measure's proponents.

In 2001, state voters approved a law allowing first- or second-time possession-only offenders caught with larger amounts of pot to avoid jail by requesting a treatment program instead.

The initiative, known as the Tax and Regulate Initiative, would expand those laws by allowing local governments to tax and regulate marijuana sales, increase penalties for providing marijuana to a minor, and prohibit consumption of marijuana in public, smoking marijuana while minors are present and possession of pot on school grounds.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/05/MN951B8IE1.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0bkfrfASa

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People say they are worried "their kids may be buying (pot) from someone dangerous," but this initiative increases penalties for providing marijuana to a minor or smoking in their presence. I guess those polled are unaware of the stricter penalties -- or could they be lying and using the kids angle to justify legalization for their own use?