Posts Tagged ‘Legalization’

California Chamber Claims Legalization Would Allow Smoking at Work

The California Chamber of Commerce has issued a claim that the new legalization ballot measure in California would allow employees to show up “high” or even smoke marijuana while at work.  Their claim is a blatant and obvious misrepresentation of the proposition and the law it would create.

The section of the proposed law which the Chamber misinterprets reads as follows:

“The existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected.”

The Chamber claims that this means that the only way to prove “impairment” is after an accident when a drug test could be performed.  They patently ignore current rulings that interpret “impairment” as being any type of physical impairment that creates a safety hazard or causes an employee to be unable to perform their job function.  This is used often when employees arrive at work drunk, have an injury, or even under the influence of drugs.

This does not change under proposed legalization, no matter what the Chamber might say about it.

The obvious misinterpretation by the Chamber of Commerce is being chided as purely political in nature.  The new law would make possession of up to an ounce, growing of up to 25 square feet of plants on private property, and the use of marijuana by adults over 21 years of age legal in California.  It would not make it legal for them to smoke it at work, endanger customers or other employees, etc.  Federal drug-free workplace rules would still apply in most industries that use them as well.

Source: Associated Press

Facebook Blocks Ads For Pot Legalization Campaign

For a typical college student, if it didn’t happen on Facebook, it didn’t happen. That gives the social networking behemoth an out-sized influence on the confines of political debate, if that debate falls outside what Facebook deems acceptable discourse.

Proponents of marijuana legalization, which is on the California ballot in 2010, have hit a Facebook wall in their effort to grow an online campaign to rethink the nation’s pot laws. Facebook initially accepted ads from the group Just Say Now, running them from August 7 to August 16, generating 38 million impressions and helping the group’s fan page grow to over 6,000 members. But then they were abruptly removed.

Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for Facebook, said that the problem was the pot leaf. “It would be fine to note that you were informed by Facebook that the image in question was no long[er] acceptable for use in Facebook ads. The image of a pot leaf is classified with all smoking products and therefore is not acceptable under our policies,” he told the group in an email, which was provided to HuffPost.

Noyes is on vacation and didn’t respond to an email. A request sent to Facebook’s general press address generated an auto-reply indicating that the company receives many requests and intends to respond. [Scroll down for a Facebook statement.]

Facebook’s ad rules, however, only ban promotion of “[t]obacco products,” not smoking in general. Since the 1970s, shops selling marijuana paraphernalia have sought ways around the law by disingenuously claiming their products are “for tobacco use only.” The Just Say Now campaign is arguing the exact opposite: No, really, it’s for marijuana, not tobacco.

The censorship is a blow to the campaign, which is gathering signatures on college campuses calling for legalization and registering young people to vote. “It’s like running a campaign and saying you can’t show the candidate’s face,” said Michael Whitney of Firedoglake.com, a blog that is part of the Just Say Now coalition.

Conservative college students condemned the site’s restrictions. “Our generation made Facebook successful because it was a community where we could be free and discuss issues like sensible drug policy. If Facebook censorship policies continue to reflect those of our government by suppressing freedom of speech then they won’t have to wait until Election Day to be voted obsolete,” Jordan Marks, the head of Young Americans for Freedom, told HuffPost in an email. YAF was founded in the 1960s and William Buckley’s estate; Buckley was a longtime supporter of marijuana legalization. Marks is a member of the Just Say Now board.

Read the full article on Huffington Post

Adults See Alcohol, Cigarettes Riskier Than Marijuana

Americans view alcohol and cigarettes as more dangerous than marijuana.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that just 17% of Adults rate use of marijuana as riskier than drinking alcohol. Fifty percent (50%) say alcohol is more dangerous, while 26% rate the two as equally risky. These findings are consistent with a survey last August.

Even a majority of adults who drink alcohol rate it as more dangerous than marijuana. Those who never drink alcohol are more closely divided.

Similarly, 46% say smoking cigarettes is more dangerous than smoking pot. Twenty-four percent (24%) disagree and say marijuana use is more dangerous. One-in-four (25%) view the two as equally dangerous.

Twenty-six percent (26%) of adults say smoking cigarettes should be outlawed, while 42% think marijuana should remain an illegal drug.  Americans are evenly divided over whether marijuana should be legalized in the United States, but most expect legalization to happen within the next decade.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it’s in the news, it’s in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 21-22, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Men feel more strongly than women that both alcohol and cigarettes are more dangerous than marijuana. Adults across all age groups share that belief, although younger Americans believe it even more strongly.

When it comes to alcohol, twenty percent (20%) of Americans drink several times a week, including nine percent (9%) who drink every day or nearly every day. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say they never drink.

Forty percent (40%) of Adults say they have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives. Eleven percent (11%) say they’ve smoked it in the past year. Those ages 18 to 29 are much more likely to have smoked marijuana in the past year than their elders.

Men drink more heavily than women. Twice as many married adults say they drink every day than unmarried adults, but unmarrieds are more than twice as likely as marrieds to have smoked pot in the past year. Those who say they’ve smoked marijuana drink more than those who have not tried pot.

- Press release from Rasmussen Reports.

Must-See: Why do old people rule the world? [video]

Hopefully this video will change some people. Please vote in November. That is all.

Majority of Californians Support Prop 19

marijuana truck2Good news has come out over California’s attempt to be the first American state to legalize and tax marijuana.

Looks like most people want it…

A recent poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling found that 52% of Californians support the passage of Proposition 19, the prop that would legalize marijuana and allow it to be regulated, sold in Amsterdam styled cafes, and taxed at the point of sale by the state.  36% of those polled oppose it.

The poll also discovered that 38% of Californians say they’ve smoked marijuana. Still, 44% of those who claim they’ve never tried marijuana support its legalization… proving that it is not just a couple of burned out stoners supporting this prop.

Democrats are more likely to throw their support behind the prop than Republicans. 62% of Democrats, 37% of Republicans and 55% of Independents support Prop 19.

African-Americans are the strongest supporters of Prop 19; 68:32, followed by Caucasians, who support it 53:37. Also discovered was that there is little discrepancy between generations. 65+ is the only age group that opposes the legalization of marijuana; 39:47.

You know what they say; As goes California, so goes the nation.

Let’s just hope that the state governments in this nation find the idea of taxing marijuana smokers more than handcuffing them after they see the revenue windfall that will follow not only taxing of marijuana (rumored to be roughly 50 bucks an ounce) but the saving found in the reduced incarceration and law enforcement costs.

Let’s just hope…

legalizeusa

Read more at the source.

California’s Cannabis Culture [video]

Amanda Van West, a 24 year old college student from California sent this gem to me. It’s basically a mini-documentary about the marijuana culture in California. It’s very interesting to say the least. Take a look and let her know what you think of it.

From her video page:

In November 2010, Californians will be voting on whether or not to legalize marijuana for recreational use. If passed, California will become the first US state to end marijuana prohibition.

This is an exploration of California’s cannabis culture. It’s the story of the people fighting for it, the people fighting against it, the people selling it, the people making it less taboo, and the people who were around when the whole scene started.

I made this documentary for my final MA International Broadcast Journalism dissertation project at the University of Westminster.

Everything was filmed around northern California from May-June 2010.

Be sure to visit her blog here.

NAACP Joins Pot Legalization Effort

The California branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will release a report that it says reveals how criminalization of marijuana disproportionately harms people of color today.

The release of the report comes as part of the NAACP’s endorsement of the Tax Cannabis Act, a ballot proposition slated for November which would essentially decriminalize marijuana across the state.

According to the NAACP, African Americans are disproportionately arrested for marijuana possession — up to four times as often as whites, even though the latter is statistically more likely to be a user.

“We have empirical proof that the application of the marijuana laws has been unfairly applied to our young people of color,” State NAACP President Alice Huffman wrote in an official statement.

A conviction for even misdemeanor drug possession is a permanent scar on employment applications, in child custody disputes and bars one from eligibility for federal college loan programs.

Under the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, as it’s formally known, it would remain illegal for people under the age of 21 to possess marijuana, akin to underage drinking laws.

The report will be released at a press conference in Sacramento, where the NAACP will be joined by fellow supporters of the initiative including Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization representing current and former law enforcement officials from across the country which advocates for drug policy reform.

Written by NBC

Sarah Palin and the Marijuana Legalization Debate

These comments from Sarah Palin last week are continuing to generate discussion:

“If we’re talking about pot, I’m not for the legalization of pot, because I think that would just encourage our young people to think that it was OK to go ahead and use it and I’m not an advocate for that. However, I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts. And if somebody is going to smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and clean up some of the other problems we have in society that are appropriate for law enforcement to do and not concentrate on such a, relatively speaking, minimal problem that we have in the country.”

Mike Huckabee responded with a bizarre joke about Palin doing cocaine on TV, and Ryan McNeely has a good piece addressing the absurdity of defending marijuana laws while simultaneously asking that they not be enforced. Unfortunately, The Economist departed from its typically superb drug policy coverage with a strange defense of Palin’s remarks:

Basically, while Sarah Palin’s position on this issue, as on many others, is semi-deliberately incoherent, it is in this case a semi-deliberate incoherence that has proven to be effective policy in many countries, and I’m not even sure it’s the wrong stance on the issue.

The full argument is too rambling to quote (see for yourself), but the author’s point is that marijuana isn’t really even legal in the Netherlands, so maybe there’s no need to legalize here either. It might make sense if we didn’t have a massive blood-thirsty drug war army literally occupying our cities. Prohibition is a for-profit industry in America. It sustains itself through a vast campaign of propaganda and intimidation, and I doubt the solution is as simple as asking these guys to please calm down.

The warriors who invade private homes in bulletproof bodysuits and murder small dogs for having the audacity to bark at them are not responsive to pleas for a more measured enforcement model. That the law authorizes their actions is the go-to excuse when their machine guns go off prematurely, and until that changes, neither will anything else.

Nevertheless, the fact that Palin was able to create such a flurry of dialogue with a few casual comments is testament to her potency as an advocate for whatever half-measures she’s willing to stand for. And the fact that FOX News is now employing people who will keep posing these questions to prominent political figures is pretty cool, too.

Click “Read More” for the video. You also can read the article at CBSNews. Continue reading

Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the USA? [Infographic]

InfographicIs Cannabis treated unfairly in the United States? Lets check the stats, shall we?

NORML Ad: High in Times Square

In a followup to our previous post. NORML’s famous “Money Tree” ad is currently running 18 times a day in New York’s Times Square in the Super Screen located below the CBS eye across the street from Ripley’s Believe it or Not. From 9 am to 1 am, the 15-second spot flashes once an hour.

NORML ad Times  Sqaure

Danny Danko, Steve Bloom, Rick Cusick and Chris Goldstein If you want to see it live, be patient; the ad might not appear at the scheduled time, as a group of marijuana activists discovered during their visit to 42 St. on Friday. High Times’ Danny Danko and Rick Cusick, Philly NORML’s Chris Goldstein and CelebStoner’s Steve Bloom arrived at 4 pm, hoping to catch the 4:07 viewing. However, it took another 41 minutes for the ad to appear.  Video after the jump. Continue reading

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