Its official Proposition 19 has failed.
California voters rejected the bid to legalize recreational marijuana.
Proposition 19 would allow people, 21 and over, to posses marijuana up to an ounce and let individuals grow marijuana in a 5-by-5 foot space. It will also let people smoke in private areas.
Drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske said "today, Californians recognized that legalizing marijuana will not make our citizens healthier, solve California's budget crisis, or reduce drug-related violence in Mexico". This WAR ON DRUGS is garbage, its ridiculous how this administration hasn't realize that. Marijuana should be legal, the current laws on weed have failed miserably. What I don't get is why elected officials still come with the bull crap that smoking weed causing so many driving accidents. Being stone still impairs your ability to drive, but pot related driving accidents happen so rarely that its bizarre to mention it.
Will there be a Prop 19 2012? Lets end this cannabis prohibition once and for all. I don't see why we should lock up people for cannabis possession. We should punish real criminals for real crimes not because he or she want to smoke a joint. Pot prisoners cost this country 1.2 Billion dollars a year. In the Netherlands, cannabis is legal and there crime rate is lower than the US.
Even if this measure would pass U.S Attorney Eric Holder said he would "vigorously enforce" federal laws when it came to recreational pot use, no matter what Californians decided. When are stoners ever going to get a break. Many of these recreational users are not endangering anyone else but themselves. How can a fair government enforce such grotesque laws on Americans.
I think whats really going on is that this corrupt government makes more money by marijuana being illegal. Isn't obvious, tax payers have to pay for more government to control this so-called illegal substance.
At least there was one victory on our side, some California cities will now tax pot. Sacramento approved Measure C, which would tax up to 4 percent of medical marijuana dispensaries in the capital. Rancho Cordova voters approved Measure H, which would tax any future pot outlets in that town. In Oakland, the tax already at 1.8 percent moved to 5 percent. Santa Barbara and Morro Bay, rejected local measures to ban medical marijuana shops. And Berkeley approved a 2.5 percent tax on medical dispensaries.