I feel morally conflicted.
What's wrong?
I'm voting for prop 56, the cigarette tax, but I want to vote for weed legalization.
Because you're stopping tobacco, but allowing marijuana? They're very different drugs.
I want to tell myself that, but Prop 64 is all about the business of marijuana. We're making another sin industry.
Unlike tobacco, it's not nicotine. Not addictive, and there's other ways to consume it.
Forget about adults for a second. I wouldn't want my kids smoking or eating weed until they're well past Stanford, just like I wouldn't want them smoking cigarettes.
There's a lot of studies that say that until the brain matures at 25, pot could affect brain development, structurally and functionally.
That's already a problem though. Kids in Marin can get pot easier than they can get alcohol. Prop 64 would regulate it. Colorado has not seen an increase in youth use.
But that might be because access is already so easy.
If we educate them right, though. It's estimated to bring in $1 billion dollars a year eventually. A portion of that will go to education.
Also, think about all the other negatives we'll be eliminating.
Drug crimes often disproportionately affect black and Latino men, and lower socioeconomic people.
That's great. But Prop 47 from a while ago already reduced the prison population for non-violent, non-serious drug offenses. Less than 0.3% of the prison population is in because of drugs, and that's probably drugs + something else.
Also, in Colorado, arrests have declined, but racial disparities has not been solved.
What about driving though? Have you ever driven high?
Yea, I'm a pro. With traffic the way it is right now, you can't go over 30mph on the highway anyways.
In Washington, car crash fatalities have increased after legalization. This includes THC + alcohol, and THC only.
No FDA-approved breathalyzer yet too, and everybody knows it. The taboo for high driving isn't as strong as drunk driving.
Legalizing it will speed up breathalyzer development and educate people about driving high. Like Colorado, we already have a high usage and access. Legalization will cut the black-market, and impose the laws we want to see.
Until we do that, we can't do anything about current usage.
I still don't think we're ready for it. UCSF says this will just lead to Big Weed, not unlike Big Tobacco.