Up in smoke: California votes on marijuana legalization (Feature)

By Andy Goldberg Oct 23, 2010, 2:16 GMT

San Francisco - Valerie Corral is probably the last person you would expect to vote against Proposition 19, the landmark ballot initiative that is seeking to make California the first state in the US to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

For decades the tiny woman widely regarded as the godmother of the medical marijuana movement has been fighting laws that put cannabis users in jail. But she will be joining forces with some of her strongest opponents to vote against the marijuana legalization measure when appears on the ballot November 2, when Americans will also vote for Congress and a slew of local offices.

'I never ever thought I would vote against any law that would make the use of marijuana legal but I don't have any choice,' says Corral, the co-founder of WAMM, the pioneering medical marijuana collective.

According to Corral, and other veterans of the movement, Prop 19 is nothing more than a shameless attempt by marijuana entrepreneurs to corner the market for legal marijuana and award themselves a jackpot worth billions of dollars.

Under current law in California anyone with a doctor's prescription can legally grow their own cannabis or buy it at one of the hundreds of dispensaries that have sprung up all over the state.

Under legislation recently enacted by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, possession of the popular drug by recreational users has been decriminalized to the equivalent of a traffic ticket, while many local police forces have publicly said that catching casual marijuana users is their lowest priority.

While any kind of marijuana possession remains illegal under federal law, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced soon after taking office that federal agencies would not prosecute growers who abide by state laws.

Under Prop 19 anyone in California over the age of 21 would be allowed to grow their own in a space of around 2.5 square metres, and to possess 28 ounces of processed marijuana. There would be strict penalties imposed for violations, especially to those caught supplying marijuana to under-age users.

The main proponent of Prop 19 is Richard Lee, a quadriplegic activist who has made millions of dollars from a chain of marijuana dispensaries and Oaksterdam University, a school that teaches people about the marijuana business.

He has bankrolled the ballot initiative to the tune of 1.5 million dollars, and is also behind the recent decision by the northern California city of Oakland to authorize four massive indoor marijuana farms that may be large enough to supply the entire state.

It is this aspect that has drawn criticism from veteran activists such as Corral. Lee insists he is not in it for the money and that there are numerous important reasons why marijuana should now be legal in America's most populated and progressive state.

With recent estimates putting the annual value of California's cannabis crop at 14 billion dollars, perhaps the most persuasive argument in reaching mainstream voters is that taxing and regulating the most popular illegal drug in the world would bring an estimated 1.4 billion dollars in revenue to the cash-strapped state government.

Legalizing marijuana would also keep thousands of people out of the criminal system and could save an additional 900 million dollars a year in prison charges, while also undercutting the power of the ruthless Mexican cartels that control much of the production, proponents argue.

'What I think is horrible about all of this, is that we criminalize young people,' says former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. ' We have the highest number of people in the world being criminalized, many for non-violent crimes related to marijuana. We can use our resources so much better.'

But other officials are strongly opposed to the measure. These include Holder, who warned of a federal legal offensive against Prop 19 and threatened that it could lead to a withholding of federal funds from California.

Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca is another prominent opponent of Prop 19. He argued recently that legalization would increase the costs of drug rehabilitation, cause traffic accidents, prompt labour disputes with employees getting high on the job and provide a safe cover for drug cartels selling harder narcotics.

With just over a week to go before the elections the latest Los Angeles Times opinion poll shows Californians will vote against the legalization measure by 51 per cent to 39 per cent.

Read more about US Elections