Proposition 19

[Sophus]

Did anyone else catch this amusing editorial on Prop 19 in the New York Times?

[DropLogic]

Did anyone else catch this amusing editorial on Prop 19 in the New York Times?

" Big Alcohol does not want marijuana to get a piece of that large pie of legal money spent to distract ourselves from ourselves."
Brilliant.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Perhaps not, but there are many preconceived notions and prejudices about it.  Look at what's going on in LA with the clinics.

[Kylyssa]

I have to reply to those who think marijuana doesn't impair driving safety, think again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm pro legalization, but marijuana is a mind-altering substance.  If used in large amounts, marijuana can leave a person stoned off his or her ass and unable to figure out why he or she has a half-eaten, unwrapped egg salad sandwich in his or her pants pocket.

So the question on my mind is how to determine if a person is too stoned to be able to drive safely?

[Ultima22689]

You're right Kylyssa, smoking weed isn't the same as having a beer, you drink a few beers you're going to start getting drunk, weed all depends on your tolerance and quality of weed you're smoking. I remember when I first smoked a blunt of white widow which is one of the strongest strains you can smoke, before hand I hadn't smoked in over 3 years, I was insanely high, I couldn't even really walk without each step feeling like I was walking with springs on my feet, listening to Pink Floyd filled me with intense ecstasy that was almost orgasmic on the other hand the last time I had been smoking which was some time ago, I could smoke several blunts worth of kush and get fairly high but even then you wouldn't be able to tell I had smoked unless you could smell it on me and that's because  I had been smoking every day for months.

There's no real way to measure a person's tolerance I don't think so as far as law is concerned don't smoke and drive, plain and simple. If you give a cop a reason to pull you over and you reek of weed and you are high it's going to be obvious, if you have a strong tolerance and are driving, the cop won't even have a reason to pull you over.

[DropLogic]

The rule on safe BAC is pretty much a joke.  In Ohio I can drink 4 sips of a beer, and blow over the legal limit.  I'm not sure how they would measure your THC level on the fly, unless you train cops how to take blood... I think they'll probably end up doing something like estimation.  In Ohio, cops can now estimate if you're speeding or not just by eyeballing your car.  They can pull you over and write you a ticket for the speed they thought you were going.  So, the general rule should be the same as aclohol...if you're too drunk/high to walk...don't get in a car.

[pinkocommie]

Just take the bus!  Hobo bus fights are WAY more entertaining/less frightening when you're baked anyway.

I think it would be exceedingly difficult to accurately test for THC in a reckless driving or DUI situation since the stuff stays in your fat cells for quite some time and I don't know of any method of testing for specifically recent use.  That's an interesting question.  Anyway, did I miss where someone was saying that weed never impairs a person's ability to drive?  Those people must be stuck in the south smoking seedy brick weed.  Ugh.

[Sophus]

Some bad news for California.

Attorney General Eric Holder is warning that the federal government will not look the other way, as it has with medical marijuana, if voters next month make California the first state to legalize pot.

Marijuana is illegal under federal law, which drug agents will "vigorously enforce" against anyone carrying, growing or selling it, Holder said.

[PoopShoot]

Federal law can't touch them for possession or sale as long as they don't cross state lines with it.  Bad news for the growers, scare tactics for everyone else.  Even that's not really a big deal, considering that the feds will be too busy in the forests sinffing out cartel patches to worry about personal usage patches in various towns.

[Ultima22689]

Yeah, it's just scare tactics, they know they can't really do much about it. If it passes I doubt the feds will do any worse than what they were doing during the bush era.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Between this and this decision to defend "don't ask don't tell" after avowing opposition to it, I'm asking myself, how many constituencies is Obama trying to piss of?

[TheWilliam]

The pro legalization isn't just in California, he stands to lose a massive part of the youth vote across the country which was also instrumental in getting him elected.

Insofar as potheads vote, you have a point.  But I don't see that they've flocked to the polls, at least not around here.

it's not like we have Pot Head stamped on our foreheads.  A lot lot lot of people smoke, it just isn't something we brag about all over town because it isn't exactly legal.

the only people that know I chief are you dudes on the internet and my reefer dude.

I don't even have smoking buddies, I blaze alone.

everybody else thinks i might as well be a christian.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The pro legalization isn't just in California, he stands to lose a massive part of the youth vote across the country which was also instrumental in getting him elected.

Insofar as potheads vote, you have a point.  But I don't see that they've flocked to the polls, at least not around here.

it's not like we have Pot Head stamped on our foreheads.  A lot lot lot of people smoke, it just isn't something we brag about all over town because it isn't exactly legal.

the only people that know I chief are you dudes on the internet and my reefer dude.

I don't even have smoking buddies, I blaze alone.

everybody else thinks i might as well be a christian.

Out here, it's a pretty open thing.  I'm sure there are still closet 'heads, but the large majority of weedies aren't shy about saying it, and the large majority of open blazers I know are thoroughly uninvolved in politics; thus my qualifier, "at least not around here".  I can only speak from my own perspective; I don't think Gallup has polled blazers on their voting habits, and so my point is admittedly anecdotal.

[PoopShoot]

When I started voting EVERY weedhead I knew was a voter.  That's how the med law got through.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Well, there's maybe eight people in Washington that don't get high, right?