Press release posted at LP.org on Oct. 7. As far as I can tell we haven’t covered it previously. -p
WASHINGTON – Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle has endorsed Proposition 19 on the November ballot in California. The measure would legalize marijuana in California.
Hinkle said, “I urge Californians to vote for Proposition 19. The War on Drugs has created tremendous damage in California and throughout America, and this will help stop that damage. A vote for Prop 19 is a vote for justice and common sense.
“Passing Prop 19 will also help to reduce drug-trafficking violence at the Mexico border. Unfortunately, many Democratic and Republican politicians are probably in agreement with violent drug lords that marijuana prohibition should be maintained at all costs.”
Hinkle is a California resident.
A 2009 study published by the Cato Institute noted that after Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001, “postdecriminalization usage rates have remained roughly the same or even decreased slightly when compared with other EU states,” and “drug-related pathologies — such as sexually transmitted diseases and deaths due to drug usage — have decreased dramatically.”
The Libertarian Party has opposed the federal and state War on Drugs throughout its history.
The Libertarian Party platform states, “We favor the repeal of all laws creating ‘crimes’ without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.” (Section 1.2, Personal Privacy)
The Libertarian Party has 21 candidates for U.S. Senate and 169 candidates for U.S. House in the upcoming November 2010 elections.
Federal Judges vote yes for Prop 19.
Election Year Medicaid Medicare Inducement issues left open for November not openly discussed. Politics have gone from heated to Man on fire thoughts.Also the Judicial dilemmas, since all are offically allowed to bear arms again, the big city Mayors are concerned about how the poor will be able to rearm themselves and are looking for some type of financial relief from Federal State Medicaid programs to maintain status quo.The higher courts face tough issues this term since making honest fraud legal, there agenda now turns toward making honest kickbacks and honest bribes equally as legal. This topic remains high as a shared issue by the medicaid medicare enrollment providers since they are looking to expand inducements past the complicated pregnancy stage.The DOJ has serious concerns that if legalized marijuana in California for medical reasons could be used as a inducement or inticement to help secure new enrollments for the Federal State Medicare Medicaid programs.The State of California is concerned that if the Feds step up their effort in killing off the marijuana crops it could cause higher tax problems that effect Medicaid currently under consideration by the State marijuana tax control board.Limo drivers cancel their planned DC rally and leave for California to protect this years crop. Wow, don’t think I would like to be in Politics for this years elections. Govenor Schwarzenegger indicated that if the Tea Partys membership keeps holding their rallies at our Marijuana burning fields they will have to be taxed for their free use of inhalants, prior to having them bused back to Arizona.
Better control, tax and regulate than this:
BTW, Prop 19 doesn’t mandate any taxes. It does allow taxes at the local level, but local government could also opt not to tax as well.
Of course, prohibition is a huge de facto tax on marijuana prices, the revenues just go to the cartels in Mexico instead of the cartels in DC and Sacramento. Well, except for the drug seizure and property seizure/asset forfeiture revenues, those go to the DC and Sacramento cartels as well.
Aaron,
It’s a step in the right direction – the most significant such step yet, if it passes. So why would you want the current situation to continue instead?
same same on social security
same same on veterans
same same ………..
Lemme get this straight… the Libertarian Party is supporting the REGULATE, CONTROL AND TAX CANNABIS ACT of 2010?
Three words that, apparently, the LP has decided aren’t so bad?
Ya, this kind of sellout is the reason I’m no longer a member of your glorified debate club.
banning of marijuana in the 30s was political, it was business for cotton. now there is a chance for it to play a big role in society, more money for california, less drug crime, and police actually catching real criminals. even retired officers support it. and it wont make everyone start smoking because those who choose to do already can by asking a friend. its so easy to get, and i don’t smoke it by the way.
Or as Knapp puts it,
Are Baca and Cooley in stir yet?
And has the Governator requested that Holder be extradited to California yet?
When you publicly announce your participation in an illegal conspiracy to commit mass violations of the California Penal Code (sections 207 and 236), there should be consequences.
Knapp again, in the comments:
I don’t oppose “states rights” any more than I oppose the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus, and I don’t oppose them for the same reason (there’s no such thing).
I do consider “states rights” a poisoned brand that’s more likely to evoke Jim Crow than freedom among a substantial percentage of Americans.
I also consider it at least as likely as not, based on past performance, that any particular “states rights” claim will be an attempt to defend an anti-freedom, rather than pro-freedom, state activity from “interference from above.”
And finally, I consider assertions of state versus federal supremacy on questions of powers not constitutionally delegated to be a matter of tactical advantage, not strategic principle.
But, if the position of one of the several states is objectively more pro-freedom than the position of the federal government on an issue, it’s not an advantage I’ll refuse to use 😉
Well, this will be entertaining to see the people that were celebrating the repeal/overturning of SB1070, and Prop 8 react if Eric blocks Prop 19.
Why?
Overturning laws that unconstitutionally take people’s rights way is not the same thing as overturning laws that give us more freedom.
Well Eric Holder has said if Prop 19 passes, he will enforce federal law against pot.
Well, this will be entertaining to see the people that were celebrating the repeal/overturning of SB1070, and Prop 8 react if Eric blocks Prop 19.
California is known for doing that. Let the people vote, then over turn it. Like Prop 187, Props 1A-1F, Prop 8 , and now probibally prop 19. Even worse look at the Gubernatoral race
Jerry “I have a 40 year record of failure” Brown and Meg “I flip flop on issues more than a live fish out of water to get votes” Whitman
One big reason I left that state, also known as the land of fruits and nuts. Maybe the San Andreas fault will go soon.
Lake, if you are going to accuse other people of having a low IQ, you may want to brush up on your reading comprehension first.
“anything but alcohol and cigarettes 2nd” means that she is telling her kids that other drugs are less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes (and meth). Duh backatcha.
libertariangirl // Oct 18, 2010:
“i tell my own kids it’s my hope they dont use any drugs but that im realistic and if they do pot first and anything but alcohol and cigarettes 2nd , except meth , thats a killer too. psychadelics , be careful but pretty much ok”
[Lake: once again Lib Grrl’s room temperature IQ is showing. Ethel Alcohol and tobacco are the two BIGGEST killers, directly and indirectly. San Diego, Sandy Ego Padres, San Diego State University base ball stand out, Tony Gwinn, a non smoker, is dying of mouth cancer! Duh! My own (chain smoking) momma died at 38! Duh!]
Dan // Oct 18, 2010:
“Thomas Jefferson grew hemp. The US constitutional drafters never imagined prohibitionists stamping over your liberty.”
[Lake: as wheat farmers in northern Menn As Soda and North Lakota look to Canada and those agriculturalists raking in the ‘loonies’ from whole sale hemp production. Rope. Sails. Stuff.]
Sorry to spoil the fun. I don’t think you’ll find a lot of prohibitionists here, though.
By the way, for any of you med pot patients in California, please start taking your business to dispensaries which are not helping spread lies about Prop 19. A lot of the dispensaries are lying about it so they can keep a quasi-monopoly, which does make business sense, but if you take your money elsewhere, that might give them a little incentive in the other direction.
paulie: I was hoping for people of a prohibitionist bent to be interested in exploring the actual transcripts on http://www.opposeprop19.com/ that got ‘the new mexican menace, marihuana’ outlawed. Those lurid, sensational stories must have had many a citizen reach for relief from the Ely Lilly or Parke-Davis ‘tincture of cannabis’ in all those medicine cabinets back in the 30’s.
Half a trillion bucks in tax money since Richard Nixon, has gone to propagandize the American public into submission. And here we are weeks away from Californians getting the opportunity to blow the whole Federal charade to smithereens. (As long as they don’t get swayed by Schwarzenegger’s ‘divide and conquer’ ploy.)
Lol, awesome!
I just watched this video from our friends at LEAP.
http://www.youtube.com/copssaylegalizedrugs#p/u/6/ZwTZw1sbJvU
And btw, TODAY is the last day to register to vote if you are from Cali. Please spread the word go get as many unregistered voters out there as possible. Send a message to the man!
@Sam Caldwell. Wow…really? I just checked out that site you posted a link to. Is it a joke?
Yes. You don’t have to spend very long on the site to figure that out.
It seems like propaganda that is against the prohibitionists, by being for the prohibitionists.
Yes, it is meant to show how ridiculous they are.
@Sam Caldwell. Wow…really? I just checked out that site you posted a link to. Is it a joke? With direct references to the movie Reefer Madness and all. Or is it just to show prohibitionists how ignorant they are?
It seems like a lot of time was put into it, but I dont know what to think of it. It seems like propaganda that is against the prohibitionists, by being for the prohibitionists.
i tell my own kids it’s my hope they dont use any drugs but that im realistic and if they do pot first and anything but alcohol and cigarettes 2nd , except meth , thats a killer too. psychadelics , be careful but pretty much ok
Any drug can be really bad, really good, or not that big a deal, depending on the person, time and place. Pot is more innocuous for most people, but not everyone.
Some people can have a couple of drinks or a few lines and be fine. Others destroy their lives the same way.
I’ve done meth but never really had a problem with it at all. There were times in my life when coke was a huge problem, other times when it was not a big deal. Same thing with alcohol.
At one time I used to like pot and smoke it frequently, now I very rarely touch the stuff because most of the times when I do, it’s an unpleasant experience. Same thing with psychedelics.
I think drugs are kind of like fire: they can save your life on a cold night, give you a nice warm feeling, make you uncomfortably warm, or burn you to death.
Outlawing drugs makes about as much sense as outlawing fire. Drug plants grow in nature all over the place, and drug chemicals are contained in thousands of household products.
People in every part of the world and every era of history and even animals have gotten high. Prohibition can’t, doesn’t, and never will work.
But it sure does produce a lot of terrible side effects!
Thomas Jefferson grew hemp.
The US constitutional drafters never imagined prohibitionists stamping over your liberty.
i tell my own kids it’s my hope they dont use any drugs but that im realistic and if they do pot first and anything but alcohol and cigarettes 2nd , except meth , thats a killer too. psychadelics , be careful but pretty much ok
We can’t afford to keep sending the message to kids that alcohol is safer than cannabis. They deserve the truth and so do we. The money wasted on the drug war is already gone, and many lives destroyed or damaged in the process. Let’s stop throwing good money after bad, and start holding people responsible only for their own behavior that violates the rights of others, not for their preference in recreational drugs. Enough alcohol supremacist bigotry already.
Our forefathers had the public’s ears, minds and souls when marijuana was finally outlawed in 1937. Our focus must be reinvigorated as to the methods used to snap America out of its complacency within those wonderous moralistic years. Lets make a vow to be vigilant and fight back with all the facts available on the most powerful tool – the internet.
If you feel the sense of purpose to go to just one website for honest inspiration to end the inevitable senseless tragedies awaiting our family, friends, and foes alike, look no further than:
http://www.opposeprop19.com/
Please take this message to heart. We can’t afford to let the $500 billion in hard-earned money the ONDCP, DARE et al, spent on education during the former drug war, to go up in smoke.
Like the saying goes. “Let the people lead, and the leaders will follow.”
When prop 19 passes the police that politically apposed it will lose respect and should choose another line of work.
Being political while in uniform should be against the law.
To the mentally challenged police leaders, quit being political ponds and get a clue!
Jesus said, Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. (Matthew 7:12).
I know I would not want my child sent to jail with the sexual predators, or my aging parents to have their house confiscated and sold by the police, over a little marijuana.
We can change the world when we vote.