On Election Day, Please Vote for Pot
Steve Bloom
MONDAY, 05 NOVEMBER 2012 00:29
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Anyone who uses marijuana and lives in a state where legalization is on the ballot this Tuesday must vote Yes. There is just no excuse to not support the proposals in Washington, Colorado and Oregon.
Naysayers within the cannabis community succeeded in defeating Prop 19 in California in 2010. Hopefully, this will not happen this time. If we lose, it should be the drug warriors who defeat the ballots that would tax and regulate the use and sale of marijuana, not those within our own community.
Can you imagine gay people voting against gay marraige? That's the equivalent of pot smokers voting against legalization.
The biggest challenges to I-502 in Washington, Amendment 64 in Colorado and Measure 80 have come from within our community - primarily from medical activists who like things the way they are and, in Washington, from those who oppose the DUI clause in I-502, which would allow for those stopped and found exceeding 5 nanograms of THC in their system to be arrested.
I don't minimize such concerns, but they are trivial when you consider the big picture. One state passing such an initiative may very well set in motion many other such votes to legalize marijuana. This would signal the beginning of the end of federal marijuana prohibition.
It saddens me that so many within our community are dead set on sabotaging these courageous efforts. My guess is that Washington may survive the negativity and win, Colorado can go either way and Oregon will most likely lose. Washington's I-502 has the broadest support, including Seattle's mayor, former law enforcers and celebrity advocate Rick Steves, who's pumped in nearly $500,000 of his own money. Polling shows I-502 has a solid chance of winning. This will happen despite nitpicking by local activists, such as Hempfest founder Vivian McPeak and Toke of the Town blogger Steve Elliot.
If I lived in any of these states I would be the first on line to cast my ballot to legalize marijuana. Hopefully, you will listen to me and get out and vote Yes on Tuesday for I-502, A-64 and M-80. If you don't and call yourself an activist, you should be ashamed of yourself.
