Watched your video Emptywords. While it sounds factual, it is nothing more than opinion.
its not all opinion, there is facts behind it such as there is nothing that says anything about legalization. here is some of the facts hidden behind the bullshit.
i copied and pasted some stuff from a web page.
Prop. 19 claims to do two things for recreational cannabis consumers: allow possession of 1 oz. or less and cultivation in a 5x5 space. But read the initiative and youll see these rights are not guaranteed, and come with conditions...
For all of its good intentions, Prop. 19 seems destined to do the opposite of all it claims to do. Supporters want us to vote yes and ignore the details. But the devil is in the details, and those details will make us criminals even under legalization. Should we support an initiative that forces us to sacrifice the rights of our comrades in the medical marijuana movement for our right to pay thousands of dollars for tiny grows and freedom to buy only from the dealers who wrote the initiative? Should we vote in an initiative that creates more problems than it solves? And since the world is watching, is this the sort of precedent we want to set for the rest of the nationLegalize it, tax it beyond reason and feasibility, and make criminals out of those who cant afford to pay? Is a $15,000-tax on personal cultivation something we should unite in favor of? Or is this the very thing the marijuana movement should unite against?
-A good
major point: Californians can already possess up to one ounce without getting arrested, without going to jail, without getting a criminal record, and without being excluded from federal student aid and other government programs. So, of Prop. 19s two objectives, California has already independently achieved one.
A major selling point of the initiative is that it will keep people out of jail for marijuana. But the initiative actually creates more prohibitions than it eliminates, and much of what it would legalize are already not arrestable offenses. By creating prohibitions where there are none now and turning non-arrestable offenses into arrestable crimes, Prop. 19 could end up sending more people to jail for pot...
Misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests in California reached 61,388 in 2008and under Prop. 19, those same people would still be arrested. Thats because this statistic does not refer to any arrest demographic that Prop. 19 would protect. This statistic refers to possession of more than one ounce, DUI-drugs, possession by minors and possession on school groundsoffenses that the initiative will not legalize. It does not refer to arrests for possession of one ounce or less, because marijuana is already decriminalized, and is not an arrestable offense. Therefore, the initiative would have no impact on reducing these arrests rates. Conversely, given that so many people toke in publicwhich Prop. 19 would prohibitit could dramatically increase arrest rates. Prop. 19 will also take a very common and very public non-arrestable offensesharing a joint among young people aged over 21 and under 21and turn it into an arrestable offensepunishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine (a significant increase in punishment, considering that the current penalty for sharing marijuana between adults is only a $100 fine.) Its difficult to see how the government would save on prison costs if the initiative merely shifts arrests from one demographic to another. Ironically, Prop. 19 would expand the pot war its supposed to end.
Planning on opening up a dispensary?
Currently, anyone with a Prop. 215 recommendation can legally provide marijuana. Under Prop. 19, however, only licensed vendors may distribute marijuana. Although specific licensing arrangements are left up to local governments, Oakland, birthplace of the initiative, has already set the precedent for what other cities will likely follow. Oaklands licensing process for commercial vending is prohibitively expensive for ordinary citizens. A license costs $60,000 per yearnot to mention the application process itself, which is so rigorous that even well-established, law-abiding dispensaries have been denied. Furthermore, Oakland has started a trend that every other city preparing for the possibility of Prop. 19 has adoptedcapping the number of licensed dispensaries allowed to operate (in Oakland, that number is four. Conveniently, Richard Lee, the millionaire businessman behind the initiative, owns one of them). A commercial cultivation license is even more prohibitive. The application fee alone is $5,000, a license costs an astronomical $211,000 annually, and
only six are allotted.
The initiative doesnt mention decreasing the cost of cannabis among its goals, but its a widely held belief that legalization will result in lower prices. However, by restricting the availability of cannabis to licensed dispensariesthereby severely limiting competition in the marketan unintended consequence could be an increase in the cost of marijuana.
AgraMed, the cannabis corporation that was recently awarded Oaklands first commercial cultivation license, has already let the smoke out of the bong regarding how much marijuana could cost under Prop. 19. By AgraMeds own estimation, in order to make their projected $59 million a year off 58 pounds per day, they would have to charge $175 per ounce wholesaleand thats if they produced 58 pounds 365 days a year. If they produced that output only 5 days a week, that price would leap to $245 an ounce (about $3900 per pound)wholesale. With shelf-prices often set at double the wholesale pricenot to mention the compulsory tax estimated to range from $50-$70 tacked on to every ouncethe price of marijuana could potentially be higher (looks like about $500+ for an ounce) under Prop. 19 than in our current market, in which the price of a pound has fallen to $2,000, according to a National Public Radio report (a direct result of stiff competition, not its opposite).
Okay.. so you wont support these big businesses, you will just buy from your dealer then...
The initiatives exact wordsprohibit and punish... the possession... of cannabis that was not obtained lawfully... from a person who is licensed or permitted to do somean exactly this: It will be against the law to possess marijuana that was purchased anywhere other than a licensed dispensaryeffectively making it illegal to buy from the black market, even though that is not against the law now. Believe it or not, it is not a crime to buy marijuana in California. Your dealer could get busted for selling it, but you couldnt get busted for buying it. You cant even get busted for having it as long as its one ounce or less. But if Prop. 19 passes, possessing marijuana you bought off your dealer would make you a criminal.
Then you will grow your own crop!
In anticipation of the initiative passing, the City of Rancho Cordova has proposed a tax on cannabis home-grown for personal usebe it recreational or medicinal. The citys Personal Cannabis Cultivation Tax measure, which will join Prop. 19 on the Nov. 2 ballot, would impose an annual tax of $600 per square foot on indoor grows up to 25 square feet, and a $900-per-square-foot tax for anything larger. For the casual toker growing in the 5x5 space that Prop. 19 allows (3-6 plants), that calculates to $15,000 per year. A 10x10 space (6-12 plants), which you may need if your roommates want to grow, too, would cost $90,000 per year. Since Prop. 19 allows cities to regulate and control even medical marijuana cultivationwhich theyre not allowed to do under Prop. 215then for countless patients, this tax would make growing their own medicine impossible.
In addition to limiting grow space to 5x5, it requires that people cultivating outdoors must secure their plants from minors by keeping their grow space separately fenced (and 10 feet away from all other fencesso to grow legally, you must have a fenced cubicle in the middle of your backyard if anyone under 21 has access to it.) And if the branches of your plant extend beyond that 5x5 space, it becomes a public nuisancesubject to even more fines (in Riverside, for example, a public nuisance fine is $1,000 per day). Furthermore, Prop. 19 gives cities the power to require renters to get their landlords permission, and even building inspections, in order to growwhich landlords may be unwilling to give since it could subject them to forfeiture by the federal government.
How will your city legislate personal cultivation? Even if Prop. 19 becomes law, will you be able to afford to exercise your right to grow in your 5x5 space?
Consider the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. It didnt make marijuana illegal, but prohibited possession of marijuana without a special tax stampwhich the government never issued. So even though marijuana was legal, it was impossible to possess it legally. Prop. 19 would do the very same thingmake it legal for you to cultivate marijuana, yet allow cities to make it economically infeasible for anyone to actually be able to grow it. This isnt legalization; this is back-door prohibition. Will you grow your own, even if you cant afford to pay the taxes? Will you trade the felony of cultivation for the felony of tax evasion? Will you vote for Prop. 19 only to become a criminal?
Although 2012 will offer us a full legalization alternative with the California Cannabis Hemp and Health/Jack Herer Initiative, the more likely scenario is that if Prop. 19 passes, then by that time, big cannabis corporations will have all the money, power and influence necessary to thwart any challenge to their monopoly. What do you suppose are the chances of voting in an initiative like CCHHthat emphasizes individual freedom over corporationsafter big cannabusiness just spent two years multiplying their millions legally under the monopoly Prop. 19 creates, keeping everyone else out of the market, and making it illegal for you to buy your weed from anyone but them? If this is the case, Soares concludes, another proposition will only get on the ballot if a very independently wealthy cannabis activist can fund the proposition. And even if there is such a person, the extremely wealthy license holders will campaign with all their wealth and might against it. This is not our only chance to vote yes to legalization. But it may be our only chance to vote no to the corporatization of cannabis...
-Dragonfly De La Luz
Full article found here:
http://votetaxcannabis2010.blogspot.com/p/pandoras-box-of-unintended-consequences.html