POT LEGALIZATION IN CA POLLING OVER 50%

THIS THING COULD REALLY PASS

Everyone From Former Law Officers to Single Parents and Young Adults
Are Pushing for California to Legalize Pot This November.

A few short months ago, California's Proposition 19, the Regulate,
Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, seemed likely to fade away in
a puff of smoke. After more than three decades on the front lines of
the disastrous "war on drugs," I feared this best-hope-to-date
chapter in the battle for sane drug laws was a lost cause. But
something has changed in the public's consciousness, and in its resolve.

On September 30 the Public Policy Institute of California published
the results of its new poll. It shows Proposition 19 winning, by a
resounding 52-41 margin. Other polls are similarly encouraging.

What, apart from a smart, well-run campaign, explains this big swing
in momentum?

For one thing, more and more police officers have decided that the
40-year drug war is a farce and a failure. These cops have been
eyewitnesses to the ruinous effects of drug arrests on the lives of
the people they've been hired to protect and serve, and they're
finally speaking out. Members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,
in particular, have been reaching out to service clubs, civic groups,
and fellow cops throughout the state. They've been especially
persuasive in countering the escalating fear-mongering
misrepresentations of anti-19 forces.

Parents, including multiplying ranks of formerly resistant single
moms, fed up with violence in their neighborhoods, with marijuana's
ready availability in schools, and with the heartbreaking realities
of their teenage children's criminal records, are at last speaking
out against the absurdity of the state's marijuana laws. (And they
won't be dissuaded from voting for Proposition 19 simply because of
their governor's cynical, last-minute but long-overdue gesture in
reducing penalties in simple pot possession cases.)

Surprising numbers of conservative Californians have joined forces
with civil libertarians to create a formidable bloc of states' rights
advocates opposed to indefensible government intrusion into our everyday lives.

Human and civil rights advocates, such as the NAACP, have taken
official positions in opposition to the deep-seated racism reflected
in drug law enforcement, and in support of Proposition 19.

And, of course, Golden State voters are increasingly motivated by
reliable estimates that California, buried under a mountain of debt
and forced to slash vital services, stands to capture up to $1.4
billion in new revenues, along with substantial savings in law
enforcement and other criminal justice costs.

But perhaps the biggest boost to the pro-19 campaign may be found in
the vast army of young adults working for its passage. A natural
anti-prohibition demographic, young Californians not only oppose
their state's marijuana laws they are investing substantial time and
energy to the cause of replacing them. They've organized, mobilized,
gone door to door, rallied their friends.

Cynics take note. These young people will show up at the polls. And,
in all likelihood, they will cast the decisive votes that will
restore adult possession of marijuana as a basic freedom.