PROP 19 PUTS THE PIPE (AND THE POWER) IN YOUR HANDS

ATTENTION: If you have changed houses since your last time voting,
you must re-register today, or else it might be your fault if weed
doesn't become legal in two weeks. It's a piece of cake: Google
"California election" and use the top Web site to fill out your name,
then print it and mail it. If you bring it to the Daily Nexus office
before 4:20 p.m., I'll even give you a stamp and mail it for you.

I won't presume to tell you who to choose for governor or
congressman, and I won't claim to have enough information to make a
public stand for any of the ballot propositions, except for one.
Proposition 19 is a wise financial decision for the state of
California, and it is every American's right to challenge the federal
authority on drug policy when its science is clearly flawed. As a
corollary, Measure T - a total ban on marijuana dispensaries within
the city of Santa Barbara - is a silly piece of legislation that
represents no rational economic viewpoint, but only the hopeless will
of mean old people to control the supreme glory of the free market.

If Proposition 19 fails and Measure T succeeds, will I have any
greater difficulty in obtaining pot? Not in the slightest degree.
Will California still have its debts to pay? Certainly, except its
regulators will have to search elsewhere for $1.4 billion in tax
revenue. Best of luck, chaps!

Thousands of years have passed and not a single man, woman or child
has ever lost their life as a result of this plant. If some asshole
is high on pot while he kills himself, he was a suicidal asshole
before he ever took a hit. This is my first point: Drugs are only
amplifiers of an existing psychological state.

My second point is that drug crime is a consequence of prohibition,
not a cause for it. I wrote last week that limitless junk food is as
addictive as heroin. I also showed how Portugal's decriminalization
of drugs has not increased their use among the population. Therefore
any evils associated with the market for marijuana (which is less
addictive than junk food) have been produced by its exclusion from
the free and open marketplace.

For example, if a plant (in our case, the marijuana market) is taken
out of the sunlight, it will deform itself in an attempt to break its
limitations and return to the light. A passerby might note that the
plant looked sickly during its time in the darkness. A brief time
back in the sun and that plant will be strong, healthy and
rejuvenated. Was its sickly appearance the fault of the plant, or of
the gardener? I blame the gardener for being such a dumbass.

Apparently the gardener thinks we're all dumbasses, too. On Thursday,
U.S. attorney general Eric Holder claimed that Prop 19 would
interfere with efforts to "target drug traffickers who frequently
distribute marijuana alongside cocaine and other controlled
substances." Is Holder joking? We're not talking about legalizing
cocaine. We're talking about legalizing marijuana so that there would
be more money to address problems like cocaine.

I don't like to divide people, but here it goes: Some people are more
responsible than others. If marijuana is a 'gateway drug' for you,
then chances are you're irresponsible. There are a hundred actions in
the course of an American citizen's day that are more addictive and
destructive than smoking weed. To blame pot for one's failures as a
rational human being just fucks it up for the rest of us.

For those of us who are responsible, smoking marijuana can be a great
benefit. This is my final point: Drugs are weight training for the
human spirit. When I have work to do, I derive enjoyment in finishing
it so that I may have free time. At the end of the day when my work
is done, my mind no longer needs the full degree of its precision, so
I relax. When the sun rises again and the world's ripe for
conquering, I feel young, fresh and my mind is clear. Relaxation time
is mine, and so long as harm comes to no other, I'll smoke whatever I please.

Stand your ground. Smoke your pot. Speak the truth. Vote Yes on Prop 19.