PLENTY OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS IN CALIFORNIA CANNABIS DEBATE

Despite Opposition From Lawmakers Of All Political Stripes Right Up To
The White House, The Left-Leaning State Is Once Again At The Forefront
Of America's Culture Wars, Sheldon Alberts Writes.

Gripping his Bic lighter in one hand and a blue bubbler pipe in
another, David Goldman leans forward on his living room couch and
begins to medicate. The pipe burbles as he takes a long drag of the
premium marijuana doctors have recommended for his chronic pain and
headaches. He waits a moment to exhale, savours the taste, then
releases a long plume of smoke into the air. "That," he says, "feels
wonderful." It's a feeling Goldman, 59, hopes all adult Californians
will be able to share - without fear of arrest or jail time - before
much longer.

Fourteen years after California became the first jurisdiction in North
America to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the state
is weighing a history-making ballot measure to legalize the drug for
recreational purposes.

Proposition 19, which Californians will approve or reject on Nov. 2,
would allow anyone 21 years or older to possess up to one ounce and
grow up to 2.25 square metres of marijuana. It gives local governments
the authority to tax and regulate the drug's cultivation and retail
sale in cannabis cafes or other outlets.

The proposition has once again put leftleaning California - which only
two years ago went through a wrenching debate over gay marriage - on
the front lines of America's culture wars.

Public Safety First, the group leading the No campaign on Proposition
19, has raised the spectre of a pot garden in every California back
yard and workplaces rife with stoned employees. The Obama
administration is also raising its hackles.

In a move aimed at giving California voters pause before voting in
favour of legalization, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently
announced the federal government would continue to " vigourously
enforce" federal drug laws prohibiting marijuana no matter what
California's electorate decides.

"Proposition 19 is not going to pass, even if it passes," said Los
Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who also promised continued
enforcement.

The warnings came as momentum for legalization in California seemed to
be building. Despite opposition from almost every major political
figure in the state, a Public Policy Institute of California poll in
September found 52 per cent of voters backed Proposition 19. In the
wake of Holder's announcement, a PPIC survey released this week found
support had fallen sharply, to 44 per cent.

"There is the potential of some confusion that gets created about
whether California does, in fact, have the right to pass Prop 19,
which it does," says Stephen Gutwillig, the California state director
for the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group supporting the Yes on
19 campaign.

"There may be people who now have questions about whether the federal
government may just simply invalidate the election."

For supporters of Proposition 19, however, legalization of marijuana
is an idea whose time has come.

Even as lawmakers and editorialists fight the proposal, the Yes on 19
campaign has built a diverse and somewhat surprising coalition of
backers - including the state's largest labour union, an array of
former police chiefs and civil right groups such as the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"I think passage of Prop 19 will be a tipping point," says Goldman, a
patients' rights activist who believes the majority of Californians no
longer accept the sky-is-falling predictions of the anti-marijuana
movement.

In the No campaign's arguments, Goldman hears echoes of the debate in
1996 over medical marijuana.

"They thought the world would come to an end - kids would be
helplessly seduced into marijuana; the driving fatality rate would
skyrocket, and everyone would be laying out getting stoned all the
time," he says. "And lo and behold, that just hasn't happened."

Many of the pro-legalization arguments are familiar: That marijuana is
less harmful than alcohol or tobacco and that precious law enforcement
dollars are being wasted on enforcing minor violations.

The most oft-cited statistic? In 2008, there were 61,000 arrests for
misdemeanour marijuana possession in California, while 60,000 violent
crimes went unsolved.

"To spend one single dollar locking somebody up for cannabis just
seems creepy to me," says Julia Negron, a retired addiction specialist
who has joined a group of California mothers supporting the Yes on 19
campaign.

"It's insane - why would we ever do that? That dollar should go to
education. That dollar should go to treatment. That dollar should go
anywhere but to the prison system."

On that point, outgoing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to
agree. Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger signed legislation making
possession of an ounce of marijuana an infraction rather than a
misdemeanour, putting a violation on par with receiving a parking ticket.

For all the focus on traditional arguments for and against
legalization of marijuana, passage of Proposition 19 may rest on the
Yes campaign's ability to persuade voters it is the fiscally
responsible thing for California to do.

With the state desperate for new sources of revenue to tackle a
$19-billion annual deficit, legalization supporters contend taxation
and regulation of marijuana would provide a much-needed infusion of
cash.

Marijuana production currently generates $14 billion a year in the
state, and pro-legalization campaigners contend the state could
collect up to $1.4 billion in extra taxes by regulating its production.

Others envision California becoming a destination for marijuana
tourists, with the Bay Area and northern Humboldt County - where most
of the state's crop is grown - as the natural hubs.