ECONOMIC BENEFITS MAY SWAY CALIFORNIANS TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Sales, Tax Revenue During Tough Economic Times Pitted Against Fears
of 'Ganga Madness' If Laws Relaxed

Gripping his 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 left-leaning 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 "vigorously
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."

Other critics of Proposition 19 say the ballot measure is an unwieldy
mess that creates a patchwork of regulations in counties and cities
across the state. In an editorial headlined No to Ganga Madness, the
San Diego Union-Tribune this week denounced the initiative as "an
invitation to law enforcement chaos."

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.

In July, Oakland approved the licensing of four marijuana factories
to sell pot wholesale to medical marijuana dispensaries. A local pot
entrepreneur, Richard Lee, has opened Oaksterdam University, which
trains students in cultivating and selling marijuana.

"I think the Bay Area is going to develop into a mecca along the
lines of Amsterdam," says Chris Conrad, a veteran of California's
marijuana battles and a member of the Yes on 19 steering committee.