PROPOSITION 19: POSSIBLE PERMISSIBLE POT

If you've been secretly smoking your spliff, chill out. By this time
next week, it could be legal.

Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010
would legalize marijuana in California. Anyone over the age of 21 will
be able to possess and grow marijuana for his personal use. If the
Proposition passes, it will allow the state and local governments to
regulate and tax cannabis. The governments will also oversee
production, distribution, and sale.

Legalization supporters say it could lead to hundreds of millions of
dollars annually in taxes. Humboldt County's Board of Supervisors
endorsed Proposition 19.

"It's a waste of government money to try to lock up everyone with
pot," said Lacey Palmer, a junior psychology major.

Those who oppose Proposition 19 say that if passed, it will encourage
drug use, promote driving under the influence, and endanger the safety
of communities and the workplace. Federal funding for schools and
businesses would also be at risk. Tristan Irving, a sophomore
journalism major, said that although he thinks Proposition 19 would
help California financially, he can't see it passing.

"I think, if California passes it, the rest of the United States will
blow it out of proportion," said Irving.

Irving said that Proposition 19 would just be another way for the
government and corporations to control people and their recreational
choices.

University Police Chief Thomas Dewey also opposes Proposition 19. He
said that even if the proposition passes, the Humboldt State housing
and campus policies will not change.

"There is no mandate that a university must allow on its grounds every
type of personal conduct that is permitted in other areas of our
society," said Dewey. "Humboldt State will continue to prohibit
marijuana on campus and to cite, arrest, and sanction students on
campus with marijuana, since it remains in violation of federal law."

This leads to the biggest roadblock for supporters of Proposition 19:
the federal government. Even if California voters make marijuana
legal, it will still be illegal on the federal level. If the
University goes against federal law and allows marijuana use on
campus, it would lose its federal funding, which goes toward grants,
financial aid for students, and programs.

Dewey said the deputy director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy and the director of the National Marijuana
Initiative conveyed this to both city and University leaders in a
meeting with.

"In that meeting, we were told by these federal officials that if
Humboldt State University did not want to jeopardize the federal
funds," said Dewey, "we must follow the federal law that marijuana is
a Schedule-1 controlled substance as per the United States Code."

Economics professor Thomas Bruner said that Proposition 19 is a social
statement and a representation of shifting generational attitudes
toward marijuana, more than a law that has a chance of passing.

"The only significant effect could possibly be a shift in the attitude
associated with the risk of producing marijuana," said Bruner.

It looks like a tough battle for those who support Proposition 19.
Even if it passes, there is still the federal government to fight.