POT SMOKERS MELLOW, DESPITE REJECTION OF PROP. 19

An effort to legalize recreational marijuana went up in smoke Tuesday
but local pot smokers said it won't extinguish the drug's popularity.

About 54 percent of voters cast ballots against making California the
first state to legalize the use and sale of marijuana.

Jorge Diaz, 26, said he didn't bother voting because marijuana is
practically legal already.

"You can get a medical (marijuana) license for just about anything,"
Diaz said. "And if you can't (get a license) it's just a ticket."

Several people who patronized medical marijuana dispensaries in La
Puente on Wednesday morning also said they were indifferent about the
proposition and its failure.

Earlier this year, the governor signed into law a senate bill that
made possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a civil infraction,
the equivalent of a traffic ticket. It was previously a criminal
misdemeanor, akin to driving under the influence. Leading up to the
election, law enforcement officials throughout the state uniformly
opposed the initiative.

Covina Police Chief Kim Raney became a vocal opponent of the
proposition.

He said it would have put the Drug-Free Workplace Act in jeopardy
because employees could no longer be tested for marijuana use, and
there was no way to test motorists for driving under the influence of
the drug, Raney said in September.

Proponents of legalizing recreational marijuana said passing the
proposition would have resulted in a windfall of tax revenues for the
state.

Voters in La Puente, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento and San Jose
overwhelmingly voted in favor of taxing recreational marijuana if
Prop. 19 passed.

La Puente voters also approved a measure that places a 10-percent tax
on medical marijuana.

In what may be a sign of just how divided the proposition left
proponents of pot, voters rejected the measure in the state's
marijuana-growing region known as the "Emerald Triangle" of Humboldt,
Mendocino and Trinity counties.

Many in the region feared the system they had created would be taken
over by corporations or lose its purpose.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.