Question on California Prop 19?

[smokeythebear06]

I'm sure all of you are aware of Prop 19(legalizing marijuana). I hear ads for it that claim that law enforcement are for prop 19, and I have heard ads saying law enforcement is against it. I am against it myself, but generally what is people in Law Enforcements stand on this issue? The argument I have heard is that many people in law enforcement want it legalized because they said it allows them to focus on more serious crimes, but don't officers have discretion in most encounters with marijuana anyway(unless its a large amount)?

And when reading about the Proposition in the ballot, it said one of the arguments of people who oppose it is that "if Prop. 19 passes. It will be legal for a driver to get high right before taking the wheel. It will also be legal for passengers to smoke pot as they drive on the freeway or in your neighborhood." My question is that doesn't a DUI include driving under the influence of DRUGS and ALCOHOL? Is the law going to change on this if marijuana is legalized? And passengers in a car can't drink alcohol while somebody is driving, so why can the smoke marijuana(especially because of the second hand smoke)

My last question is about the Federal government being against it. Is there a federal law against marijuana and if 19 is passed, would state and local law enforcement still be able to enforce this law?

As I said before, I am against proposition 19. I feel the REAL reason people want this law passed so they can get stoned all the time, and I feel that the whole "the government can tax it and make money" is just some excuse for people to be able to get high. I've never smoked dope, don't hang with people who do it, and will never do it no matter what the law says. I also don't want it legalized because I feel that its already easy enough for kids to get their hands on it, and if it gets legalized that would make it much worse.

[mcsap]

100% against it. All it will do is make a lot more stoners out of people.

Like we need that to happen.

[retdetsgt]

Driving under the influence is driving under the influence. Alcohol is legal, but you can't drink and drive. If marijuana is legal, you still can't use it and drive.

Local police will not be able to enforce federal laws against it. Only feds can do that. We face a little of that in Oregon where medical marijuana is legal.

I think marijuana will eventually be legalized, there's been a push for it for a long time and it's getting stronger. I think it's just a matter of time.

I have mixed feelings about it. So many people use it that it's getting like prohibition and alcohol, you can get it everywhere. It doesn't make some people as violent and nuts as alcohol does, but the scary thing to me is when kids use it, they tend to drop out of life. But I think there are a lot of people who use marijuana like alcohol and wouldn't think of using harder drugs. On the other hand, a lot of people will start using it that don't now just because its illegal.

As far as a gateway drug, research has shown that the vast majority of drug addicts started with booze.

[Legoate]

Well the governator just decriminalized marijuana possession in CA anyway. The medical marijuana law is a joke here- every stoner and weed seller now has a card to show their "medical need". There are grows in half the ghetto backyards that we can do nothing about.

Really, either make it completely legal, or completely illegal. The half-assed measures that CA is using now are really a joke and insult the intelligence of the average citizen.

As far a being a huge tax source- I seriously doubt it. If it is legallized production will skyrocket, prices will drop to rock bottom, and the taxes will be tiny if it can even ben enforced. It will also set us up for a lot more legislation- in CA no tobacco/smoking laws apply to marijuana smoking. Either do open container type laws for vehicles. And the showdown between CA and the Feds will be something to see.

[retdetsgt]

Well the governator just decriminalized marijuana possession in CA anyway.

Are you talking about making less than an ounce being only a violation? We've had that since the mid seventies in Oregon.

The Oregon Medical Board cracked down on the doctors who were issuing way too many cards and that helped some. It's the growers who produce more than legal that are about the only ones getting busted.

There's a measure on the ballot now to open dispensaries, I dunno if it will pass or not.

[Legoate]

Are you talking about making less than an ounce being only a violation?

Yes, in January it will be an infraction (ticket) with I believe a fine less than $100 for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

We had dispensaries opening on every corner for a while. Eventually competition and robbery weeded some of them out.

I've had 18 year olds with cards for their "chronic back pain". They have never worked a day in their life and never suffered an injury and yet have "chronic back pain" which requires daily dosing with "medical marijuana". It's also frequently used to treat ADHD- which includes just about everyone who never could sit through an actual high school class.

If you look at the back half of our local free/crap paper it consists entirely of marijuana adds to get your card and buy your "medicinal marijuana". It's a joke of immense proportions.

I preferred when the back of that paper was filled with adds for massage parlors and "dating services". :P

(BTW- we enjoyed when we could chase our hippies to Oregon to smoke weed and live in the trees...now they are all going to come back and stink the place up again).

[retdetsgt]

(BTW- we enjoyed when we could chase our hippies to Oregon to smoke weed and live in the trees...now they are all going to come back and stink the place up again).

I'll take all your hippies if you'll take all the gangsters back you sent up here.......

We can only issue a citation for possession of less than an ounce. Most cops just dump in down the sewer in front of the guy and let him go rather than mess with having to take it to the lab.

It's too bad they can't do with wheat and corn what they've done with marijuana over the past 30 years. When I started, the homegrown was junk. Now the stuff is incredible.

[Outshined]

Dope is disgusting. It pisses me off everytime I hear a fellow officer defending its use. I arrest every single dirtbag I catch with marihuana, I don't care if it is just residue in a pipe. And my judge, a retired state trooper fines every one of these lowlife turdballs. The day they make weed legal around here, I will quit. I will not "go with the flow" I will quit working for a government who has completely lost their sense of wrong and right, and handed there balls to the puffers.

[retdetsgt]

Dope is disgusting. It pisses me off everytime I hear a fellow officer defending its use. I arrest every single dirtbag I catch with marihuana, I don't care if it is just residue in a pipe. And my judge, a retired state trooper fines every one of these lowlife turdballs. The day they make weed legal around here, I will quit. I will not "go with the flow" I will quit working for a government who has completely lost their sense of wrong and right, and handed there balls to the puffers.

If alcohol were discovered today, it would be classified as a schedule II controlled substance. Every time someone has a beer, they're intaking a drug.

[Outshined]

If alcohol were discovered today, it would be classified as a schedule II controlled substance.

I don't care, alcohol is legal weed is not, end of story.

[retdetsgt]

I don't care, alcohol is legal weed is not, end of story.

So, you would be okay with it if it's legalized like alcohol is?

[Outshined]

So, you would be okay with it if it's legalized like alcohol is?

No I would retire, because I could not stand to let these dirt bag pot smokers walk on by me. I was born in 1962, alcohol was legal then, weed wasn't.

I have spent 48 years on this earth, 25 of them in law enforcement. I am a black and white kind of guy. I cannot all of the sudden let these people smoke pot. Pot is a hippie, liberal, lazy, stupid person drug. That is the way I see it.

Alcohol is LEGAL, Marihuana is ILLLEGAL. I have known this my whole life and I don't like change.

Maybe we should make cocaine and meth, and heroine legal too.

[retdetsgt]

I was born in 1945 and was a cop for 28 years. I've never used weed nor any other illegal drug and have no plans to. I never busted many people for just possession of it, but I've taken down some pretty impressive grows and a lot of dealers in my life. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of sitting around sucking on beer and talking about the evils of weed other than the fact it's illegal. In my 28 years, I had a lot more fights and such with drunks than I ever did with stoners. Again, alcohol has all the addictive qualities of cocaine.

I'm not campaigning for the legalization of anything. Alcohol was illegal in the 20's and created a whole organized crime network that lasted past legalization. The ONLY reason it was legalized was people wanted it legal, just like a lot of people now want marijuana legalized. If alcohol had been illegal when you were working, would you retire when they repealed the 18th Amendment?

I just don't see it as that big a soapbox.

[Outshined]

I was born in 1945 and was a cop for 28 years. I've never used weed nor any other illegal drug and have no plans to. I never busted many people for just possession of it, but I've taken down some pretty impressive grows and a lot of dealers in my life. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of sitting around sucking on beer and talking about the evils of weed other than the fact it's illegal. In my 28 years, I had a lot more fights and such with drunks than I ever did with stoners. Again, alcohol has all the addictive qualities of cocaine.

I'm not campaigning for the legalization of anything. Alcohol was illegal in the 20's and created a whole organized crime network that lasted past legalization. The ONLY reason it was legalized was people wanted it legal, just like a lot of people now want marijuana legalized. If alcohol had been illegal when you were working, would you retire when they repealed the 18th Amendment?

I just don't see it as that big a soapbox.

Well wow eeee. I have busted hundreds of people for using weed.I am certainly not ashamed of it. I will do it until I am unable to do it. I don't like it. Again I am a Police Officer, payed to enforce the laws. Marihuana is illegal and alcohol is not. I enforce the laws.

I am sick and tired of these officers who say, "I won't arrest for that, I don't agree with it." I am a cop from the core of my body to the skin on my bones. I do what I am empowered to do. It is as simple as that.

People who claim people like myself are "on a soapbox" or are somehow threatening to them baffle me.

In 1985 I raised my right hand and swore to uphold the laws of the United States of America and the town I work in, and that is what I do. If that doesn't sit well with some wishy washy person who hops on whichever side is popular at the moment, I don't really care. I am what I am.

[retdetsgt]

W
I am sick and tired of these officers who say, "I won't arrest for that, I don't agree with it." I am a cop from the core of my body to the skin on my bones. I do what I am empowered to do. It is as simple as that.

People who claim people like myself are "on a soapbox" or are somehow threatening to them baffle me.

In 1985 I raised my right hand and swore to uphold the laws of the United States of America and the town I work in, and that is what I do. If that doesn't sit well with some wishy washy person who hops on whichever side is popular at the moment, I don't really care. I am what I am.

You'll have to show me who said they're not arresting people because they don't believe in the law. I haven't seen anyone say that. I did say that a lot of cops up here toss the weed because of the weak law Oregon has. It's more trouble than it's worth to take it to the lab, etc. when absolutely nothing happens to them. Not all, some if they have time, will issue the citation, etc. But that's the law here. If it were still a felony, more cops would take them to jail. As it is, all we can legally do is issue a citation.

I hope you're not inferring that I didn't arrest people or that I'm wishy washy when it comes to enforcing the law. I'll compare my record with anyone's. But I also believe in the law and if it's legalized, that's the will of the people. I enforce the law the way it's written. That's the oath I took.