CA prop 19 and AZ prop 203

[middieman440]

19 failed sucks and i guess its just going to be illegal for good

[eccentric]

I can understand politicians not wanting to take up legalization, but how can the people vote this down?? How is a democracy supposed to work if the majority is this stupid?

How does it even make sense that a 55% majority can put people in jail for something supported by the other 45%?

[WillyNilly]

I can understand politicians not wanting to take up legalization, but how can the people vote this down?? How is a democracy supposed to work if the majority is this stupid?

How does it even make sense that a 55% majority can put people in jail for something supported by the other 45%?

We elected Bush twice. Once illegally, the next time through chicanery.

Are we stupid? Or is Joe Average so worried about making ends meet, he doesn't pay close attention to things like politics. He believes what he sees on "the TeeVee." He certainly doesn't have time to get informed and go carry a sign in a march.

I'm broke. Politics is a hobby to me, and I pay attention. Most people don't know what I'm talking about.

They know their sports, though.

[leadmagnet]

Shit, Arizona prop 203 lost by around .6 percent of the vote.

[Ocotillo]

It aint over yet. 203 is actually catching up. The difference is down to .5% which is only 3,000 votes behind with still about 250,000 votes to count! These are absentee and "mail in" votes, from Maricopa county for one, which is expected to be MMJ friendly. They have untill the 12th to get off their asses and count them all up.

GodSpeed, Doc Oc.

Shit, Arizona prop 203 lost by around .6 percent of the vote.

[gypski]

I can understand politicians not wanting to take up legalization, but how can the people vote this down?? How is a democracy supposed to work if the majority is this stupid?

How does it even make sense that a 55% majority can put people in jail for something supported by the other 45%?

The Founders gave the people the right to act in disobedience and defiance against an overbearing majority. There were protections or still are that just aren't applied in the way they should be. And your question goes right to that, how can only 10% more tell us no. Even the Senate need a super majority to stop a bullshit session (filibuster). Its just how we play with numbers any more. A percentage that close should at least call for a moratorium on this victimless crime or the smoker being the victim. Frankly, under the constitution, they can't tell us no and the prohibition is actually unconstitutional. But, they will let Bush off the hook without legal repercussions after admitting to ordering torture (waterboarding) of terror suspects. Kind of fucked up if you ask me.

[Ocotillo]

More info:
Itâ??s not over yet for Arizonaâ??s Proposition 203 to legalize medical marijuana in the state. While the initiative is down by less than 1%, the results are not final.

The Marijuana Policy Project â?? which put the initiative on the ballot and provided major funding and support for the campaign â?? reports that there are up to 300,000 ballots to be counted.

From an email by MPP director Rob Kampia:

Based on the ballots tabulated by election officials last night, the initiative was trailing slightly, with 49.75% in favor, with 50.25% opposed â?¦ a difference of less than 7,000 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast.

For the next few days, Arizona government officials will be counting an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 votes that were cast by people whose mail-in ballots arrived at polling stations or elections offices in the final hours of the campaign. They may also need to examine thousands of â??provisionalâ?� ballots that were cast by people whose residency was in dispute at the polls on election day.

In sum, if our initiative receives 52% of the votes that have yet to be tabulated, our initiative passes.

We may know more about the fate of Prop 203 in the coming days and weeks; if it passes, Arizona patients will have safe access to medical marijuana, and as many as 120 dispensaries could spring up across the state.

[MimbresValley]

time to puff puff pass.
PHOENIX â?? Arizona voters have approved a measure that will legalize medical marijuana use in the state for people with chronic or debilitating diseases.
Final vote tallies showed Saturday that Proposition 203 won by a tiny margin of just 4,341 votes out of more than 1.67 million votes counted. The measure had started out losing on Election Day by about 7,200 votes, but the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days.
"Now begins the very hard work of implementing this program in the way it was envisioned, with very high standards," said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. "We really believe that we have an opportunity to set an example to the rest of the country on what a good medical marijuana program looks like."
Arizona is the 15th state to approve a medical marijuana law. California was the first in 1996, and 13 other states and Washington, D.C., have since followed suit.
The Arizona measure will allow patients with diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and any other "chronic or debilitating" disease that meets guidelines to buy 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks or grow plants.
The patients must get a recommendation from their doctor and register with the Arizona Department of Health Services. The law allows for no more than 124 marijuana dispensaries in the state. After ballots are canvassed Nov. 29, the state has 120 days before the law goes into effect.
Backers of Proposition 203 have argued that thousands of patients faced "a terrible choice" of suffering with a serious or even terminal illness or going to the criminal market for pot. They collected more than 252,000 signatures to put the measure on the ballot â?? nearly 100,000 more than required.
All Arizona's sheriff's and county prosecutors, the governor, attorney general and many other politicians came out against the measure.
Carolyn Short, chairwoman of Keep AZ Drug Free, the group that organized opposition to the initiative, said her group believes the law will increase crime around dispensary locations, lead to more people driving while impaired and eventually lead to legalized pot for everyone.
She noted that the major financial backer of the new measure, the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, makes no bones about its ultimate goal: national legalization of marijuana for everyone.
"All of the political leaders came out and warned Arizonans that this was going to have very dire effects on a number of levels," Short said after the measure pulled into the lead late on Friday. "I don't think that all Arizonans have heard those dire predictions."
Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved a medical marijuana law in 1996 and 1998, but it never went into effect because of problems with its wording. Then in 2002, voters rejected a sweeping initiative that would have decriminalized possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana for any user and required state police to hand out the drug to seriously ill people.
The measure that went before voters this month began Friday losing by about 1,500 votes, then surged ahead by 4,421 votes.
Maricopa was the only Arizona county with ballots still outstanding on Saturday. The county finished counting all the remaining provisional and early ballots by late in the afternoon.
The final, unofficial count was 841,346 in favor of the measure and 837,005 opposed.

[leadmagnet]

Dang, now it looks like I AM going to get to prance in to work tomorrow! Few days later than I thought but that's alright.

Congratulations Arizona.