Some thoughts from Dish readers. One writes:
I knew Prop 19 was going down weeks ago when a friend of mine and his wife voted against. They are parents of two small kids, and did so with the reasoning ''I don't care if other people do it but I don't want it to be illegal.” Another father, whose 21-year-old son has had a drug problem, grew emotionally angry when we discussed it. “At least you can tell your kids it's illegal.” I didn't want to engage him by pointing out his son had the problem when drugs were ILLEGAL.
Parents voted their fears.
Another writes:
I think proponents made the same mistake as that made a few years ago with Prop 8, i.e. not actually making the clear case and hammering away at it.
The correct vote on these props seemed self-evident to some of us, but apparently not to the majority. A lot of people in my generation (60s) who should have voted yes on 19 were swayed by the "gateway drug" rhetoric. We've all lived long enough to know people whose kids have lost their way on the drug road, that argument needed a clear response. The Mexico cartel connection had great potential but then the Rand study sort of put it away, without a cogent, repeated counter from proponents.
Another:
Last night I asked my girlfriend's 18 year-old son if he was going to vote for Prop 19, in what is his first opprtunity to vote. He surprised me with a no. His reasoning? It's more exciting if it's illegal.
Another:
I am a long-time San Francisco resident. I just saw that Proposition 19 lost - big time. Then I checked some of the county results. The measure was approved by about 65% of San Francisco voters. In Humboldt County, on the other hand - one of the points on the Emerald Triangle - only about 47% of voters approved the measure.
I know some growers up north, and there is no doubt in my mind that this measure lost (or at least lost by as much as it did) because of greedy growers in northern California who are making bags of money selling cannabis to medical dispensaries, and who know that their bottom line would suffer were cannabis legalized across the board. That puts those growers in league with big alcohol, tobacco, and other unsavories for whom personal monetary gain is worth a few young kids getting thrown in some hell-hole prison for the rest of their lives as the result of a pot bust. I really should cease to be amazed by the power of money to corrupt people.
Thanks growers. And screw you.
(Photo: Mark Ralston/Getty.)