Santa Barbara and the Pot Prop
Is It High Time California Legalizes Marijuana?
This November, exactly 20 years after California became the first in the union to decriminalize medical marijuana, state voters will decide once and for all if they can get high for fun, legally.
Four other states and the District of Columbia have already passed recreational cannabis laws, but if Proposition 64 is approved in California — the sixth largest economy in the world where marijuana is the biggest cash crop — it will send waves of drug-policy sea change across the country.
The creators and supporters of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, or AUMA, say the ballot measure will finally legitimize an activity in which millions of Golden State residents already partake. They argue that taxing and regulating the commodity will create a tax boon of a billion dollars a year, benefiting youth programs and law enforcement, and that the new state oversight will set quality-control and pricing standards that would edge out Mexican cartels.
