Marijuana vote: Yes on 64
Listen to this articleWith election day just 38 days away, California voters will have a lot to vote for in November. Every district will vote for their Congressional representatives, local offices, state and local judges, and a variety of ballot propositions.
Prop 51 for education, Prop 52 to adjust the hospital fees program, Prop 53 would require the legislature to post a bill on the internet for three days before it is voted on in Sacramento, Prop 54 is about legislative accountability, Prop 55 would raise personal incomes tax on people with incomes over $250,000, Prop 56 would raise the tax on tobacco — the tobacco industry is working overtime to defeat this one. The state ballots are many.
Prop 58 would repeal the 1998 proposition that mandated English-only in public education and allow multi-lingual education. Prop 60 would require porn movies to use condoms in their films. This would be a blow to the San Fernando Valley, home to the porn industry in California. Prop 62 repeals the death penalty.
Most of the local propositions faced the voters June 7, but in San Diego residents will be voting on Prop C to formally give the city and the San Diego Chargers permission to build a stadium and entertainment complex in downtown San Diego, near Petco Park and the Convention Center.
One of the state ballot measures to get a lot of public attention, with little advertising, is Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, that would legalize marijuana for recreational use. Users will be able to grow up to six plants and posses up to one ounce for recreational use personally and with friends. It would be like alcohol: use it alone or with your friends. Actor Bill Murray said, “I find it quite ironic that the most dangerous thing about weed is getting caught with it.” Willie Nelson got spiritual: “I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?”
Then there is Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom who has said a lot about legalizing marijuana — cannabis as advocates call it — he helped craft Prop 64.
Then there is former Beatle Paul McCartney, once (and presently) a leading voice on recreational drugs like cannabis, said, “I support decriminalisation. People are smoking pot anyway and to make them into criminals is wrong. It’s when you’re in jail you really become a criminal.” He was a famously flagrant cannabis user, getting arrested in Los Angeles in 1975 (his first wife Linda took the fall) and in January 1980 he spent nine days in a Japanese jail after he was caught bringing a half pound of marijuana into the country for his Wings tour that year.
McCartney has been arrested several other times, in Scotland for growing plants on his farm, in Barbados. Paul McCartney has some cannabis history. So fans of McCartney and the Beatles made a parody of the Lennon-McCartney hit, “When I’m 64,” titled, “Yes on 64: A Tribute to Paul McCartney.” Enjoy.
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