Weathering the Storm...

(Let me first air my chagrin- I had written feverishly last night a list of cataloged thoughts on a number of election issues, boiling down a lot of the propositions and saved it. Google begs to differ, and now I am forced to start from scratch. [In the style of LLK]: Le Boo.)

http://www.co.humboldt.ca.us/election/results/2010/2010nov-final-report.pdf

The above link preserves my sanity.

And without getting in to the nitty-gritty, and without getting hyper political, I can confidently say that the people in my office, and the community in general, needed the incumbent to win the District Attorney's race.

I can also say that even though this a mid-term election, and my fourth or fifth one (?), it was the most exciting, because it had the most bearing on me personally. (Ok, yes, that's a bit ego-maniacal.)

In any event, it was a nasty race, that had a lot (too many) names dragged through the mud, including the victims of crime that were essentially postured for political points. Yes, it was that ugly. It's over, thank God, and now the fine citizens of Humboldt County can sit back and wait until the recall effort gains momentum. Sigh...

The other big thing that I was keeping my eye out on was, yes, Proposition 19. Now, the thoughts I wrote last night on everything else were indeed salient, well thought-out, and the prose would make even the most esteemed writer weep. (God, the ego-mania just doesn't stop.) But now that I have the opportunity to simply boil down my election thoughts, I think that these two issues that I should discuss. And to be honest, it's simply because they're the only ones I'm really qualified to discuss.

So let's dive in to the anti-prohibition project. I wanted 19 to pass, and believe me, I didn't really expect much from it's return. The fiscal predictions were just too speculative. And yeah, any revenue is better than no revenue, but again, it was just too nebulous.

My interest in its passing were threefold:

1. I personally feel that marijuana is an appropriate recreational drug. It's less harmful than alcohol, especially if ingested without carcinogens (smoking), and just anectdotally from my experience, it has never lead to violence. Alcohol does. In fact, I'd say in the overwhelming majority of cases involving alcohol, alcohol and or meth is involved. Not pot. The only situation in which I see marijuana being dangerous in that respect is if I have to listen to a drum circle for more than fifteen minutes and end up going nuts on every Phish-head involved.

2. The prohibition of marijuana paradoxically creates violence. Kinda like how the prohibition of alcohol created or at least strengthened organized crime, the prohibition of marijuana fuels a lot of the "bigger" cases up here in Humboldt. For obvious reasons, I cannot get in to the details, but again, it's my personal opinion that if marijuana weren't illegal, people would be less inclined to rob grow operations, front pounds of weed and then rob people, or the like.

3. I think that marijuana can be safely legislated. Now, this is probably why 19 failed in my opinion. The language was a bit vague (what do you expect from a voter initiative), and there were some pretty serious gaps. I think the appropriate thing to do would be to push the California legislature as well as make significant pushes with the federal Department of Justice. Without their consent, any legalization movement would be moot. That's what we heard with 19, and I'd imagine Eric Holder's position would not change, nor would any other Attorney General. And that's something activists need to think about when they push for this again. It's not enough to get 20 million Californians to agree. There will have to be significant movement at the federal level, which by my prediction is the much steeper uphill battle. Put down the bong, and get to work, hippie.

Well, those be my thoughts on November 2. Oh, one last thought. I think that election day NEEDS to be a federal holiday. Actually, November 3. That way, you can stay up late, party, or drown your sorrows when Palin wins!