I know this isn't PC, and I realize somehow legalizing in cali will be good for the movement, and i know i used to care a lot and now i'm probably just jaded but
more totally un-pc things (even though i'd vote for it no question)
1) does anyone in cali right now actually feel like marijuana is illegal? i know it's never felt like that to me in the bay at least
2) right now just saying blind averages, clubs in the bay are charging 50% more a z than your man and the club weed is almost always lower quality. so if it's legal is the club like experience going to drive out the indies? I honestly don't know what the answer is but it seems unlikely it would be indies driving out stores. also the illicit market was what was responsible for the extended price drop that finally took clubs off of the $350-$400 range
3) maybe i'm a cunt but right now i know where 100% of my money goes to and i play with their kids at bbq's. I mean i know cali's broke but it's hard to jump up and down to start paying them on whats a very grassroots transaction right now. Oh and at least the grower pays fed & state on that income, i know because we talked about it for a long time. He writes off nutes too.
4) sf before 215: smoke weed anywhere the owners didn't mind and np after 215: same
5) oak before last possible: smoke weed anywhere and no one cared, pulled over with the whole care reeking of kush, guy doesn't say a thing. oak after last possible: same
perm address and registered in denver...
6) colorado before medical: meh weed, never seen anyone hassled for smoking. -- co after medical: meh weed, never seen anyone hassled, heard there is a pot club somewhere?
7) denver before legalization: i guess they sometimes would hassle the hispanics in the park, np smoking anywhere they are cool with it -- denver after legalization: SAFER screams bloody murder, cops still hassle mexicans in the park, np smoking anywhere they are cool with it
8) denver before lowest possible: cops still hassling mexicans in the park, colorado still has 2nd tier bud 90% of the time -- denver after lowest possible: i think the cops have actually stopped hassling the mexicans in the park for weed! (now they hassle them for loitering)
it's just the two places i have the most experience with, so obviously i can't speak to everywhere maybe sometimes it's a night/day revolution but i don't get that impression
I really kind of like the west coast creep method with medical. I mean, you know thats a huge unspoken reason that 215 went through and they had such lax rules about cards and everything else right? once 215 came in anyone who bothered to be was legal (not that it really mattered unless you were growing weight). The old ladies and neo-cons didn't flip out because it was about the cancer, yo. clubs with their insane prices really helped solidify the grower base, helped them upgrade, helped them take care of their kids. it solidified the community increasing quality, raising demand for quality, stabilized the supply and strain availability
then we got or, and while i haven't seen the process i've been told its pretty tight there. but none the less the cali medical/decrim scene is impossible not to feel there.
And there's WA/NV/ND/CO/NM and it keeps coming and it's because the crazies don't get out screaming when you put medical on the ballot. But they sure do when you put legal, or at least they do in CO. We lost that here, though I voted for it of course, and I keep giving SAFER money even though they are kind of cunts about it in some ways (they love to buy outrageous billboards here every few months, something that says their message but has some kind of joke or image that makes all the stoners laugh and all the crazies send a million letters to the editor of the denver post.
Anyway, we lost CO legal. I think for the second time? I get confused because there is at least one something every election. so we don't have legal in CO, but, in the city i have:
1) CO medical
2) CO decrim
3) denver legal
4) denver lowest possible (passed after legal believe it or not.. (because of cops vs mexicans again)
anyway weed is so legal where i'm sitting you start wondering if you're breaking the law by being sober. and sooner or later we'll have co legal too and shit, i dunno
you know what is funny though? with all those laws, you walk by the bus stop at colfax and broadway, and there are still kids trying to sell you weed by being like pssst. and it's still one so so nug squeezed around a gram of the worst mex you've ever seen. and they ALWAYS say hey man come over here po-po's scopin'!
I realize this was a very very long rant and didn't really get to a good point, and i'm not trying to bust on you because i used to be rah rah, and ill still vote for it all. But I guess I just don't really understand what's going on. it seems to me that weed is pretty much ignored in like 80% of the states? If not at least in the rockies and west. and it just never seems to matter when a new law goes in. I get that it's winning, and i get that it does stop the targeted harassment some places do to select people, but in general it just feels like it already happened everywhere i go a long time ago.
/shrug
Oh but that's a good look for MA though - go east coast!!!