California Propositions is a series about propositions that will be on the California ballot in November.

Graphic by Jennifer Fong, with Creative Commons images by Flickr users pinksherbert, schamka, figgenhoffer, emiliep and alcately

My two cents: At this point, legalizing marijuana is the only rational option for California. Californians already decided they have little problem with people smoking pot when they legalized its use for medical purposes in 1996.

Right now, all it takes to get a “prescription” for pot is a driver’s license, $100 and a semi-believable health complaint. It’s not much more of a stretch to make marijuana available for the public as a whole, except that Proposition 19 would wisely make it taxable for state revenue. That’s $1.4 billion we desperately need, and the pockets of smokers (rather than the paychecks of state employees) is a great place to get it.

Government prohibition of marijuana has done nothing to taper teens’ access to the drug or to reduce the number of people who have used it. Drug laws continue to be arbitrarily enforced and punish blacks and Latinos at far greater rates than whites.  

Beyond the home front, taking pot off the black market would cripple Mexico’s drug cartels and could potentially end the country’s brutal drug wars.

Nobody wants highways full of stoned drivers or teens smoking joints in school bathrooms. But as a society, we’ve decided that having those same risks with alcohol, a far more dangerous substance, is an acceptable price to pay for individual freedom. It’s time we stopped kidding ourselves and made the same choice with marijuana. - Olga Khazan

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