Edwin DeTartay doesn’t even smoke marijuana and doesn’t plan to. But that doesn’t dissuade him from supporting a measure such as Proposition 19 that, if passed, would decriminalize casual cultivation, sale and use of cannabis in California.
“I don’t take marijuana and I don’t intend to. But I don’t think it should be legal. I think it should be regulated,” he says. “But I think it could be used to raise income for the state. California has a lot of fiscal problems and a lot of it has to do with California locking up many of our citizens, particularly minorities.”
Minorities have born the brunt of selective enforcement and prosecution for decades, filling up the jails and prisons in the state to the point that its helped bring California to the brink of bankruptcy.
“But if they made it legal and find a way to monitor it, it would alleviate some of the pressures on the jail system. I just don’t see anything that bad about it.” Besides, DeTartay says, there are other chemical products out there that are more harmful and legal.
“I think tobacco is more harmful. My girlfriend’s mother just passed away from lung cancer. If you drive and use it you might miss more freeway exits, but … I don’t think it should be that bad.”
Some economic pundits believe that decriminalizing marijuana would help the battered and beleaguered state recoup tens of millions of dollars from a marijuana tax to help stave off bankruptcy. Besides, there are other illicit narcotics that have impacted society in much more negative ways than marijuana ever has or could, DeTartay believes.
“I don’t think it’s that bad. I think there are better things that we should be chasing people for. I think meth [methamphetamines] and crack, where they are highly, highly addictive and very bad for you. –terry shropshire
