The age of pot prohibition seems to be coming to end in California. A ballot measure to legalize recreational use of marijuana is likely to pass this November. A Public Policy Institute of California poll conducted in March showed support for legalization at 53 percent. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act is one of the organizations that worked to get the measure on the ballot. Spokesperson Jason Kinney says legalization will make it easier to study the effects of pot, especially on young people.
“There’s been very little clinical research done in this area for too long and this measure is going to allow a boom in the area of research; about the impacts both positive and negative of cannabis.”
Prohibition hasn’t worked, says Kinney. Instead, it has ended up making pot too accessible.
“If you’re a kid, as we keep saying, ‘drug dealers don’t card.’ There’s no way to control, or track or trace or regulate what’s going on in the world of marijuana.”
Bringing pot out of the shadows and subject to regulation will make it easier to keep it away from minors. Kinney says legalization will also end the scourge of wasteful government spending on the ‘war on marijuana.’ ”
Kinney was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning Show with Doug McIntyre and Terri-Rae Elmer.
By Sandy Wells