Sunday, August 22, 2010

An Argument Against Prop 19

I'll take issue with at least one point this gal makes in a San Francisco Chronicle commentary arguing against Prop 19, the upcoming ballot initiative to legalize and tax marijuana in California. Susan Manheimer, police chief of San Mateo, claims passage of Prop 19 will allow people to legally drive cars "with marijuana in their system".

I don't know how she can say that. It's illegal to drive in California under the influence of alcohol, drug or narcotics. That applies whether the alcohol or drugs are legal, or not. Prop 19 won't change that and, as one comment to her commentary pointed out, people who smoke pot and drive are likely already engaging in such behavior.

We can quibble about some of her other arguments, and there are some legitimate- even libertarian- reasons to oppose Prop 19, but I don't think worrying about pot smoking drivers is one of them.

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3 Comments:

At 7:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can drive after drinking, so long as its a couple beers. .08 is the limit. You can drive on prescription drugs as well. How do you measure Marijuana intoxication? Scientifically? I think they can tell if you've smoked in the last 30 days or not, but otherwise theres no real way to tell how much, at what time, and how it affected your ability to drive. This is just more of the nanny state bullshit, giving cops further lattitude to fuck you over.

 
At 5:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, by all means, let's let freedom ring and blood to flow freely on the freeways of the land we love!

 
At 11:11 PM, Anonymous Mr. Nice said...

Once they come up with hands-free blunts, this will be a moot point.

 

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