Down with the Good Herb.
I ran into Melissa Fox, candidate for the 70th Assembly District (Irvine, Laguna Hills etc.) at tonight’s Democracy For America meeting, and remembered that I had promised some commenter here to get a straight answer from her about marijuana. It wasn’t hard at all.
“I’m totally in favor of decriminalizing, regulating, and taxing marijuana! Of course, that’s a no-brainer!”
“You know I’m a loud-mouthed blogger. This isn’t like just talking to a friend. This is going out on California’s biggest political blog tonight. You realize that.”
“No problem. I’ll say this to anybody. Just, nobody’s ever asked me. They just assume that since my Dad’s a cop I would say no.”
“What about what happened in Lake Forest with that dispensary?”
“I don’t know enough about that particular case to comment on it. But I do support decriminalizing pot nationally, and this state is a good place to get that started. Like Brandeis said, it’s our laboratory of democracy!”
Certain politico-type worry-warts in hearing distance later groused, “She shouldn’t have told you that. I would have warned her to answer more conservatively.” To which I would have responded “LOL,” but as it was real life, I merely laughed. Melissa’s a rare honest uncalculating politician. Let’s get the word out around UCI about Melissa this fall, while the marijuana initiative is also on the ballot, and teach these worry-warts a lesson about taking a bold stand for the right thing!
Oh, in case you didn’t know, her two most likely Republican opponents Choi and Wagner are firmly against both legalization and the presence of medical marijuana dispensaries in AD70.
NOW, follow me over the flip for more fun:
Help FireDogLake come up with a slogan for their cannabis campaign.
That’s right, in between all their work pushing for financial reform and a public option in health care, FireDogLake is also working on this California measure. (That’s something the FDL community voted on!) Today they’re inviting you to help them decide on a slogan. I went with “Just Say NOW,” but there are a lot of other good candidates here:
- Just Say Now
- Just Say No – To Prohibition
- Stop Supporting Cartels
- Marijuana Never Stole Your 401k
- Liberty. Legalize Marijuana
- Prohibition: Stupid Then, Stupid Now
- Marijuana: Pass it
- Prohibition Kills
- Campaign for Sensible Cannabis Reform
- End Prohibition Again
- Legalize Marijuana
- Grass is Greener
…While several states will vote in the coming election for legalization and medical marijuana, the war on drugs will be a potent political issue for years to come. The big solution to so many of our problems – from immigration to failing state economies – is to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana.
Firedoglake will be at the forefront of this fight, but we need a name first.
Click here to vote!
“her two most likely Republican opponents Choi and Wagner are firmly against both legalization and the presence of medical marijuana dispensaries in AD70”
I.e . . . we are for state’s rights, except when we are against it.
Anyone who has actually looked at the Marijuana initiative will realize that this is a tremendous benefit not only to the state, but also to local governments.
The tax from sale of marijuana doesn’t go to Sacramento. Instead it goes to the local government where it is sold, and 50 to 65% of local government revenue goes back into public safety – cops enforcing drunk driving laws and dealing with serious crime.
So we stop spending money enforcing laws that limit our freedom to consume a substance that is far less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes, and we beef up local law enforcement.
Guys like Amante and Choi spend a lot of time trying to defend their redevelopment schemes and fighting the state over money. They’re stupid to oppose a measure that stands to benefit their cities substantially and help redress the balance towards local control.
This post is ridiculous. Choi is not alone in opposing medical pot. The City of Los Angeles, which is run by Democrats, is currently closing hundreds of pot dispensaries. And the City of Santa Ana, which is run by Democrats, not only outlawed the dispensaries, they also outlawed Hookah bars!
Until Obama and the feds clarify where the federal government sits on this, the confusion will continue.
As for Fox, she is an ally of corrupt Irvine Council Members Beth Krom and Larry Agran. That is all you need to know about her. No thanks.
Her opponent, Mike Glover, also supports medical marijuana – and he is not tied to Krom and Agran. Vote for Glover and tell Fox to reconsider her friendship with the Agran Mafia.
So let’s see. For people who care about this issue:
Choi and all Republicans suck, as do the Democratic-majority City Councils of Santa Ana and Los Angeles.
But Melissa is foursquare behind decriminalization, and Mike Glover, you say, supports medical pot. Still waiting on that Glover interview.
So we’ve learned quite a bit from this “ridiculous” post, if we care about decriminalizing marijuana. Something piss you off today?
Vern,
I never said all Republicans suck and I certainly don’t think Choi does. I don’t understand why you are pimping for an ally of Krom and Agran.
Glover is a busy guy. I hope to talk to him again soon. He seems a far superior candidate to Fox.
As for medical pot, the people already voted on this. But obviously a lot of Democrats keep cracking down on it. We need leadership on this from Sacramento, but the Democrats up there aren’t dealing with it either, and Schwarzenegger just sucks all around.
That’s why it’s good to know what Democrats we can count on!
And when I said “all republicans suck” on this, I meant all the Republicans running for 70AD.
You’d have to be high on the whacky weed to vote for her or anyone else associated with the Agran Criminal Cabal.
Thanks for getting an answer, Vern. So we can count her among the likes of Judge Jim Gray, Tom Ammiano, Americans for Safe Access and Drug Policy Alliance to support the November ballot proposition to “LEGALIZE” marijuana in California?
“I don’t know enough about that particular case (the dispute over medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Lake Forest) to comment on it.” In all honesty, this statement from Fox worries me a great deal, especially since the MMJ dispensaries in question are in her backyard of Lake Forest and the district she aspires to represent. Plus, this dispute between the dispensaries and the city of Lake Forest has been going on for awhile now and has received some significant news coverage from our local OC media. If she isn’t aware of an issue as important as this in her own backyard (being that this is a health care issue which she states is one of her biggest issues), how the hell can anyone who lives in the 70th AD expect her to effectively represent our concerns and wishes in Sacramento? I ask that because I too live in 70th AD.
You might want to follow that up and ask her if she would be willing to throw her support behind Tom Ammiano’s AB390 if she is elected. To her credit, her response is quite refreshing from the Democratic party line since the major Democratic players like Feinstein, Boxer and Brown all oppose the legalization ballot measure. I believe Agran and Krom are both against legalization as well.
In all honesty, both Republicans and Democrats share equal responsibility in this failed War on Drugs. Right now, the “Reefer Madness” rhetoric about marijuana beign a “gateway drug” is going by the wayside. As for the DFA person who was grousing about her response, deal with it. Prohibition is a thing of the past and spending $40 billion on a failed war that has crossed into the borders of Mexico and Afghanistan is not the way to stop drug abuse. It didn’t work in the 20s and 30s and it’s not working now.