As many of you may know, Californians will go to the polls next week to vote on Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in the Golden State. Earlier public opinion surveys had the measure passing, but the most recent polls show the measure going the other way.
The Obama administration reacted as the Clinton Justice Department did back in 1996, after the state became the first in the nation to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The White House has denounced the amendment and says that it will “vigorously enforce” the federal ban on possessing, growing or selling the drug if voters approve the measure next week.
Meanwhile, let’s not be naive. People in California (as everywhere in the U.S.) indulge in the herb, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s recent signing of legislation making anything less than an ounce of pot an infraction, and not a misdemeanor, only makes things a little looser in the state.
Moving to the World Series, it’s definitely a culture clash between the city of San Francisco (the home of Nancy Pelosi, who attended Game 1 of the World Series) and the Arlington, Texas-based Rangers, who play out of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area (and where former owner George W. Bush will be sitting in the front row next to Rangers President Nolan Ryan this weekend).
Take, for instance, this incident that a Dallas television reporter encountered yesterday outside of AT&T Park in SF.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.
