Vote Yes on Proposition 19

I’ve never smoked marijuana.  I have a terrible allergy to the weed.  However, I do favor voting “Yes” on November 2, 2010 in support of California’s Proposition 19 — just like my international spokesdog friend Skippy O’Connell found in the delightful image below.

Here’s some background on Prop 19:

Proposition 19 offers a common sense approach to control cannabis like alcohol. Under Proposition 19, adults 21 and older will be allowed to possess up to one ounce of cannabis, to be consumed at home or licensed business establishments. Proposition 19 will also give state and local governments the ability to tax the sale of cannabis for adult consumption.

I think it’s a great idea to tax the legal sale of marijuana.  Alcohol kills more people a year than smoking pot.  Proposition 19 provides a cleanly structured system with many safeguards in place to help prevent abuse.

Prop 19 is also an important meme to get young people into the polling place.  Kids need a reason to leave their computers and venture out into the real world around them and asking for their support of 19 is a fine method for begging them into a lifelong personal commitment to voting their best interests instead of sitting back and letting the braying and the boisterous make public policy.

I hope something like Prop 19 will be on all State ballots for the 2012 presidential election because then young voters will overwhelm the polling places with their want, and rare desire, to do the right thing for the future prosperity of their generation — and if we can get them to vote by asking them to “make pot legal” — then that’s just as good a reason as any to encourage them to make a real, positive, change for a stagnant and solipsist America.