Why I will, unfortunately, be voting "Yes" on Prop. 19

1.) Prop. 19 will generate taxes in the range of 1.4 billion.

2.) Legalization of marijuana will go a long way towards reducing the amount of illegal drug trafficking from Mexico

3.) Less drug traffic means less money for Mexican cartels.

Why I don't want to vote "Yes"

1.) Now that it's legal to smoke in your home, I have to smell that shit and there isn't anything I can do about it. Whereas before, if you smoked in your home, you did your best to hide it.

2.) California is a non-smoking state. Tobacco smoke laden clothing is just as bad as marijuana smoke laden clothing.

3.) I hope the $50 tax is high enough to deter people from using their welfare check.

Wait a tick...

I just had a thought.

Let's say Prop. 19 passes and makes it legal to possess 1 ounce of marijuana for personal consumption. Now lets say that I don't want to pay a $50 tax, so instead, I head over to my buddies house and purchase an ounce from him because, under the new law, he can grow plants in his house. Now it's legal for me to carry 1 ounce and I just avoided paying the State of California a $50 tax. Hell, why don't I just grow my own plants and never pay the State of California. How does that generate taxes? It doesn't.

So, in reality, all this bill is doing is allowing people to smoke and mostly eliminating the need for an illegal marijuana trade from Mexico. However, we still need border patrol to check for other narcotics and to stop human smuggling. So what are we really voting on here? Allowing people to smoke?

I changed my mind. I will be voting "No."