From: NORML California <[canor m l] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Date: 09 Oct 94 00:13 PDT
Subject: Cal. Governor's Race a Bummer

California Pot Smokers Turn Off to Wilson, Brown
Oppose Prop. 184 ("Three Strikes"),  Call for Medical Marijuana, Crime 
Reduction Bills

       California marijuana activists are turning off to this year's election for 
governor because both candidates support costly "get-tough" measures 
against pot and other victimless drug offenses.
       Reformers had initially hoped that the Democrats would offer a strong 
alternative to Gov. Wilson, who has a perfect 0% rating on drug reform 
issues after 4 years in office.  Wilson has been widely criticized for vetoing a 
bill to allow medicinal use of marijuana and for signing an unpopular bill 
to require six-month driver's license suspensions for minor pot offenses, 
inspiring the slogan, "Eradicate Pete, Not Pot." 
        However,  Democratic challenger Kathleen Brown has refused to take 
a position on medical marijuana and has announced that she too would 
have signed the "Smoke a Joint, Lose Your License" bill.
       Brown has also joined Wilson in supporting the widely criticized 
"Three Strikes" bill,  Prop. 184.    Drug reformers oppose Prop. 184 because it 
counts non-violent marijuana and drug felonies as third strikes.
        Brown's campaign has alienated many would-be supporters in the 
marijuana movement, including longtime Democrat and medical 
marijuana activist Dennis Peron, who endorsed Libertarian Richard Rider 
for Governor.
       California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer believes that Brown's 
failure to challenge Wilson on crime and prison spending  may cost her 
the election:  "The Democrats have forfeited the crime issue to Wilson, 
even though he is clearly vulnerable:  after all, here he is spending four 
times as much on prisons than 12 years ago, yet crime has gotten no better.  
On the contrary, the war on drugs has served as a crime-creation program 
generating jobs for Wilson's most faithful political constituency, 
California's bloated prison-law-enforcement complex."
       California drug reform activists are planning a statewide initiative next 
year to legalize medical marijuana.  They will also be proposing a "Crime 
Reduction Act" to decriminalize a number of victimless drug felonies, 
including small-scale drug possession and cultivation of marijuana.