Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray, Orange County's favorite anti-drug war crusader, is pushing a ballot initiative for next year that would legalize marijuana for adults in California. Like Proposition 19, which failed at the ballot box last November, his proposal would allow anyone over the age of 21 to smoke marijuana for recreational purposes. But unlike Prop 19, which included a host of measures aimed at increasing penalties for those who sell pot to minors and allowing cities to opt out of the program, Gray is taking the opposite tack.
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As blogger Dennis Romero at our sister paper, the LA Weekly, points out, Gray's proposal would force the state of California to protect pot smokers from those nasty federal drug agents who are stepping up their enforcement efforts, and would prohibit cities from limiting the number of dispensaries or delivery services.
Romero argues that Gray is a whack job because it would make Calfornia's pot industry even more unregulated than, for example, wine. Actually, Dennis, the word isn't “wacky,” it's “libertarian,” and Orange County, which if you recall, voted in favor of Prop. 19, is crawling with them. According to the Orange County Register, Gray will unveil his so-called “Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012” at a Sept. 1 fundraiser in Newport Beach.
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).