SACRAMENTO—
The fight to legalize marijuana is about to take on a political heavy hitter. SaveCalifornia.com, the people who backed Prop 8 and opposed Gay Marriage, is about to launch StopProp19.com.The site will be up and running by Wednesday, but a public service is set to launch on YouTube sometime Monday. Sunday night, however, FOX40 was the first Sacramento Television Station to get an early peek. There's no announcer or sound bites, but the production is dramatic and the messages are powerful. One claim reads marijuana is "The number one addiction for 60% of teens in drug rehab." Another claims marijuana is "50-70% more CANCER-CAUSING than Cigarettes."
"You're going to have messed up minds, messed up lives, messed up families." Randy Thomasson led the charge against Gay Marriage; now he's taking on the legalization of Marijuana, "Regularly marijuana smoking among teenagers and young adults does permanent lung damage and permanent brain alterations."
According to a Sacramento Bee/Field Poll the debate is close. 47% believe marijuana should be legalized, but with controls. 4% are in favor with no controls. 19% believe the current law should be enforced. 14% want new laws with tougher penalties. And, 13% support present laws, but with less severe penalties.
"I'm high right now," that's what one man told FOX40 earlier this year as he walked down a sidewalk in the middle of the day. In 2010, 47% of the people surveyed admit smoking marijuana; that's more than at any time since the height of pot smoking in the late 1970's.
But this isn't your parents grass; and drug agencies like the DEA agree, "The marijuana today is 4-times more mind altering than in the 1970's, more potent. So, to say that this is helpful or necessary is really a hoax."
StopProp19.com has experience in its corner. But this time the movement isn't backed by big money. In fact, this fight probably won't come down to money. Less than $500,000 has been raised by both sides of the controversial debate. "This is why you even have liberal democrats and conservative republicans agreeing in the political spectrum to say no way to prop 19," says Thomasson.
Like any ballot election in California, expect campaign spending to pick up as election day nears. StopProp19.com expects to receive an infusion of political cash; at which point the message will move to television and radio. For now though, the website, YouTube and a slew of bumper stickers are the weapons of this political fight.
