Pot Advocates Think Legalization Is Nearer
There is no doubt that today, Sept. 25, 2009, is the moment of genuine zeitgeist to decriminalizing marijuana in America," said Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML. "This conference represents that we are at that tipping point."
The cannabis act was endorsed Friday by Oakland mayoral candidate and former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. Perata was supposed to appear at the conference, but was ill and was not available for comment.
The act would make it lawful for anyone over the age of 21 to "possess, share, or transport not more than one ounce of cannabis." The act is currently gaining signatures in a petition drive to make the ballot, but it seems more like a first step than a popular vote winner.
"It's not the wedge issue it once was," he said after speaking to hundreds of delegates at the NORML morning session. "When they see that the sales of pot to adults is financing a health clinic, they will see why it will work."
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, says open-ended Bay Area pot programs are making the case for decriminalizing.
"People realize the sky has not fallen," Nadelmann said.
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