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A very interesting legal, moral and ethical war is being fought in the corridors of power in California these days. Californians, along with the rest of the Americans are going to the midterm electoral voting and apart from electing representatives to the Houses of government, they alone will also be voting on something called Article-19 which is basically a public referendum on the legalization of the home growing and self-consumption of Cannabis. The slugfest isn’t likely to be one-sided or even pretty with the proponents on both sides of the clearly demarcated raging line of fire invoking anything and everything to bolster their point of view. God, freedom of choice, disempowerment of the drug cartels, a steroidal kick start to the rapidly sinking economy, innate prejudices and just plain old  and countless other factors make this issue a melting pot that is the mother of all disagreements.

At the heart of the matter is perhaps the fact that America remains deep down a very conservative nation, irrespective of its postulations and reputation to the contrary and something that has been a part of the lifestyle for so long will take some beating to get rid of. Opponents of the Article cite the societal, financial and health damage caused by the legalized drugs like tobacco and alcohol whereas the rooters for the drug affectionately called Mary Jane cite the same reasons, with no dearth of logic, in favor of the legalization of what is easily the most used drug in the world. They say that legalizing the drug’s home cultivation and consumption, while keeping in place the laws on the sale of the same, will dismember the ability of the Mexican drug cartels to buy more guns and goons to further their nefarious designs and also that doing away with the criminalization of the drug will ensure that the government will earn a lot in revenue as taxes from Cannabis growers. They also point towards research that suggests that Pot perhaps isn’t as harmful to the human body as the other legalized drugs which rake in millions of dollars every year for the government in tax money. After all, wasn’t the prohibition during the thirties more harmful than good and didn’t lifting it lead to the demise of the clout of the bootleggers? What is surprising is the fact that cannabis was legal in California up until seven decades ago and that in itself gives strength to the voices of those who are championing for giving the drug an above the board status. They cite evidence showing that prisons are overcrowded, justice and police departments overworked and trials delayed due to the intransigence of the federal government in waking up to the fact that freeing the authorities of looking out for these petty misdemeanors will allow them to work at catching real criminals while letting the peaceniks have a drag.