Voters overwhelmingly defeated initiatives that would have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in four states Nov. 5. Pro-marijuana initiatives in San Francisco and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, were approved.
Voters in Nevada defeated a measure to legalize the possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana, but a 61-39 percent margin. More than 60 percent of South Dakotans defeated a measure that would have legalized industrial hemp by allowing the state’s citizens to grow, process and market the drug. In Arizona, residents rejected an initiative that would have likened marijuana possession to a traffic violation by a 57-43 percent margin. And two-thirds of Ohioans defeated a proposal that would have required judges to order treatment instead of jail for some drug offenders.
“The major measures were defeated and we are very pleased,” said Barrett Duke, vice president for research for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).
Even though the marijuana initiatives failed, Duke said it’s too early to declare victory on the war on drugs.
“While I am certainly heartened by the public’s resistance to relaxed laws about marijuana availability, I still believe there is much to be done in making marijuana and all illicit drugs less available,” Duke said. “We need to find effective means of lowering demand for illicit drugs in our country.”
The measures were heavily financed by three billionaire philanthropists- George Soros, John Sperling and Peter Lewis- as part of a broader effort to roll back the federal war on drugs- and according to a Southern Baptist legislator in Nevada, the trio’s involvement led to the marijuana initiative’s defeat there.
‘Wild west’ qualities
“We still have some of the qualities of the wild west in Nevada,” said Assembly-woman Sharron Angle, a member of Sonrise Baptist Church in Reno. “We don’t like outsiders coming into our state and telling us what to do.”
In San Francisco, officials received approval to explore establishing a distribution program for medical marijuana, and in the District of Columbia, voters approved a treatment-instead-of-jail measure for pot possession.
“That’s an unfortunate decision by San Francisco voters,” said the ERLC’s Duke. “Most people recognize that marijuana is a dangerous drug. The more accessible it becomes, the more likely we [are to] see increased drug problems.”
(BP)
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