How did Colorado and Washington beat California to legalize marijuana first?

Even more powerful economically? Do you live in California? That statement made me snort my water through my nose. Even the thought that we have our shit together makes me laugh.

All the hippies grew up, moved to Seattle or bought condos in Vail.

Because california being liberal is a myth?

California was the first to pass a medical marijuana law. Yet the Feds have been ignoring the state law to jail marijuana growers and dispensaries ever since.

So California took the baby steps, Colorado and Washington have leap frogged us.

California is a divided state, in that it has some of the most liberal members of the Democratic party, but it also has some of the most right wing Republicans. Within 30 miles of the Pacific is one of the bluest parts of the country; farther from the coast it is as red as the deep South.

It’s not “Cali”, it’s California. Those of us who grew up here never use that term.

Colorado may be a red/blue state but take a walk down Pearl street in Boulder and it’s easy to see how this happened. I understand the “flying high” connection with kites but it seemed like next to every dispensary there was a specialty kite store. I guess getting stoned and literally flying kites must be fun. This will eventually happen everywhere in the US if it goes smoothly for them. It’ll just be like the crazy liquor laws we have here in the south.

There are enough conservatives in California to vote no. Simple as that.

Could it be we’re just that cool? (LOL!)

@GloPro Why do you laugh? Do you underestimate your states power in the world? I believe you do! You’d be surprised to find out where California ranks economically in the world.

Please do comment back your findings :)

(And don’t say being in the top 10 of all the world counts for nothing hahah)

@zenvelo What? Perhaps a generation gap, and a huge one at that. I’ve lived 25 of my 26 years of life here! :D

@pleiades It might not be a generation gap. I’ve been living in Cali for almost 60 years. ;-)

@Brian1946 what can I say… we like to save on syllables ;)

Sure, there are loads of 1%-ers in California, it’s true. Having wealthy residents does not equate to good government spending or the position of the other 99%.
We rank 45th in unemployment, meaning there are only 6 states with higher unemployment rates. Washington DC makes the list 51 long.
We are still recovering from the fact that 11 of the top 20 cities with highest foreclosure filings were California cities.
And here’s an article that may help explain how poorly allocated our tax dollars are. Voter initiatives have choked off any opportunity to raise funds to properly turn things around.
Not that we want to pay more taxes when the money we already pay is pissed away.
We’re on a slippery slope. A direct quote from that article: “The consensus appears to be that California has become unmanageable.”
As far as education goes, we rank 42nd in the nation for “chance for success.” We are dead last for adult to student ratios. On a positive note, our teachers are 5th highest paid.

So I’m glad all of the wealthy have skewed global perception of how poorly managed California really is. Good thing we have so much medical marijuana being grown. We should legalize it. Lord knows we need the tax money.

Oops, couldn’t edit. Same article on education also states we rank 37th for poverty levels.

I was surprised at this too, but I guess there’s more to California than the Hollywood lefty and hippie types that our watered down media usually portrays. I’m not as sure about Washington as I am about Colorado, but the latter state’s governor, John Hickenlooper, is actually one of the most liberal politicians in the nation on any level. He’s also a Quaker, and from my experience they appear to be very enlightened and liberal folks when compared to many other religious groups.

I was surprised with Washington because I had heard that it’s actually a very conservative state, except for the more populated areas. Many pro-cannabis advocates in Washington are still complaining that the police are finding alternative ways to harass folks. I think that Colorado is ahead of Washington on this issue.

My guess though (in answering your question) is that these states had the adequate political support necessary to support what the voters actually wanted in those states without as much red tape. In other states where these issues are brought up, politics usually gets in the way of what the voters actually want, like my question about asset forfeiture law reforms clearly demonstrated.

@pleiades “Cali” is an abomination…

Also there’s 40 million people in California.