<story><title>Marijuana Legalization Fails in California</title><url>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/11/marijuana-legalization-fails-in-california/65835/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>philk</author><text>Well this is a rather discouraging result.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve never understood why people want to lose tax revenue and provide a massive source of revenue to criminals when marijuana is going to be sold regardless.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>btmorex</author><text>I assume by people you mean people who regularly vote. The problem with Prop 19 and other similar measures is not that they don&apos;t have support, it&apos;s that their base of support by and large doesn&apos;t vote (at least until they grow up and realize you don&apos;t get anything through apathy).</text></comment>
<story><title>Marijuana Legalization Fails in California</title><url>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/11/marijuana-legalization-fails-in-california/65835/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>philk</author><text>Well this is a rather discouraging result.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve never understood why people want to lose tax revenue and provide a massive source of revenue to criminals when marijuana is going to be sold regardless.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>robryan</author><text>It makes sense in the context of other policy such as the body scanners at airports that were talked about here recently. It seems all about playing on the populations fears &quot;you don&apos;t want another terrorist attack&quot;, &quot;you don&apos;t want you children exposed to illegal drugs&quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;d imagine there would be a large percentage of the population primed with the opinion that drugs are bad without any real informed opinions past that.&lt;p&gt;Sure it&apos;s still being sold, but more in an out of sight out of mind type way for those opposed.</text></comment>