The man once dubbed “Governor Moonbeam” by Chicago columnist Mike Royko is concerned about California being overrun by potheads:
“Well, we have medical marijuana, which gets very close to what they have in Colorado and Washington. I’d really like those two states to show us how it’s going to work,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Brown said he was worried about what would happen to the nation if too many people used the drug too often.
“And all of a sudden, if there’s advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation?” he asked. “The world’s pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together.”
Of course, Mr. Royko, who died in 1997, deeply regretted saddling Jerry Brown with that nickname. But, I’m just saying, anyone who dated Linda Ronstadt in the 1970’s has seen a lot worse than pot. I used to live in Los Angeles. From the beaches to the campuses to the basketball courts, it seemed like the whole city was stoned.
Oregon is close to getting on board.
I hope it does… one of the problems Colorado and Washington are finding with legalization is that federal banking laws still make it almost impossible for pot-related businesses to get loans and the like.
If Oregon joins the club, Jeff Merkley will have some incentive to fix that state of affairs from his spot on the Banking Committee.
Hey, Bob! I’m thinking of retiring and moving to the Portland suburbs to get away from the terrible Illinois Winter. I like the idea of six inches of snow in a year instead of a day (only five inches last night). Also Real estate taxes half of what they are here. The Washington side has an (R) Congressperson which turns me off, but it is a little cheaper than the Oregon side.
Is there a downside? When I lived in Loudoun County VA, all I heard was “damnyankee”.
Change your car plates as soon as you get there. A large population of Oregon hates out of staters.
And everyone pretty in the state moves to Southern California as soon as they can. It’s done hell to their gene pool.
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nalbar, the first full day I was here I got a ticket for speeding, and I’m sure it had to do with out-of-state plates!
My Congressional rep is Blumenauer. Google him.
I moved up here a little over two years ago. It’s a great place. It’s got a music scene, lots of microbreweries, and with internet you’re connected to the world.
I moved from the SF Bay Area so I have no complaints about the cost of housing.
And one other thing. If you retire here and are a man and aren’t totally despicable and you’re interested, your love life will improve. I’m pretty sure it’s just demographics.
I’m married so that part doesn’t help. I googled your Congressman and I see good and bad. Bad for WTO and DOMA for sure.
Cost of housing is similar to my area of Illinois which is what I sought along with a better climate.
Thanks for being candid and thanks to Nalbar also. It sounds nice but hostile to outsiders.
They aren’t hostile to outsiders. There was a thing fifteen or twenty years ago about Californians taking over the state. But there are so many former Californians here that it just doesn’t hold water anymore. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t reregister you car as soon as you move out here.
One thing I noticed right away was real estate taxes about half of Cook County which is much lower than in the Republican counties. Am I correct to assume that, like Virginia, your schools are funded by income tax instead of property tax?
The $$$$$ that the states will collect in taxes will move things along.
Jerry should be more worried about booze.
Why, it might even revive the old “make love, not war” meme and we certainly can’t have that in the good ole US of A, now can we.
There are a good number of people in this nation who are constantly stoned. They use the drug to help them with ADD or other disorders, or to regulate their mood. It does not decrease their work potential at all. They are living productive, healthy lives. Jerry Brown knows this. Politics is far more likely to make you say something stupid than pot is.
Many oldsters use pot to get through Wheel of Fortune. Better for old livers than booze.
California is as about as overrun with potheads as it’s going to get. Medical cannabis is not a sham, because there are plenty of people who really do use it for medicine, but at the same time it’s trivially easy to get a prescription.
So pretty much everyone in California who wants to be stoned all the time is taken care of. Even in California, most people have other interests.
I’ve never cared for the politically overcalculating Jerry Brown of the credo “paddle a little bit to the left, a little bit to the right, and you stay in the middle of the river.”
Like the silly flat tax he proposed in his last (1992) presidential run, this one sounds a bit clunky, insincere, poorly reasoned, and designed to distance himself from being perceived as too liberal. “Stay alert”?? On the road, of course. Go ahead and write up the tokers for violating the speed laws — going too slow that is.
Finally, I confess I don’t understand the Linda Ronstadt reference — wasn’t she one of the straight-laced types, probably a complete abstainer from all mind-altering substances, who just happened to work in the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll industry?
Truth be told, I agree. I hate to say anything bad about him after almost two terms’ worth of Schwarzeneggar.
I guess the presumption is that if you were in the LA rock’n’roll milieu in the 70s that there had to be lots of drugs around.
While a more able administrator than his gubernatorial successors (and that’s a very low bar), Jerry Brown has always substituted form for the substance that he doesn’t get. And absent the substance, public policy vision never developed. Unlike Jorge Bergoglio, his Jesuit training merely oriented him towards favoring “austerity,” and personally modeling that as Governor of CA made him look weird instead of what he was, conservative in fiscal matters and not socially only moderately liberal. That was an improvement over his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, but far short of the last good governor of CA, Pat Brown. Jerry never “got” social-democracy and the New Deal as his father did. He’s like a natural neo-liberal, including leanings towards authoritarianism, but moderated with a bit of Catholic guilt. That, and his now advanced age, is why he can’t wrap his brain around a safe, rational, and functional marijuana legalization policy.
Not sure what the gratuitous insult to Ronstadt is all about but I don’t think it’s in order. Nor is it necessary to your overall point.
What digby says:
That is our revenge, isn’t it? All the young people who laugh at us will someday be us, or dead, in which case we have the last laugh.
It seems to me that a key battleground about this is shaping up to be driving and measuring possible impairment via MJ. I look to how states handle that issue as a litmus test for the speed of future progress.
Brown is behind the curve here. Maybe his position is that he won’t get his hands dirty but allow what will be. No political risk. No fingerprints.
I never noticed before how much he (Royko) looks like Woody Allen.