The California Beer & Beverage Distributors is spending money in the state to oppose a marijuana legalization proposition on the ballot in November, according to records filed with the California Secretary of State. The beer sellers are the first competitors of marijuana to officially enter the debate; backers of the initiative are closely watching liquor and wine dealers and the pharmaceutical industry to see if they enter the debate in the remaining weeks...

...Mason Tvert, head of the organization SAFER, which makes the case that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, told Salazar that driving or operating a fork lift while high would still be illegal if the proposition becomes law -- just as alcohol is legal but it's against the law to drive while drunk.

"With all due respect to this gentleman, he is a political consultant being paid by the booze industry to protect their turf," said Tvert. "We also need to consider the fact that this gentleman mentions all the jobs that are created by the alcohol industry. These are all jobs that can be created by the marijuana industry as well. And at the same time, we're giving Californians the ability to use a substance like marijuana that doesn't contribute to domestic violence and sexual assault and overdose... and all the other problems that alcohol contributes to."...

Read the entire story at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/this-buds-not-for-you-bee_n_732901.html?ref=fb&src=sp

In California, the 'Pot not alcohol' group SAFER is a little miffed at Big Beer's backing of the No on 19 campaign. They "call on the No on Prop. 19 campaign to explain why it is working with Big Alcohol to drive people to drink.”

"We understand why Big Alcohol wants to protect its turf and keep Californians drinking," said Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and coauthor of Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? (Chelsea Green 2009). "But why does the No on Prop. 19 campaign share this goal?

Miami Beach Voters Could See Marijuana Decriminalization on November Ballot

An effort to decriminalize marijuana in Miami Beach kicked off Wednesday evening when a local group held a news conference in front of City Hall to launch a petition drive. The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy is collecting signatures to place the marijuana decriminalization amendment on the November ballot.

If voters approve the amendment, it would make possession of 20 grams or less of marijuana a civil infraction rather than a misdemeanor crime, for which state law calls for up to a year in jail and $1,000 in fines. Under the proposal, punishment of "personal possession'' would be a $100 fine. The amendment will also increase the discretion of the State Attorney to permit a plea to a civil infraction where appropriate.

"The sum total effect of 72 years of marijuana prohibition and more than twenty million arrests since 1965 is that marijuana is now the largest cash crop in the United States and probably the most economically valuable agricultural commodity produced in the State of Florida," said Ford Banister, Chairman of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy. "According to a recent report by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, Florida spends $573,366,000 annually on wholly ineffectual efforts to eradicate marijuana, a substance that every objective study has determined to be far less harmful than alcohol."