It seems Assembly member Norma Torres (D-Pomona) has a double standard on public safety. As mayor of Pomona she was reluctant about driver’s license checkpoints in her city, but being uninsured and unlicensed is also a public safety hazard in our communities and our state which also could lead to property damage and bodily injury or death.
Now recently she has introduced a bill AB 2552 with little notice that will make driving with any marijuana in your body even if you are sober as an equivalent to “driving under the influence”. I can understand that due to her time as an emergency dispatcher she believes she is the paragon of public safety. Unfortunately taking marijuana is not like drinking beer where it leaves the system after several days. This bill states that if you have any cannabis based compound you would not be allowed to drive. Unfortunately even if you are sober, marijuana still stays in one’s system for up to a month. Hence the bill will just help clog up the judicial system and prevent people from making a living when their driving privilege gets restricted.
I am not here to excuse buzzed driving, if a police officer believes one is not concentrating properly and driving erratically like a drunk driver then yes, punish the individual. However, if Norma wants to promote public safety then she should work with physiologists to think of a fair level of marijuana in one’s system such as a young driver who might have taken some cold medicine that might have traces of alcohol as a compromise. Maybe it might take a progressive like Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Fransisco) to set Norma on the right track.
I highly recommend that our assemblywoman and her legislative director pull this bill and revise it so it does not reek of Reefer Madness. Unfortunately, according to the SF Weekly’s article about this bill, she has received donations from the liquor and the law enforcement industries which both have marijuana as their mortal enemies, and this was likely her inspiration to write the bill.
Luckily this June, Norma will have three opponents running against her in the top two primary school board member Paul Vincent Avila from Ontario, Ray Moors Norma’s 2010 opponent from Chino and Ken Coble a Pomona planning commissioner. Norma should also understand what happened to Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley in the 2010 election; he lost his election due to marijuana campaigners either voting Libertarian or Democratic Party because he was not going to defend marijuana legalization initiative Proposition 19 if it won.
With this legislation, we see that Democratic Party legislators can be as authoritarian as Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum can be. If I wanted to vote for a Democratic Party legislator I would want them to protect my personal liberties in the choice of who I want to love and what drug I would like to partake in while taking as much taxes as they can for public services. If Democrats want to behave like stereotypical Republicans, then I would rather vote for the real thing or vote for a third party.
Perhaps Norma and her allies believe we can solve the state’s budget crisis thru Marijuana prohibition. Just as how drunk drivers get their cars impounded or auctioned off, we will have a new class of individuals to extort money from. Maybe weed enthusiasts can get more of their fix with the money savings from public transportation.
While I think this is a ridiculous example of gamemanship, at least it wasn’t following a stoned kid crashing in to a school bus ala Ed Royce’s Kony Reward, Mike Gatto’s dumbshit stadium violence bill or any other reactionary bullshit rule some legislator comes up with.
I am counting Greg Diamond to put the Progressiveness back in Progressive and try and address the issues before the train crashes instead of waiting for the bodycount to restrict Texting while driving locamotives.
Anyone who has been to a Starbucks lately might agree, the dope is geting stronger and the users dumber “UGGhhhh you mean coffee…..” so doing something about this might not be a bad idea, especially if you were apolitician accepting donations from drug monitoring companies!
I would vote against this bill in its present form, as I understand it from the description. I think that penalties for actual debilitation of the ability to drive are OK in principle (see below), but considering the presence of any cannabis metabolites in the system to be proof of debilitation is completely absurd.
The context that I use to judge this is not simply alcohol or cold medicine but such debilitating factors such as distraction (from loud music, food in the car, screaming kids, phone calls or texting, the presence of a love interest, thinking of a disturbing or exciting pre-drive encounter) or fatigue. In practice, we clearly don’t require people to be absolutely optimally alert at all time when they drive; it would probably be impossible to do so, for one thing, and the results of trying to enforce them would be worse than the problem.
That said, I get tired of people claiming that they drive just as well or better when stoned. For some people, such as long-haul truckers who drive on largely empty freeways at night, it might be true — and it should be experimentally tested — but people should understand that it generates a slippery slope. If we really took fatigue seriously as a cause of accidents — if we could figure out how to measure it in the field — most of the problems with long-distance truckers driving stoned would probably be accounted for by fatigue.
For others, sorry — even if you’re an ubermensch who can drive through an obstacle course without knocking over a single traffic cone, most people can’t do it, and the damage you may do in leading others to think that they can perform the wonders that you can do still causes harm. I’ve heard too many people brag about how they drive just fine stoned; even if they’re rightI worry about the people to whom they’re bragging deciding that they can do the same. So yes, driving while intoxicated has to remain a crime, but expanding the bounds of what falls into it this widely is a bad idea.
I also oppose penalties for ironing or vacuuming while stoned.
“while taking as much taxes as they can for public services” r u serious?.
Choda I was demonstrating the typical reasons why people may vote for the Democratic party.
Pomona is completely dysfunctional. Electing a mayor of Pomona to anything but sweep out your garage is asking for trouble.
For defeating Steve Cooley in 2010, Kamala Harris should be sending a shitload of thank you cards to the CA NORML, Americans for Safe Access, A New PATH (Patients for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and the Drug Policy Alliance. The “Not Cooley” grassroots campaign led by these organizations was a success for the legalization community even though Prop 19 lost. Did the media report that? I don’t think so.
“If Democrats want to behave like stereotypical Republicans, then I would rather vote for the real thing or vote for a third party.” This is why I’ve been voting for third parties for years which explains why I seem to be welcome in the circles of the Green, Peace and Freedom and Libertarian Parties and the Republican Liberty Caucus.
Tom Ammiano is one of the few Democrats in this state that I can stomach having met and spoken with him. I appreciate his tireless efforts on reforming drug policy in California even though the state Democratic Party establishment wants to avoid the issue or people like Ms. Torres, Aspergillus Alexandra and Fossil Twin #1 Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who want to escalate the War on Drugs by spending more and more money. The “public safety” excuse is a crock since public safety has not increased as a result of the War on Drugs. It is the police departments’ addiction to receiving Federal funds for their drug interdiction efforts.
A very well written, sensible post on cannabis and the Drug Warriors amongst us.
That’s just not right man. bad drivin’ has nothing to do with weed or not.
Weed having “nothing to do with” reduce ability to drive is a strong claim. Some people do seem (and especially to claim, loudly and repeatedly) to be impervious to it; I do not think, at all, that this is generally true. I think that cannabis advocates undermine the cause by saying that people should be allowed to drive while stoned. This is the sort of thing that turns the public off to RMLW proposals.
I am totally against this.. since weed stays in your system for a long time it just is not right to tell people that they are breaking the law driving even though they have not had any in over a few weeks… horrible!
Hey Ab-No-Rma-L,
Come to San Diego and step inside my salon, I promise you the door won’t close behind you fast enough before you are told to get out and never come back.
This is why we need to protect our rights and vote for it. Just more frivolous lawsuits from Ab-No-Rma-L who has too much time on hand and can’t think outside the box. Getting sick of you Power Drunk people fast. Go inhale some of that second hand cigarette smoke and get cancer, Ab-No-Rma-L,
The Norma Torres Facebook page was inundated with comments condemning AB 2552.
Comments have since been disabled on her page LOL
Please click like on the Recall Norma Torres Facebook page!
We need to make it clear to politicians that WE have zero tolerance for laws which limit our freedom.
Sorry Norma. I’m sure you’re a nice person, but you made a huge mistake and you must GO.
Also with the no licenses to the undocumented? Apparently Ms Torres wants to be a “law-n-order Democrat.” Sorry hermana. If we want a Republican we’ll vote for a real Republican.
Vern she likely wants licenses for the undocumented. I was explaining how she is inconsistent on her views on public safety.
I already joined. While we are at it, what about a “Not Cooley” grassroots style campaign against Geratric Fossil Twin #1, Sen. Diannenosaur Feinstein, for her campaigns against Prop 19 and being the go to political hit woman to escalate the War on Drugs. The campaign to eliminate Torres is fine, but we also need to set our sights higher (no pun intended). We succeeded with the “Not Cooley” campaign and the San Diego activists are doing a hell of a job exposing D.A. Bonnie Dumanis in her race for mayor. Imagine what we can do in a national race.
Slowly but surely, supporting the War on Drugs and the current Draconian drug policies are a losing cause and the momentum is on the legalization campaigns’ side as seen in the recent successes in Washington State and Colorado in getting their cannabis legalization initiatives approved for the November ballot. If a religious lunatic like Pat Robertson can see the light and offer his full endorsement and the leaders of Latin America are willing to explore a serious adult conversation about legalization as an end to the violence in their region, then we, as a movement, are doing something right.
GF, how do you propose to get rid of Feinstein, now that the deadline to file for the ballot just passed. Can you play out the sequence of events for us?
I understand that one legalization initiative has been withdrawn and I think that another is in trouble. How does RMLW look right now? That is presumably where the efforts of the movements belong most.
Torres is running in the new AD-52, by the way (having backed out of a race for Congress against Gloria Negrete-McCloud and Joe Baca Sr.) She’s running against a Dem named Paul Avila and a Republican named Ray Moors. Dems won Pres and Gov races there by 21 points apiece. So if you’re upset with Torres, you should check out the alternatives — about whom I know virtually nothing.
AB 2552, if passed, WILL cause me to get a DUI, as many others in my case…I am prescribed DRONABINOL, a synthetic cannabinoid, made by the pharmaceutical companies. I am prescribed it legally, by a california board-certified physician. I have constant nausea and vomit often, and had to have a medication that worked. NOT one of the regular nausea meds worked..phenergan, clomipramine, Zofran, etc. did NOTHING to help my nausea.
My doctor recc\ommended medical cannabis. But I was wary because it is forbidden by the FEDs. So I did it the “legal” way , to be compliant. But NOW, if this law passes, if I get pulled over for any reason, and then I can now get a DUI? How in the world can it be “driving under the influence” if I am NOT under the influence, physiologically?
I have taught physiology to thousands of students, and clearly understand medicine, physiology, and toxicology, having studied them all and taught them all. Just like marijuana’s metabolites, synthetic marijuana metabolites, such as I now have in my bloodstream (dronabinol), stay in your system well after all effects of the drug have worn off.
So months after I stop using this prescription marijuana medicine, I will STILL have the metabolites in my system, and would still get a DUI and go to jail, even though I am not affected what-so-ever, by my driving, which is likely the case as well, for marijuana users who drive, when they did not smoke for many hours before they drove. They are almost always fine to drive, as long as they are not “under the INFLUENCE” of the said drug.
What am I supposed to do? Stop the ONE medication that lets me function? I could hardly believe a democrat authored this travesty of a bill.
What about a country that is “OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, & FOR THE PEOPLE? This bill seems to do just the opposite. Listen to your constiuents! They put you into office, and they can take you out just as easily!
STOP THIS HORRIBLE BILL FROM PASSING, PLEASE! Write her!
Thanks!
Tim, I strongly encourage you to testify at the hearing when the bill is being presented. If you are an educator of Physiology you should be able to share your wisdom to the committtee members on why the bill is flawed.
If the liquor industry perceives itself to be losing market share to cannabis, they will back any assembly person who is for sale to the highest bidder.
I just don’t get it with this woman.
She represents mainly Mexicans (the “undocumented” ones too).
If her bill passed, she’d likey lose lose many of her backers, as they may test positive for 3-weeks-ago reefer use after being stopped for DWB (driving while brown).
(But I’m sure her 3 sons have NEVER touched the stuff.)
Just because cannabis stays in your system for 30 days DOES NOT MEAN your are impaired… c’mon this is just plain silly. Sounds like someone hasn’t done much scientific research. This will never happen…