Decriminalization Drive Unable to Gather Support by Chris Rauber The staff of a tiny storefront office in Ocean Beach is Aml'rlcan MI'C1i Cil I A,~o( latlon, tilt' .It 10lMI I du( ,It ItHl working hard to get the Marijuana Decriminalization A~"oclatlOn , and Pre<,ldent 'I orr.... "tIOIl,1I (0111- Initiative on the November ballot, but time, apathy, and ml'iSlon on MariJuana and Drug Ahu<;(' lurtll('nno~l' the odds are working against them . th y Iwlleve that taxpayers will bf'Coml' rp)wIlIOl" "t tlw In the fifteen weeks since the current statewide thought of the estimated one hundrt'C1 million doli,lr, It initiative campaign began on October 2 only 130/000 of costs to enforce th (urrent mariJuana I,IW' III the necessary 325/000 signatures have been obtained­ altfornia and experience has shown that up to 500/000 are needed However, th i ni tiative can 't pass, no matter wll,lI tht' to obtain 325/000 valid signatures. In San Diego only el ctorate's mood, If It doe n't qual Ify for the ballot 15/450 signatures have been gathered so far, although The ce ntral paradox remain -as opposition to th(· San Diego volunteers had hoped to more than double decriminalization of mariJuana fades away <;0 dop<; th(· the 1972 total of 24 /000. Only six weeks remain to gather enthusiastic, often fervant support that once mtlrk('(1 the remaining signatures before the February 20 the movement T he young, advocate of mariJuana lh£'. oeadline. se m to have seen the def at of Propo Itlon 19 not a' ,I moral victory (almost 3 million people voted for 11), hut Ironically, although the campaign to get the initiative as a final, crushing d feat on the ballot is floundering, volunteers sense that the Lee Osmon agr es that th apathy of support r I thp time is ripe for passage of the measure, which would mal n reason for the startlingly poor shOWing of tht' remove legal penalties for the private use, possession, or petition drive 0 far As she list d th upcoming even'" cultivation of marijuana by an adult. Lee Osmon of and activities (an M D I benefit dance at I J 'Ii on M.D.I . put it this way, " If it gets on the ballot, it's a sure Ja nuary 17, anoth rat th utral Ground on January winner." 27, M .D light at the Ocean Beach Recr atlon (pnter Proponents of decriminal ization argue that although on Ja nuary 11, a waterb d raffle to ral money for an Proposition 19 garnered only 33% of the vote in 1972/ a ad in the L.A.Tlme ) one couldn't h Ip but wonder If <;he gai n of just 18 % of the electorate thi s year would bri ng didn't f el bitt r, disappointed, and angry at the about pa ssage of the more moderate decriminalization apathetiC young, who were, " n ded to h Ip spread th initiative They say the mood of the country is changin g, word" as evidenced by Oregon/ decriminali zation of the She urged students to get registered to vote, to sign a private use of small amount of marijuana, and the petition, and to take around a p tltlon and gather endorsement of decriminali zation by the American Bar signatures She confidently predict d that 'th young As ociation, the National Council of Churches. the people could ca rry thiS election" Decriminalization doubtful for '74 Vo lume 2 i , umber 2 UNIVER ITY OF CALIFOR lA, AN DI EGO Friday .lanuan .' II, I cr CAL-PIRG Discusses New Commentary Projects Approaches Reaction to, no pen Letter to by Rick Drom Las t wpek-e nd proved Early proj ec t included a th at th e" AL " in CALPIRG Dangerou Toy Survey to M any topics w ere Third College Students" stand s for California. Public keep dangerou s toys off the disc uss ed at the workshops by 'Regina Marquez Interes t Research Groups shelves during the holidays. ard ideas for useful project s (PIR G's) from 1'3 colleges Another proj t tested th e were shared by all. It was The January 8, 1974 issue of the Tri ton and intere t Third College ha to be ac ross the tate met on the Fat Content of ground beef m entioned t hat som e Ti me carri ed an "Open Letter to Third flexible enough to handle the e thlllg 5th and 6th of January to in the 9 major food chains. projec ts, for example a College Students", written by two former (different background and In­ coordi nate their actions. All but one were guilty of study of the California State Thir-d CoJ lege students, M ar ha Shelton terests) Re, Math The fole of advi Ing UCSD se nt 5 members of false advertising. Legislatur , could best be and D .J Sca les . At f ir t reading, th letter In mathematiC I~ exc ptlonall Im­ CALPIRG to the conference Due to the professional undertaken as a group appeared to be a scathing atta k on the portant . a tudent hould take the ba'ilc nature of this particular in California State College effort by all the PIRG /s in pol icie and capabi lities of the Third cour e mo t approprlat 10 hi arp r at Northridge in Los survey / the Ci ty Attorney's the state. College program for its undergraduate ; and background. For many ~tud nt office has agreed to Angeles. As a resu It of the con­ h9wever upon closer exam ination, the M ath 4A, B, C would b the appropriate prosecute offe nders the Though geographically feren ce each local PI RG grievances that surfaced were emotional, cour e .. Apparently those tudent felt next time that Calpirg se parated, all these groups will begin coordinating its cloaked in statements of fact. The fact that the e cour e were not appropnate performs this survey. shared a common goal of actions, proj ects and in­ must be extracted and analyzed to for them, but that doe n t mean that th I Probably the best working for the public formation much more separate the emotional from the fac tudl, m ath cour e doe n t b long In a interest. publicized of CALPIRG /s c losely with the other in order to make an objective eval uation Un iversity curriculum .. projects has been its 5 Food UCSD was among the groups. In this way each of their criticisms. ophomore Math major " I went from Price Surveys. These have first universities in the state PIRG will be able to build When Third College tudent were 4 In to 2A, w hat I got from the sequence to organize a local PIRG . resulted in 3 major food upon the experience of asked for opinions regarding the letter, wa a [at of help " chai ns drastically changing Two years ago over 50% of others and be even more the majority were in favor of the e is ting Another o ne of th problem VOiced In their methods of operation the students at UCSD effective in its efforts. Third allege program for ience the letter was a lack of un Its that tuall to lower food costs. a igned a petition to set up a Here at ,UCSD the local majors. ophmore Biology M ajor .. tra n fer red a General Education The 2-day conference PI RG branch here. CALP IR G Board of " .. Fe lt th e letter wa gros Iy re qu irement at Berkley thiS section held in Northridge last s Later UCSD joined the Directors met to plan mistaken .. ( i ence) co urs h re are IS written In d pdft lcularly emotional University of San Diego, week-end brought together campus project . These will excel I nt ... (R :Math 4 se qu nce) I was tone, It i ea y al fir trading to a ~ump PIRG /s from UCLA, Loyola, CSU San Diego, Grossmont include a semi nar on im­ really prepared w ith my m ath . The t hat (I II the GE r Ulrements h re are not Loyola Law School, Cal College and Mesa College peachment on Jan . 23rd, a (Sh Iton, cale) didn't ta here long a ceptab le at B rkley Berkle DID Luthern Col lege, Cal State to form the Ca lifornia teach-in on the Univer ity enou gh to find out wh at wa goi ng accept .ill I work compl ted at Third Public Interest Research Northridge, Long Beach and Town Center on Jan . 30th on ... (n o t e : b o t h studpn t <;1'lP nt ' a College II U It for IVorlo. dOl1(> at Group (CALP IRG) . San Bernadino. cant. on p . 7 maximum of two quart r here at Thi rd Third Col lege were a cepted but not College) ..a transferring Muir or Re elle n ce sa rliy for th same ,[ rre hman would've gotten the amp re quiremen t ctl.ally thiS IS nol an Co-op Adjusts Schedule run around at anoth r In titution I don't uncommon problpm (lm ng tramf rnng doubt the quality o f Th ird ' .. tudent s Th iS wr it r en ounterro thf' Tho e tudent expres ing negative ame problem at transferring unr ts to Due to an unanticipated amount of only be accepted at these times.