News Comment #10
7 11 2012With most articles in the news today being about the results of the elections last night, there is a twist on a few new laws that were voted in and declined in states such as Colorado, Washington, Massachusetts, and California.
A big topic today is how making marijuana legal in Colorado and Washington is really going to work with the drug being illegal in the other 48 states. In Colorado, the vote passed at 54 percent. Stipulations come with the new law. A user has to be 21 and can’t buy or posses over one ounce of the drug. A person cannot grow more than six marijuana plants and if they are growing them, they have to keep the plants in an enclosed and locked space.
In Washington, the law is similar to Colorado. The person has to be 21 and the state added a threshold for driving under the influence of marijuana. The vote to allow the drug in Washington passed with a 55 percent.
This section of the article ended by governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper saying, “I’m not sure we can make it as legal as the voters would like us to do, but clearly the will of the voters spoke.”
In other news relating to marijuana, Massachusetts passed a vote to legalize the drug for medical purposes.
Other new laws that were passed or denied dealt with the death penalty, the three-strikes sentencing law, physician-assisted suicide, and condom use on adult film sets.
The death penalty was denied in California with a 53 percent of voters rejecting it. Also in California, voters approved the three-strikes law benefiting people who commit a third felony and it isn’t a violent or serious act.
An act to pass a physician-assisted suicide was tried in Massachusetts but was denied by voters. The last law voters voted on last night, discussed in this article, which passed was using condoms in adult film sets. California voters voted to have that law enforced.
I think this article is very newsworthy with how timely it is. Although most of the news is filled with these articles today, I picked this one because it brought up interesting laws that voters voted on that passed and didn’t pass. Most of the articles readers are reading today are about President Obama and Mitt Romney.
I think one of the biggest things the legal system and government will have to deal with is legalizing marijuana in two states and not having it legal in the other 48. Having this article discuss that, I think it very good and draws readers in because they want to know what is going to happen with that whole situation.
Overall, this article just has a lot of good information and the whole article is very informative for readers.
Nicely done, Paige. A good wrap of some less visible trends.