The Future of the Marijuana Debate

(Don't forget, my daily editorial comment airs weekday mornings at 6:12 with Bruce Kenyon and the Morning News, and again at 12:20pm with Wayne Nelson and Today So Far)
Friday's editorial comment:

Proposition 19 may have failed in California, but it has succeeded in showing that the debate over marijuana prohibition is far from over.
In fact, it would seem more likely that it;s a question of when and not if legalization finally occurs.
Proposition 19 would have effectively legalized and regulated marijuana in California - however, the White House made it clear that it would still remain illegal under federal law.
On Tuesday, 53.9 percent of California voters rejected Proposition 19. However, the fact that it even got on the ballot in the first place shows how far along the debate has come in the United States.
It's impossible to imagine such a thing happening 25 years ago. With polls showing over 40 percent of Americans supporting legalization, it would indicate that this is not the beginning of the end for this issue, but rather the end of the beginning.
This is good news. Prohibtion has been a costly failure, and there is no logical reason why marijuana should be illegal while alcohol and tobacco are not.
If the US is having this debate, it should make it safer for us to have this debate here, since one of the longstanding arguments was that the US would never tolerate us taking a more moderate approach on marijuana.

An Angus Reid poll earlier this year showed over 50 percent of Canadians support legalization. It's an idea whose time has come.

Meanwhile, further thoughts here on the Proposition 19 aftermath from Reason TV: