If you live in California and thought you'd be able to smoke marijuana anytime you want, your dreams have been deferred. Proposition 19, the controversial measure that would have legalized marijuana for recreational use, has been shot down.

The proposal pitched the idea of allowing adults over the age of 21 to carry up to an ounce of marijuana, to grow small amounts and to smoke it in private where there are no children in the area. The primary benefit would have been the ability to tax the crop and earn revenue for a state experiencing serious economic challenges.

The California NAACP took some heat for supporting the measure, but I agreed with the proposal. A large number of arrests of African Americans occur due to marijuana possession, and it's hard to argue that the drug is dangerous. Also, the violence from Mexican drug cartels is wreaking havoc in the Southwest, and the legalization of marijuana would have caused the market price to decline significantly. I am not sure whether the legalization would have cut the violence significantly, but making something illegal while it is in high demand certainly creates a very disturbing black market.

The problem for proponents of marijuana legalization in California is that all of the major newspapers and most of the politicians in the state were against it. They argued that the legalization of marijuana would cause more addiction and accidents. In other words, they feel that the legalization of the drug would represent a threat to society.

I'm sure those who support the legalization of marijuana will continue their fight. I've never smoked marijuana, but I've never seen the drug as being more harmful than many of the items being sold by pharmaceutical companies. Also, the recent study stating that alcohol is more dangerous to our society than crack, heroine and other drugs fits with my instinct that we might be barking up the wrong narcotic tree.

But in spite of what some people might want, you can't smoke your weed in California and that's the law, plain and simple. I look forward to seeing what the proponents of marijuana legalization can think up next. I also applaud the courage of the California NAACP when it comes to choosing common sense over counterproductive rhetoric. There are times to be conservative and times to be progressive, and there are some who wonder whether the NAACP always knows the difference.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.