Pubdate: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 Source: Daily Tar Heel, The (U of NC, Edu) Copyright: 2006 DTH Publishing Corp Contact: http://www.dailytarheel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1949 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) LEGALIZING MARIJUANA IS SMART PUBLIC POLICY Last year, the UNC Honor Court charged 18 people with Honor Code violations for possession of marijuana. According to the FBI, 37,000 people are in jail for the same thing. Is it worth it? We doubt it. Even from a strictly economic point of view, keeping a relatively innocuous drug like marijuana illegal is a dumb move. While we recognize the government's desire to protect people from themselves, the risks of marijuana are not worth the costs of prevention. In 2000, marijuana prohibition cost N.C. taxpayers nearly 96 million dollars. The federal government spent 2.6 billion in 2002 alone. Marijuana prohibition does not have to be a pit that we throw money into. If a typical "sin tax" was applied to marijuana usage, estimates show the federal government would make 1.6 billion, and North Carolina would bring in 22.9 million each year. Legalizing marijuana will also open up a new cash crop for N.C. farmers. The state economy would benefit greatly if farmers could use hemp and marijuana crops to supplement the struggling tobacco industry. Snack food producers also would be thankful. Finally, legalizing marijuana will allow the government to regulate ingredients and protect the significant minority of people who try it from filler ingredients that can be more injurious to someone's health than the marijuana itself. Some prohibition advocates believe that marijuana is a "gateway drug" that leads to other, more dangerous drugs. But the science behind that hypothesis holds little weight. While it might be true that most users of heroin use marijuana first, they also use cigarettes, alcohol and a number of other unhealthy things. (In fact, 100 percent of all heroin users have consumed water at some point in their past, leading us to suspect that water, not marijuana, is the real "gateway" to heroin.) The Netherlands has already decriminalized marijuana, and they're doing just fine. It's time for the government to stop wasting taxpayers' money fighting a war it can't win. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman