Pubdate: Wed, 24 Mar 2010
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Copyright: 2010 Tallahassee Democrat
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/hdEs6Z0o
Website: http://www.tallahassee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/444
Author: Gerald Ensley

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME

Time magazine recently published an interesting  statistic: 5.1
percent of Americans aged 55 to 59 smoke  marijuana regularly -- a
major jump from 2002, when 1.6  percent of Americans aged 55 to 59
admitted to smoking  pot regularly.

The magazine attributed the rise to the aging of the  baby boom
generation. And you can look at the stat four  ways:

One, it shows marijuana use is not just for the young  and wild. We
can only assume the age bracket -- where  AARP membership and senior
discounts begin -- was  considered significant because it says old
people are  smoking.

Two, it's a tsk-tsk about how baby boomers just won't  stop their
silly habits.

Three, it shows a decline in marijuana usage: Back when  boomers were
young, half of us were smoking pot. So if  just 5 percent of us are
still smoking, usage has  dropped dramatically.

Or fourth: The handwriting on the wall is getting  bigger. We need to
make pot legal. You don't want  Grandma and Grandpa doing hard time,
do you?

We get closer to legalizing pot all the time.

A national poll in October found that 44 percent of  Americans support
legalization -- up from 36 percent in  2005. Fourteen states have made
marijuana legal for  medical purposes since California became the
first in  1996. Fourteen other states are now considering changes  in
their laws against marijuana, ranging from allowing  medical marijuana
to decriminalization.

Florida is not among those 28 states, though polls have  shown that a
majority of Florida voters support medical  marijuana. A group is
trying to get medical marijuana  on the Florida ballot this fall.
Here's hoping they  succeed.

This is what some of us always believed would happen  with marijuana
laws: People would realize the folly of  keeping marijuana illegal and
change the laws. I think  we imagined it would happen sooner than it
did and in  more sweeping federal fashion, rather than the slow
trickle of state-by-state.

But as you get older -- say 55 to 59 -- you realize  that's how things
work. Look at health care reform.  Ever since Franklin Roosevelt,
there have been efforts  to institute some form of national health
insurance.  Now, 60 years later, President Obama finally succeeded.
Sometimes, it takes decades for the steady plodding of  logic and
determined supporters to get the right thing  done.

Ending the prohibition on marijuana is about taking it  out of the
dark of criminal activity and profit and  bringing it into the light
of the nation's daily  commerce. It's just so logical.

If we tax marijuana, government will have much more  revenue -- for
things such as health care. If we  regulate marijuana, it will reduce
its availability to  children -- who can get it illegally from friends
and  acquaintances. If we eliminate the penalties for  possession, we
can stop the unfair and costly jailing  of people -- whose only crime
is preferring marijuana  to alcohol when they relax.

If we legalize marijuana, we can make marijuana  available nationwide
to those who need it medically --  and eliminate such farces as
Wal-Mart firing a Michigan  employee who failed a drug test after
using marijuana  prescribed by his doctor.

And if we legalize, we can help stop the drug cartel  violence, which
is ripping apart Mexico and spreading  into the U.S. According to the
Marijuana Policy  Project, the largest marijuana reform organization
in  the U.S., more than 18,000 people have been killed in  Mexico by
drug violence since 2006. The U.S. Justice  Department reports that
cartels do business in 230  American cities. Annually, 60 percent to
70 percent of  marijuana sold by cartels is sold in the U.S. It's an
annual $8 billion to $10 billion industry for the  cartels, whose
violence will continue as long as they  are making money.

We will never eradicate the human affection for  intoxication, as was
proved by the failed efforts of  alcohol prohibition in the early 20th
century. But we  can stop the violence and costs associated with
marijuana prohibition by taking its distribution out of  the hands of
criminals -- and stop criminalizing those  who use it.

It's the right thing to do. If only to save Grandma and  Grandpa from
embarrassment. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D