Pubdate: Sat, 16 Oct 2010
Source: Daily Press (Victorville, CA)
Copyright: 2010 Freedom Communications, Inc.
Contact: http://www.vvdailypress.com/sections/contactus/
Website: http://www.vvdailypress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1061
Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19)

A RELUCTANT YES ON PROPOSITION 19

A letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal Thursday came from 
John Fisher, the lead Office of Management and Budget on an 
interagency drug interdiction task force involving the White House 
Office of Drug Policy, the Office of Management and Budget, 
(Immigration Service-Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement 
Administration) and Treasury (Customs Service) in the 1970s.

Mr. Fisher pointed out that his office presented conclusions to White 
House staff and to Treasury and Justice and leadership "based on 
estimates that we were interdiction about 5 percent of marijuana and 
about the same singledigit percent of 'hard' drugs coming across U.S. Borders."

Mr. Fisher noted that, "U.S. drug enforcement policy has been 
tragically wrong-headed for more than a generation for several 
reasons. Foremost is the failure to look at drug policy with an 
economic, rather than an ideological, lens. Our policies of 
increasing investment in interdiction have raised profit margins for 
narco-terrorists, state-terror groups and criminal syndicates. Our 
policies of increasing 'investment' have been driven by federal 
agency union leadership interested in increasing membership and the 
scope of their mission. Our inability as a nation to look at the 
deteriorating world of drug-financed terrorism and lawlessness may be 
the result of our policy of incremental increases." Exactly.

Mr. Fisher added that "Like another conservative economist and 
observer of our failed policy, George Shultz, I favor legalization of 
marijuana. I will vote in favor of (California) Proposition 19 on 
Nov. 2, as one step in the right direction."

We agree. Legalizing marijuana will, at the very least, impinge on 
the illegal drug sellers (and movers) by reducing their potential for 
profit-taking from the users of marijuana. At best, it will cause 
their "war" against our drug war to be abandoned.

We've been down this road before, the last time when United States 
citizens agreed to prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s.

What has government perturbed here is that someone is profiting from 
drug sales and the government can't tax drug sales. Recall Ronald 
Reagan's dictum, that "Government's view of the economy could be 
summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps 
moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

Let's face it, government doesn't want to - and never will - 
subsidize illegal drug sales. It is, however, entirely willing to 
invoke the "if it moves, tax it" part. So OK, let's pass Proposition 
19, tax marijuana sales, and get rid of the onerous, debilitating war 
on drugs. It's gotten us nothing in 80 years except heartache, death 
and a plethora of scofflaws across the country.

This is not an easy call, but it makes more sense than continuing to 
expend billions of tax dollars on what is increasingly becoming a 
futile effort to outlaw marijuana use. It has never worked, and it's 
time to try a new tactic. Vote yes on 19. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake