Pubdate: Wed, 09 May 2012
Source: Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Copyright: 2012 Austin American-Statesman
Contact: http://www.statesman.com/default/content/feedback/lettersubmit.html
Website: http://www.statesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/32
Author: Ken Herman

MARIJUANA AND MEXICAN VIOLENCE, A QUESTION OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND

I've been here long enough to have seen every type of Capitol rally 
more than twice. I like them because most involve law-abiding people 
who care deeply about something, be it schools or health care or 
pollution or injustice or some other important issue.

On Saturday, I went to a rally that included lawbreakers who care 
deeply about themselves. Specifically, they care about illegally 
making themselves comfortably numb. (Free tip: Fifteen minutes at a 
Texas House committee hearing induces that same "Twilight Zone"-y 
feeling legally and at no charge.)

The Texas Marijuana March was run by Texas NORML, which advocates 
marijuana legalization. Rally participants told me they like how 
marijuana makes them feel. Some said they need it for health reasons.

Marijuana legalization is a fit topic for public debate. It's weird 
that it's illegal to possess a plant. It's also weird that some folks 
have selected this as the cause of a lifetime.

Among the legalization arguments is that prohibition contributes to 
drug-related violence. I get that, but couldn't drug-related violence 
also be decreased if recreational marijuana consumers - unless and 
until they get it legalized - stopped consuming? Is complying with 
the law too much to ask? We also hear that drug law enforcement costs 
us money that could be used for schools, etc. Perhaps, but can I get 
an "amen" for the notion that there is something weird about 
lawbreakers complaining about the cost of enforcing laws they choose 
to break? Could they be the cause of dollars diverted from schools?

I know the amount that each marijuana consumer uses (other than 
Willie) contributes only infinitesimally to violence in Mexico. But 
the collective usage, along with U.S. use of other illegal drugs, is 
a major cause of it. Just suppose we juxtapose usage and violence. 
That's what I tried to do at the rally on the day a front-page story 
detailed the hanging of nine people from a Nuevo Laredo overpass and 
the decapitation of 14 people whose bodies were found in a van and 
whose heads were found in an ice chest.

Mexican officials long have blamed drug usage north of the Rio Grande 
for the violence south of the Rio Grande. Economics 101 supports the 
claim, minus, perhaps, marijuana illegally grown in the U.S. (FYI, 
marijuana is taxable in Texas at $3.50 per gram. Tax is due when a 
"dealer imports, manufactures, produces, acquires, and/or possesses." 
In 2011, Texas collected $8,478 from the "controlled substances" tax, 
which includes the marijuana levy. In 2010, it was $877. The state 
marijuana tax stamp features the Grim Reaper and the words "death, 
drugs and taxes.")

At the march, I asked participants if they feel any culpability for 
the violence. Mostly they do not.

Student Chris Jackson, 18, of Palacios likes marijuana because "it's 
better than alcohol because I don't get hungover." He feels no 
responsibility for the Mexican violence because "in Mexico, they do 
things a whole lot dirtier." And there's this: "I don't buy my weed 
from Mexicans. I buy from white people."

Jackson and his friend Pokeho (He said that's his legal name. It 
could happen.) carried a "Weed or Bleed" sign. Pokeho, 27, lives in 
Port Lavaca and said he drives for a living. (What could possibly go 
wrong?) He acknowledged his marijuana use could contribute to Mexican 
violence. He feels bad about that but not bad enough to stop consuming.

"I love it," he said of marijuana. "You've got your god, and I have mine."

Jordan Hitzfeld of Houston, 18, was with her dad Scott Hitzfeld, an 
air conditioning mechanic. Both have used marijuana. Her sign said 
"Give me dank or give me death." Dank is a potent form of marijuana. 
Here's hoping the sign was more rhetoric than creed. Her dad said 
breaking the marijuana law is OK because "it's an illegal law." He 
does not believe everybody should be able to break laws they deem 
illegal, "but everyone should have the right to choose their medicine."

Leigha Lewis, 19, likes marijuana "because it helps me relax." She is 
vice president of the NORML chapter at Sam Houston State University 
in Huntsville. She wore a marijuana cheerleader uniform to the march. 
"Marijuana has never killed anybody," she said, noting that she 
learned in criminal justice class that its usage is a "victimless 
crime" and she is "not hurting anybody."

"I didn't cause that. It wasn't my choice to kill somebody," she said 
of Mexican violence, noting "I usually know what the source of my 
weed is." Usually, it's California.

Josh Schimberg, Texas NORML's executive director, said he has been a 
marijuana consumer "at times" and feels no responsibility for the 
Mexican violence.

"Not at all. I wouldn't buy product and I wouldn't advise anybody to 
buy product that has come from across the border," he said, touting a 
"buy local" approach.

Fine, I guess, but would it be asking too much to ask recreational 
drug users, including those who buy Mexican product, to obey the law, 
especially if it could help curtail the violence and free up tax 
dollars for other uses?

"No, it's not too much to ask at all," Schimberg said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom