Pubdate: Fri, 25 May 2012
Source: World, The (Coos Bay, OR)
Copyright: 2012 Southwestern Oregon Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.theworldlink.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1229

WEED IS WINNING

Item: Oregon's U.S. attorney, Amanda Marshall, says much of Oregon's 
medical marijuana crop is being diverted to illicit drug dealers 
across America. But she says the issue is low on her priority list. 
She's unwilling to devote much time or money to it.

Item: Marshall's predecessor in the job, Dwight Holton, lost Oregon's 
Democratic primary for attorney general last week, after marijuana 
advocates poured money into attacking him. He had outraged them by 
criticizing the medical marijuana program.

Item: Budget cuts proposed by the Obama administration could halve 
the time that National Guard helicopters spend searching for 
clandestine pot plantations. Sen. Jeff Merkley complains that the 
cuts will surrender Oregon's national forests to drug traffickers.

Put it all together, and the conclusion is plain. Law enforcement 
isn't just losing its decades-long battle against pot. The battle is lost.

Americans have long been conflicted about marijuana, even before 
President Nixon launched the War on Drugs. Though law enforcement 
leaders still revile pot as a companion of crime and a gateway to 
addiction, Americans no longer flinch at electing presidents who 
admit to having smoked it.

In many ways, the parallels between marijuana laws and Prohibition 
are inescapable: the drug's foregone acceptance in many circles, the 
inability of police to stop its distribution, and flourishing 
criminal enterprises that profit from the commodity's artificially 
inflated price. (If marijuana weren't contraband, mainstream farmers 
would soon drive the back-country plantations out of business.)

Just this week, a national poll suggested a majority of Americans 
support legalizing and taxing marijuana. Critics dismissed the poll 
as biased, but the momentum for legal pot is undeniable.

Few prominent politicians are ready to advocate legalization, and 
neither are we. But America needs an honest discussion about its 
marijuana policy. The current strategy simply isn't working.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom