Pubdate: Sat, 06 Oct 2012
Source: Fort Collins Coloradoan (CO)
Copyright: 2012 The Fort Collins Coloradoan
Contact: http://www.coloradoan.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.coloradoan.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1580
Author: Perry Lorenz
Note: Perry Lorenz lives in Fort Collins

LIBERTY MEANS LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

I hope voters approve the November initiative to legalize 
recreational marijuana. Laws, in general, are needed to protect 
people from being abused by others, but they are not appropriate for 
protecting individuals from their own bad judgment. Divorce causes 
far more social harm than adults smoking joints in their own living 
rooms. Yet no one suggests a ban will solve divorce problems.

Alcohol causes lots of problems, and it is unhealthier than pot. 
Prohibition did not solve alcoholism, nor did it reduce consumption, 
but it did provide enormous profits to organized crime. The ban on 
marijuana is doing the same thing.

One thing is certain: Marijuana will be sold in Colorado. The only 
power legislators and voters have is to decide whether the sales will 
be legal or illegal. If legal, it will be taxed, regulated and safer 
without contamination. If illegal, organized crime will make lots of money.

The smugglers use the marijuana channels to deliver more dangerous 
drugs. Access to hard drugs is going to be reduced if marijuana is 
legalized, because legal retail sales will drive the dealers out of 
business by the only means it can be done: lower prices.

I'd like to appeal to Republicans in particular to vote to legalize 
recreational marijuana. Republicans favor individual liberty and 
responsibility. It's time to back up that belief with a vote. I want 
to assure those who are a little nervous about legalized marijuana 
that the sky will not fall. I want to confirm the Republican belief 
that Americans can be trusted with freedom. Americans have a long 
track record of practicing freedom with responsibility. Guns are far 
more dangerous than marijuana. Yet guns are legal, as they should be. 
The same Americans who are trusted with gun freedom also can be 
trusted to handle a joint with responsibility.

The Drug Enforcement Agency has classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 
drug, the same as heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs. The fact that 
that agency cannot distinguish between a relatively benign drug and 
dangerous drugs proves that blunders by government agencies are as 
common as blunders among men, and far more harmful.

The drug warriors have had more than four decades of "War on Drugs." 
They have failed. It is a failed policy. Just like prohibition was a 
failed policy and for the same reason. It has failed so badly in 
Mexico that it has brought them a low-level civil war. Let's give 
peace a chance. Starting in Colorado, let's show Washington a new 
policy. Let's kick our addiction to failed policies.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom