Pubdate: Sun, 02 Dec 2012
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 2012 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Contact: http://www.jsonline.com/general/30627794.html
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/265
Author: James E. Causey
Note: James E. Causey is a Journal Sentinel editorial writer, 
columnist and blogger,

STATE SHOULD LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA

Wisconsin should legalize recreational use of marijuana - or at the 
very least lessen the penalties for minor cannabis possession.

Don't let my dreadlocks fool you. My conclusion was not an easy one, 
but everything in life should not automatically lend itself to a 
criminal justice solution.

Just because I favor the recreational use of marijuana doesn't mean 
that I believe it's good for you. It's not, but neither is smoking, 
drinking or overeating and a number of the other ills that society 
doesn't have a problem with until someone is hurt.

I don't smoke weed, but some of my friends do.

I have tried marijuana, and, yes, I did inhale. My first experience 
with weed occurred in middle school.

I was in the bathroom during recess, and two big eighth-graders 
walked in. I was in the stall, and they didn't see me. Next thing I 
knew, they were lighting up. When I walked out of the stall, they 
stopped me and gave me a choice. Either I could smoke with them so we 
all would get in trouble, or I could risk getting beat up. I smoked.

There is a problem when a young teenager can get his hands on a 
joint. But according to a 2009 Milwaukee Public Schools Youth Risk 
Behavior Survey, 52% of high school students have tried marijuana at 
least once. There will always be people who bend the rules, but the 
legal smoking age should be 21.

If marijuana is legalized in the state, it could be monitored for 
quality to make sure it doesn't have dangerous additives, and sales 
could be monitored and taxed - revenue that could fund underfunded 
drug and alcohol courts and treatment facilities. Treatment 
facilities work, but there are not enough open slots for all who could benefit.

Some of the lawmakers and public officials who I talked to about 
legalizing marijuana supported decriminalizing the drug, but few 
wanted to go to the point of making it legal for recreational use.

Today's marijuana is not the same drug of the flower-power era. It's 
more potent, and there are different strains that can be more 
dangerous, said John Chisholm, Milwaukee County district attorney.

But Chisholm didn't think legalization would lead to more widespread use.

Large drug cartels and corner dealers have most of the control in the 
marijuana trade. Legalization could swing some of that control to the states.

This nation spent billions on the War on Drugs, to take down cartels 
and kingpins. The war was a dismal failure. The nation's prisons are 
not packed with killers; they are filled with people who suffer from 
mental illness and drug and alcohol addictions. In Wisconsin, drug 
offenders accounted for more than 20% of the growth in the prison 
population from 1996 to 2006, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

There are some blocks in Milwaukee where people live in fear because 
drug dealers run those blocks and violence erupts when other dealers 
try to move in on their turf.

No one is immune to the impact of marijuana use, but the poor tend to 
be caught in the cross hairs because they have the most contact with 
law enforcement officials.

Those with marijuana convictions can lose financial aid for school, 
have their driver's license suspended and have their conviction 
placed on an online criminal document for potential employers to see.

David Liners, executive director of WISDOM, which just released a 
state report on incarceration, said drug convictions have had the 
largest impact on African-Americans, who make up 50% of the state 
prison population but only 6% of the state's population.

Many of these people are low-risk, nonviolent people who should not 
be incarcerated in the first place. Liners did not have a number of 
how many were incarcerated specifically for marijuana use or 
distribution, but he did say a larger investment on the front end in 
treatment would make more sense than incarcerating people on the back end.

Liners admitted that he was lucky. He said when he was a freshman at 
Marquette University, marijuana use was prevalent in his dorm room 
and the cops were not busting into dorms arresting students.

That is not the case for many black and brown youths who get busted 
with recreational amounts of weed on a daily basis.

If Wisconsin moved to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the 
state would join Colorado and Washington as the only ones to do so. 
Eighteen states have legalized medical marijuana for people with 
cancer or who have chronic headaches.

A lot of people smoke weed. When I was in line to pay for gas at a 
service station on N. 35th Street last week, four young men ahead of 
me were all purchasing Swisher Sweets blunt wraps. The cigars are 
popular among pot smokers, who use them to roll blunts. When I asked 
the cashier how many Swisher Sweets he sells in a week, he said hundreds.

"It's big business," he said.

If legalized and properly regulated, it could be big business for the state.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom