Pubdate: Thu, 10 Oct 2013
Source: Daily Journal, The (IL)
Copyright: 2013 The Daily Journal Publishing Co., L.L.C.
Contact:  http://www.daily-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2805

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA IS NOT THE ANSWER

Should marijuana be legalized?

Don't think so.

Much has been made of the idea that the War on Drugs is costly, and
that we are needlessly incarcerating people and clogging up the
justice system.

Here's our view of the War on Crime - War on Drugs: We're winning. Over 
the last 20 years, the index of violent crime in this country has been 
cut in half, dropping from 757.7 in 1992 to 386.7 in 2012. Now that's 
not something that resonates with most people, because they see mayhem 
on the television news and internalize it. One image undoes a lot of 
statistics. Much the same people ready to legalize dope would just as 
soon criminalize other behavior to fight "crime" in other ways. The 
reality is, if you are under the age of 41, you are safer from crime 
today than you have ever been in your life.

Why has this happened? You'll get all sorts of speculation. An aging
society. Less exposure to lead paint. But it also has something to do
with incarceration. Some of the people who would have committed four
or five crimes, are now locked up after one or two. Truth in
Sentencing, Three Strikes and You're Out , Mandatory Sentencing and
the War on Drugs have all pushed prison population higher. For sure
there is a cost to incarcerating people. There's also a cost to us
when you let them out - and they commit more crimes.

So before we worry about letting people out of prison, it needs to be
said that many of them richly deserve to be there.

Years of attending Drug Court events also drive home two other
realities. One is that drugs of any kind are tough for a lot of folks.
Given a choice between rehabilitation and treatment or sitting in jail
and doing dope again some day - Door Number 2 is the "Lets Make a
Deal" most choose. The second reality is that almost always when a
crack smoker or heroin addict talks about their start, they will
confess that they began with marijuana and moved up.

Does this mean that we should take every college student who ever
puffed away on a joint and incarcerate them? No. But neither should we
legalize it, tolerate it and pretend that it is not a trap for some.

All laws are an attempt to regulate behavior, from those that hold you
to a speed limit, to limiting jaywalking, to stealing a car. In all
cases, too, some are more severely enforced, some enforced with a
warning, some enforced not at all. One does not have to lock up
everyone who ever smoked a joint to say that smoking a joint is not a
wise choice.

Could we make money by taxing marijuana? Sure. But if history teaches
us anything about government legalizing a vice, it is that government
will shed no moral tears over taking advantage of its own citizens. In
one lifetime, we have moved from legalizing a state lottery to take it
out of the hands of the mob, to hiring a private marketing firm to
sell more lottery tickets. Columnist Michael Gershon of The Washington
Post argues that a society willing to place legalized gambling in
inner city neighborhoods to make a buck is not too far removed from
one that would sell dope to make a dollar.