Pubdate: Sat, 15 Dec 2012
Source: Daily Journal, The (IL)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Journal Publishing Co., L.L.C.
Contact:  http://www.daily-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2805
Authors: Joe Yurgine and Ken Johnston
Note: Joe Yurgine is a practicing attorney in Kankakee County, a 
former FBI agent, a business law instructor at KCC, an assistant 
public defender,a village attorney for Bourbonnais, and a hearing 
officer for the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Dr. Ken Johnston 
has been an ENT surgeon in Kankakee since 1976. He has been on 
several community boards and has been involved with clubs and 
organizations. He has lived in Bourbonnais since 1981.

THE FAILURE OF THE WAR ON DRUGS

Yurgine: The war on illegal drugs started with the Nixon 
administration and has been going on ever since. The mission of the 
war was to reduce the consumption of illegal drugs by apprehending 
and punishing those persons who sell and possess drugs. The war has 
been a complete failure. The demand for marijuana will always be 
there. The only thing that varies is its price. Do you think with the 
recent election that we will be able to end the war, at least as 
regards marijuana?

Johnston: Our recent election has shown than there are changes in the 
way several issues are regarded by the electorate, including support 
for government control of health care and liberalized views of same 
sex marriage. There seems to be growing grass roots support for 
legalized marijuana. If marijuana is on the path to legalization, it 
follows the precedent of alcohol. Prohibition of manufacture, 
distribution and consumption of alcohol beverages in the United 
States was adopted in 1920 as a "The Noble Experiment." The country's 
thirst was unabated. The business of illegal alcohol resulted in more 
than a decade most notable for political corruption and criminal 
activity. The experiment failed. Public support evaporated. 
Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

Yurgine: Voters in Colorado and Washington now have legalized 
marijuana in small amounts for personal use. A good argument for 
legalization in Illinois is that prohibition does more harm than 
good. It wastes a ton of tax dollars on law enforcement fighting a 
losing battle, not to mention the cost of keeping pot users in jail. 
What about health issues? Unlike alcohol, medical studies have not 
linked marijuana to cancer, addiction or high health care costs, correct?

Johnston: Marijuana has a low toxicity. Weeding out the use of mixed 
drugs, any deaths purely from a marijuana overdose are extremely 
rare. Toxicity often is measured by LD50, the (lethal) dose divided 
by weight that would causing death in 50 percent of lab rodents. It 
seems that it is nearly impossible to kill a rat with the marijuana 
active ingredient, THC, no matter how high the dose.

It probably can be assumed that the long-term smoking of a comparable 
number of marijuana cigarettes would have similar consequences to 
tobacco. But persons addicted to tobacco typically consume 1-2 packs 
per day, 20-40 cigarettes, while the marijuana user is more inclined 
to socially share a spliff with a friend in an evening, often with 
some leftovers. Since the adverse health consequences of tobacco are 
proportional to the pack-years of consumption, there is no hard 
information marijuana is a carcinogen for a typical user or a cause 
of cardiovascular or liver disease. Daily use of marijuana is linked 
to lethargy, underperformance and priapism.

Yurgine: OK. Medical marijuana seems to be growing in favor with many 
politicians. At least 12 states now permit it. Assume you were still 
practicing medicine and Illinois allowed it, which, by the way, has a 
good chance of happening. If I came in to your office, complaining of 
pain on a 10 level, asking you to prescribe me some joints, would you 
feel comfortable prescribing them? Assume that you are convinced that 
I am neither faking nor exaggerating my problems.

Johnston: Medical marijuana seems to me to be a suspect and smoky 
proposition. Many of the "patients" are most likely using the 
substance to get high. In California, most physicians steer clear of 
the marijuana prescription business, having been trained to be wary 
of the new patient seeking specific scheduled drugs, but there are 
"specialists" who will listen to a patient's complaint for $150 or so 
and issue a script. Qualifying chronic symptoms include migraine, 
nausea, pain, achy joints, spasticity and weight loss. Advice to 
would-be patients on what to say can be found on the NORML website. 
Do growers of medical marijuana in California qualify for fed pharm subsidies?
In the long term, medical marijuana laws are just the nose of the 
camel. It seems cut and dried that outright legalization is the real 
goal of the increasingly powerful marijuana lobby.

Yurgine:  On the Federal level, the head of Obama's Office of 
National Drug Control Policy has said that "legalization is not in 
the president's vocabulary, nor is it in mine." This means that they 
look at it as a bad trip and probably do not wish to become the party 
of pot. I think legalization is going nowhere nationally. The Obama 
administration, however, does appear to tolerate medical marijuana 
users in states where it is legal. Illinois could start with that.

Outright legalization, if it comes at all, would have to arise state 
by state. I'm not a political strategist, but it would appear to me 
that the argument should be couched in economic terms. Downplay 
social ills.  The voter's number number one concern now is the 
economy. At the moment, the cost of the drug war is more painful than 
its licensing and we are running out of money. There is a Harvard 
economist, Jeffrey Miron, who states that governments (Federal, State 
and local) spend about $44.1 billion annually enforcing drug 
prohibitions. The benefits of legalization would be control, 
regulation and revenue, similar to that which we get from liquor. 
Somebody needs to convince Gov. Quinn that by controlling it and 
taxing it, we will not only save a lot of money in enforcement, but 
bring in perhaps $500 million a year.

Finally, in your view would marijuana use increase if it were legalized?

Johnston: Close to 40 percent of the adult population in the United 
States has tried marijuana, but regular users account for only around 
5 percent of the population. Marijuana is not for everyone. The issue 
is not so much expanding the use of the drug as it is ending the 
costly and eternal war on marijuana.Given that the US political mean 
is moving leftward, decriminalization appears to be inevitable, 
although there are potholes (pun intended) on the road to 
legalization. The early experience in Colorado indicates that the 
most resistance to change is going to come from law enforcement 
officers and prosecutors who have spent their whole careers busting 
and penalizing marijuana users, growers, importers and dealers.

A bill to legalize medical marijuana is afoot in the Illinois 
legislature. Given that enforcing, prosecuting and incarcerating 
folks involved with marijuana is a cost center for government, and it 
could be turned into a revenue center by legalizing, regulating and 
taxing production and distribution, you would think that in our cash 
strapped state, Gov. Quinn and Mike Madigan's Legislature will make a 
joint decision (pun again) to reform the current laws. But just as 
Illinois is the only state not to have enacted concealed carry law 
for firearms, I would anticipate Illinois not being an early adopter. 
I will be mildly surprised if it passes soon. Imagine Quinn making 
his speech about the legal herb, then shaking hands with Willie 
Nelson. Picture Obama orating from the teleprompter about the new 
direction in managing marijuana and then embracing Snoop Dogg.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom