Pubdate: Fri, 11 Jan 2013
Source: Sentinel, The (Carlisle, PA)
Copyright: 2013 The Sentinel, a division of Lee Enterprise
Contact:  http://www.cumberlink.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4268

SENATOR'S MARIJUANA PLAN A NON-STARTER

What is state Sen. Daylin Leach smoking? Democrat Leach, who
represents Montgomery/ Delaware, announced plans to introduce
legislation that would legalize marijuana in Pennsylvania. Not in the
way other states have, legalizing use for medicinal purposes, but
without restrictions. Leach previously introduced a bill that would
have legalized marijuana for patients who would be eligible due to
their illness.

That failed, so now he's riding the pot train further down the
track.

To be fair, his policy has merit: The state spends billions of dollars
"investigating, prosecuting, incarcerating and monitoring millions of
our fellow citizens who have hurt no one, damaged no property,
breached no peace." He cites safety statistics that show marijuana use
is less dangerous than beer, less risky than cough syrup and less
addictive than chocolate.

But what he doesn't mention is that legalization of marijuana use
would require major new expenses, such as regulating drivers who get
high before getting behind the wheel of a car. How many billions of
dollars would be spent expanding DUI checks and testing to account for
marijuana abuse?

In a society where smoking has been banned in many places, his
comparison to beer, cough syrup and chocolate weakens. Smoking bans
exist because nonsmokers are affected by the choices smokers make. If
a nonsmoker is in a restaurant with smokers, they're exposed to
second-hand smoke despite having made a choice not to smoke.
Similarly, pot smokers would be free to use a drug that cannot be
consumed as beer is, nor taken or eaten as is cough syrup and
chocolate. All three of those practices are solitary - pot smoking
creates smoke that affects more than just the pot smoker.

While marijuana legalization may be an inevitability, with Washington
and Colorado recently voting to legalize its use, allowing free-range
pot smoking anywhere in the state is not an appropriate way forward.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D