Pubdate: Sun, 03 Mar 2013
Source: Meridian Star, The (MS)
Copyright: 2013 Meridian Star
Contact: http://www.meridianstar.com/letters/local_story_039175519.html
Website: http://www.meridianstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1698
Author: Sid Salter
Page: A5

DRUG COURT PIONEER, FEDERAL JUDGE SPEAKS TO PUSH FOR LEGAL POT

Now that voters in the states of Colorado and Washington have 
legalized the sale of marijuana in their states, the showdown between 
these new state laws and current federal law that makes marijuana 
sales illegal in all states still looms.

At least one Mississippi federal district judge and a pioneer in the 
drug court movement see Colorado and Washington as the first of many 
states to try to decriminalize marijuana - and he's worried about it.

Southern District U.S. Judge Keith Starrett of McComb said in January 
that he had significant concerns about what is unfolding in Colorado 
and Washington - and that more states will follow.

Starrett has been a career champion of racial reconciliation, 
advocacy to protect children, and drug courts to create a path to 
keep first-time drug users from becoming career criminals.

"We dropped the ball in Colorado and Washington," said Starrett, who 
worked as a member of the National Drug Court Professionals to stop 
the legalization effort in those states. "Our organization played a 
big part in the defeat of legalization in California, but we were 
caught flat-footed in the last election."

Before assuming his present seat on the federal bench, Starrett was 
circuit judge for the Mississippi 14th Judicial District. Among other 
accomplishments while a circuit judge, he led in establishing and 
presiding over Mississippi's first felony-level drug court.

Starrett was a pioneer in the drug court movement both in Mississippi 
and nationally. He also was appointed to the Mississippi Drug Court 
Commission by the chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and 
was a member of the state commission to redraft the Mississippi Criminal Code.

The new marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington allow the 
recreational use of marijuana and require that the states set up a 
bureaucracy to license, regulate and tax those sales. That system is 
expected to be at least similar to the bureaucracies that exist in 
states to license, regulate and tax the sales of liquor, wine and beer.

Starrett estimates that following the lead of those states, as many 
as 10 other states could follow suit within the next year.

"Common sense people are losing the debate and a big part of the loss 
is attributable to untruths and half-truths being promoted by the 
legalization and medical marijuana communities," said Starrett. 
"Hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital has been lined up 
to meet the expected markets in the states where it (marijuana) is 
legal or expected to be legal soon. Corporate America will do the 
same with marijuana that it did with marketing cigarettes."

His experiences on the state bench in Mississippi form the basis of 
his beliefs on this subject: "Very few people go to jail for 
marijuana and the ones that do are usually for possessing pound or 
multiple pounds. However, marijuana is the primary gateway drug for 
other drugs that are significantly more addictive and have 
dramatically increased our prison population. Almost 90 percent of 
inmates had a drug or alcohol problem that contributed to their actions."

Starrett, the savvy, experienced former state judge, knows his 
politics well enough to observe that Mississippi "will not legalize 
marijuana any time soon."

"But the softening of attitudes (nationally) against legalization 
causes more people to accept it," he said.

As I noted in an early column on this topic, remember Mississippi's 
patchwork of beer and liquor laws and apply those same rules to 
marijuana - the mind reels.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom