Pubdate: Wed, 28 Aug 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Jon Carroll

GETTING HIGH - EVERYBODY'S DOING IT

Well, this is unfortunate: According to Bob Egelko of this very 
newspaper, the feds have come up with a new way to harass 
medicinal-pot sellers in Oakland - and probably elsewhere as well.

Marijuana is a fraught subject just now. The Justice Department 
really doesn't want any high-profile cases, so it's not busting the 
pot stores. Selling marijuana is, after all, legal under California 
law - provided that your buyers have prescriptions and provided that 
your city has not passed a law forbidding pot sales within city limits.

The current state of affairs is something of a mess, although 
commerce is winning out in many areas. There's gold in them thar 
buds, friends, and lots of people are aware of that and jumping on 
the bandwagon. If the Justice Department were to back off, we'd see a 
vigorous free market at work.

Anyway: According to the folks at Harborside, Oakland's upscale, 
perky-people, "have a nice day," one-stop-shopping marijuana 
purveyors, the feds are now pressuring armored-car companies not to 
do business with the pot clubs, threatening possible prosecution for 
criminal conspiracy. That doesn't look good on any company's resume.

Previously, the feds - it's not clear which agency is doing this, 
DOJ, DEA, some other three-letter acronym - had leaned on credit card 
companies not to accept business from marijuana dispensaries. As a 
result, it's become more of a cash business, with the attendant dangers.

Hence, the need for the armored cars. But now, I guess, it's "toss 
the bundles of cash into the old Subaru and hope for the best."

Look, everyone agrees that our drug laws are a mess, partly because 
we are so confused in our own attitudes. We love drugs - we get 
prescriptions for painkillers and drink nice Scotch whisky - and yet 
we also abominate them. Crack cocaine, we hate you; you're a whole 
different kind of drug.

I wouldn't know; I never tried it. I do point out that which drugs I 
tried was largely determined by my class and friendship affiliations. 
Drug laws based on the evilness of one drug over another are bound to 
be farcical. It's all culturally determined.

Medically, I suppose, alcohol is the most dangerous. Factor in 
drunken driving and domestic violence, and you've got a pretty nasty 
syndrome going. But the people who are using it are responding to the 
almost-universal desire to get a little loaded once in a while.

Either we accept that urge or we fight against it. Personal choice, 
there. But we can't both accept and fight; it's crazy-making.

There is, however, no large push among the citizenry to reform the 
drug laws. The people in Washington, which is where the solution has 
to come from, see no urgency to propose bills or hold hearings or 
mount an executive-office crusade. Politically speaking, it's a big loser.

So with no relief in sight, what to do? Back in the old days, selling 
alcohol was illegal in parts of many Southern states, even after 
Prohibition was repealed. Bootleggers ran through the forests evading 
federal agents, and that's how NASCAR was born. (A little off the 
point, that last bit, but it's a fascinating fact - the early NASCAR 
drivers had grown up outrunning revenooers on bad roads.)

Even though it was illegal, the several states always collected taxes 
on the profits. Not even the law could stand in the way of sound 
fiscal practices. Same deal here. The Justice Department could decide 
unilaterally to just back the heck off. The pot clubs would be 
permitted to act like the shadowy companies they are, still 
technically illegal under federal law but otherwise OK. Tens of 
thousands of customers would be able to buy what they want to buy, 
and things would be messed up but a little less messed up than they are now.

I understand that this doesn't make sense. There are pockets of 
illogic everywhere. But I am not persuaded that we have any chance of 
rational drug laws anytime soon, and all our closely reasoned 
arguments about why change is necessary profiteth us not. So please, 
Mr. Obama, sir, call off the dogs. Let Oakland have its nice revenue 
stream, and let the people have a little muggles to make the day go smoothly.

I don't think the federal government needs any more wars against its 
citizens. Those NSA revelations were bad enough. The motto of law 
enforcement should be the same as the motto for doctors: "First, do 
no harm." Don't mess with something that's working. Let the state 
worry about it. Look, people are fracking! Go bother them.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom