Pubdate: Sun, 08 Sep 2013
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2013 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: E.J. Montini

WILL 'REEFER MADNESS' GIVE WAY TO SANITY?

Not long ago, if someone told Dennis Bohlke the federal government 
would help him get marijuana legalized in Arizona, he'd have said, 
"Are you high?"

"But," he said, "it happened. And it was great news. Maybe the 
country and our state will finally come to their senses."

The Department of Justice announced last month it would not interfere 
with states such as Colorado and Washington that passed referendums 
legalizing marijuana use.

Bohlke is treasurer of a group called Safer Arizona, which is working 
to put an initiative to legalize marijuana on the 2014 ballot. For 
that to happen, the group will have to collect 259,213 valid 
signatures by July 3 of next year.

"A lot of people, many of them legislators I've spoken with, were 
worried that if we passed our initiative, the federal government 
would step in and stop us from implementing it," he said. "Now, that 
concern is gone. That will help us in convincing the public. Although 
I believe the public already has changed its attitude about marijuana."

The initiative would create a constitutional amendment that allows 
for possession and sale of marijuana. Like alcohol, it would be 
regulated by state and local governments. And sales would be taxed.

The initiative also could correct an unjust aspect of Arizona's 
impaired-driving laws in which the mere presence of a marijuana 
metabolite in a suspect's system constitutes "proof" that the person 
was impaired.

Some marijuana residues can linger in a person's system for weeks 
with no impairment. It's like being arrested on suspicion of DUI 
because you had a drink days ago. The new initiative would require 
proof of impairment by way of a videotaped field sobriety test.

Bohlke is fighting a case of his own against a marijuana DUI charge.

"Our DUI law is one of the reasons I got into this," he said. 
"Average Joe citizens are being convicted for crimes they are not 
guilty of, and that isn't right. We're turning into a police state 
where common sense and evidence doesn't mean anything. We need to change that."

The Justice Department policy shift came in response to the new 
marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington.

Essentially, the federal government promises not to prevent those 
laws from going into effect as long as the states have "a strong and 
effective state regulatory system."

Such a system would keep pot from being sold to minors, crack down on 
criminal enterprises, make sure the plants weren't grown on public 
land and keep marijuana off federal property (where it's still 
illegal), among other things.

It's a long way from the wacky 1936 propaganda film "Reefer Madness," 
which was used as part of a government campaign against the "evil weed."

Not everyone believes legalization is a good idea, of course.

Prosecutors such as Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery are 
against changing Arizona's law. Montgomery doesn't even want to alter 
the law that allows people who aren't actually impaired to be convicted of DUI.

The chairman of Safer Arizona, Robert Clark, told me awhile back: "It 
is silly to demonize a plant. We've been getting very positive 
response from the public. I believe awareness on this issue has 
increased a lot in recent years. This is about personal rights and 
liberties. We spend so much time and money for low-level enforcement, 
money that could be so much better spent going after the real bad guys."

Bohlke says taxpayers should think of the initiative in terms of 
fairness and economics.

"Thousands of people are arrested for marijuana possession each 
year," he said. "Each of those prosecutions probably costs a couple 
thousand dollars. It's a tremendous waste of state resources."

He said the summer heat has made it difficult to collect signatures, 
but the committee (saferarizona.com) expects a surge through the fall 
and winter.

"I believe there are enough people who want the law changed," Bohlke 
said. "Sooner or later, it will happen."

And then all those decades of wasted law-enforcement resources and 
taxpayer dollars will be recognized as the real "reefer madness."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom