Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2013
Source: Verde Independent (AZ)
Copyright: 2013 Western News & Info, Inc
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Website: http://verdenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4433
Author: John Holdsworth

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA PUTS COPS OUT OF WORK

Editor:

In the Sept. 22 VI (From Your Perspective, "A little homework on 
marijuana"), David Perrell asks why we squander billions of tax 
dollars in the unwinnable war on cannabis.

The answer is pretty simple if you follow the old Law 101 rule: 
"Follow the Money Trail."

If cannabis were legalized, tens of thousands (hundreds of 
thousands?) of police, prosecutors, judges, prison guards and 
administrators, merchants who build and supply prisons, etc., etc. 
would be put out of work. They are not about to let that happen 
without one heck of a fight, of course.

When Prohibition was repealed those who had been employed in the war 
against illicit booze needed a new cause to keep their jobs. Cannabis 
and other substances, which had been legal up to that time, proved to 
be their salvation.

And so it has been ever since. To expect any radical change in the 
near future, you might as well whistle "Dixie."

Arresting recreation pot smokers and putting them in jail, simply 
epitomizes the definition of stupidity: "doing the same thing over 
and over again and expecting different results."

John Holdsworth

Cornville
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