Pubdate: Sun, 27 Oct 2013
Source: Buffalo News (NY)
Copyright: 2013 The Buffalo News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/GXIzebQL
Website: http://www.buffalonews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61
Author: Donn Esmonde

IT'S TIME FOR PEOPLE TO START SEEING THROUGH THE HAZE ON POT

It is nice that Americans are finally seeing through the haze of pot 
smoke. A national Gallup poll released last week revealed that, for 
the first time, most people think marijuana should be legalized. The 
ramifications are deep and wide: Bill Clinton can inhale. Celebratory 
fumes are blowing out the back of Willie Nelson's tour bus.

More significantly, a nation of covert pot smokers may soon be able 
to come out of the closet, joining legal tokers in Colorado and 
Washington. A pot-legalization referendum could be on the ballot next 
year in California. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo backs 
decriminalization of public possession of small amounts. The Gallup 
numbers will only encourage state legislators to get on board.

It is high time that pot was regulated like alcohol, instead of 
bought and sold on the black market.

We are more than one toke over the legalization line. The poll's 
pro-pot percentage was a landslide 58-to-39, a mere three years after 
most Americans polled were anti-legalization.

The times, they have a-changed.

 From gay marriage to legalized pot, America finally is exhaling on 
social issues. The country's Puritanical ethos is being chipped away 
like blocks off of Plymouth Rock.

It is a victory for common sense, for law and order - given the toll 
of drug turf wars on inner-city neighborhoods - and for taxpayers. 
Fees collected on legal pot sales are potentially the state's largest 
new pocket-filler since Indian casinos.

Peter Christ (rhymes with wrist) is a retired Town of Tonawanda 
police captain and co-founder of LEAP  Law Enforcement Against 
Prohibition. He said a big problem with pot prohibition is the street 
mayhem it breeds.

"The violence is rooted in the underground marketplace that we 
created" by making pot illegal, Christ told me in a recent interview. 
"It's just like the gangsters with Prohibition."

There will be no turning back. The offspring of the Woodstock 
generation are leading the common-sense charge. Two of every three 
adults under 30 favor legalization. Whether the younger generation is 
more enlightened on social issues, or recognize the long-term 
futility of a "war" on drugs in perennially high demand, legalization 
is as much about pragmatism as philosophy.

As Christ put it, "There are nearly 900,000 marijuana arrests in this 
country every year. Marijuana use doesn't screw up nearly as many 
lives as a felony conviction does."

I am not a big fan of pot. But I know plenty of people who are, who 
use pot responsibly (i.e., after first checking the in-house chip 
supply) and who would welcome the loss of stigma and easier 
availability that comes with legalization.

Granted, smoking pot alters your consciousness. That's the point of 
any recreational drug. But the benefits of legalization  with age and 
use regulations, the same as with alcohol  outweigh the drawbacks of 
a drug that does less harm to health and society than booze or 
tobacco. I have yet to see a crime report involving two stoners in a 
barroom brawl. Pot smokers are more likely to mellow in place than to 
get behind the wheel of a car.

"It is likely," wrote the Gallup folks, "that this momentum will spur 
further legalization efforts."

Some may see it as a sign of civilization's decay. To me, it's a 
bong-hit for civility.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom