Pubdate: Sun, 15 Dec 2013
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority
Author: Alicia Springer

MARIJUANA SHOULD BE REGULATED, TAXED

In his letter about the damage to society caused by marijuana, Robert 
Fay instead illustrates the terrible consequences of criminalizing 
marijuana. We have created a massive, dangerous criminal industry - 
and a corrosively huge prison population - by exiling marijuana's 
cultivation, sale and use away from lawful society.

If we want to eliminate drug violence and the incentive to deal 
drugs, we need to transfer the profit motive away from criminals, 
towards legitimate enterprise. Marijuana should be legalized, 
regulated, taxed and daylighted. There's no magic bullet - the 
criminal industry wouldn't disappear overnight. The current 
unworkable patchwork of medical marijuana laws is just an awkward first step.

And I would never argue that marijuana is harmless, or that driving 
under the influence of marijuana is any less dangerous or felonious 
than alcohol DUI. But marijuana is here to stay, no matter the money 
and lives squandered on criminalizing it. We need to end prohibition 
and get it under the control of responsible society.

- - Alicia Springer, Chico
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom