Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jul 2014
Source: Gilmer Mirror, The (TX)
Copyright: 2014 The Gilmer Mirror
Contact:  http://www.gilmermirror.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3032
Author: Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins
Note: Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a
non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy
Studies. OtherWords columnist William A. Collins is a former state
representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut.
OtherWords.org

THE END OF POT PROHIBITION AS WE KNOW IT

How much longer will it take before the United States declares a 
truce in the Drug War?

Without federal leadership, you can count on marijuana legalization to
keep spreading one state at a time.

This latter-day prohibition is taking an immense toll. And the stakes
ought to be low, given that mostAmericans don't want anyone jailed for
being caught with small amounts of pot.

But it does require some courage to pipe up. So thank you, former
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, for joining the swelling
chorus that wants to see marijuana legalized.

"The distinction between marijuana and alcoholic beverages is really
not much of a distinction," Stevens said during an interview with
NPR's Scott Simon in April.

The retired judge's words came a few months after President Barack
Obama spoke candidly on this matter.

"I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not
very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up
through a big chunk of my adult life," Obama told The New Yorker's
David Remnick. "I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."

Just as the booze Prohibition failed to bring about the United States
of Teetotalers, the War on Drugs hasn't extinguished demand for marijuana.

The White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, better known
as the drug czar's digs, is slowly moving from a chronically
tough-on-crime approach to a deeper focus on the public health side of
the illegal drug challenge. That's nice, but it's only taking
whatStoptheDrugWar.org calls "baby steps in the right direction."

The good news: The drug czar's office recently set a five-year goal
for reducing deaths from drug overdoses. Its report to Congress called
for measures to meet that objective, such as encouraging state laws
that grant people who try to prevent those deaths immunity from
prosecution.

The bad news: no progress on marijuana legalization.

How is that possible for an administration led by a president who
openly admits to having inhaled deeply and repeatedly? Well, many
careers are vested in the status quo. Take Corrections Corporation of
America, a giant private prison outfit. Can it make a profit on
imprisoning just heroin and cocaine dealers, without jailing the pot
purveyors too?

Maybe, but the company isn't eager to find out. And what on Earth
would happen to the men and women in the Drug Enforcement
Administration if the bud beat were to dry up?

That and congressional deadlock explains why most of our national
experiment with withdrawal from prohibition is taking place at the
state and local level. A total of 23 states allow the sale and use of
medical marijuana.

Colorado and Washington took the next logical step and now let people
buy pot for recreational use. Oregon could be next if its voters
approve a marijuana ballot initiative on Election Day. The District of
Columbia's government passed a similar measure that House Republicans
are trying to block. Obama is threatening to veto the related
legislation.

Without federal leadership, you can count on legalization to keep
spreading one state at a time and posing daunting logistical
challenges. Like how to handle the money.

Federal regulations prohibit banks from trafficking in drug dollars,
legal or not. So for now, marijuana dealers must operate on an
all-cash basis. All those Benjamins make legal marijuana businesses
both crime targets and a growth market for the armored car industry.

Legal pot's many benefits include a new tax revenue stream. If the
government were to stop locking up 750,000 people a year for no good
reason it would save money and all those non-violent "offenders"
wouldn't have their lives wrecked. Plus, growers would stopsquandering
electricity on growing one of America's top cash crops indoors.

It's high time this country ended its addiction to the Drug
War.

Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a
non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy
Studies. OtherWords columnist William A. Collins is a former state
representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut.
OtherWords.org 
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