Pubdate: Sat, 30 Apr 2016
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html
Website: http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830
Author: Sal Rodriguez

POT PROHIBITION SHOULD COME TO AN END

The Inland Empire has long been resistant to the idea of regulating 
marijuana for medicinal purposes, generally choosing prohibition as 
its preferred method of responding to the market for medical 
marijuana. But this approach is increasingly on a collision course 
with the prospect of outright legalization. Fortunately, there are 
some cities realizing that simply ignoring the issue or continuing 
with existing policies is not a responsible way forward.

This past week, the city of Banning moved toward at least talking 
about its marijuana policies, forming an ad hoc committee on 
marijuana policy and cultivation, and planning a workshop on such matters.

On April 12, Councilman George Moyer suggested it might be time to at 
least consider the potential for marijuana cultivation as a revenue 
generator for the city, while Councilwoman Debbie Franklin requested 
looking into the impacts legalization has had in Washington and Colorado.

Banning, like most cities in the region, prohibits both marijuana 
cultivation and marijuana dispensaries, citing general concerns with 
the prospect of crime resulting from bringing the marijuana market 
above ground. "Other California cities that have permitted the 
establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries have witnessed an 
increase in crime, such as burglaries, robberies, and sales of 
illegal drugs in the areas immediately surrounding such 
dispensaries," the city's municipal code explains.

This has been a recurring rationale for those advocating prohibition, 
but it's a claim based more on anecdotes and fear than evidence or 
logic. In 2011, researchers from UCLA, funded by the National 
Institute on Drug Abuse, found that not only was there no evidence to 
support the claim marijuana dispensaries were associated with 
increases in property or violent crime, but that their presence may 
actually deter crime in the surrounding areas.

The reason for this is that regulated dispensaries undertake measures 
to prevent crime, like having security cameras and guards. While 
there is less precedent and research on regulated cultivation, there 
is reason to believe that leaving cultivation to the black market 
only increases the risk of problems. After all, the black market, by 
definition, operates outside the scope of rules and regulations.

By at least forming an ad hoc committee to look at all this, Banning 
is far ahead of many cities in the region, most of which seem content 
to wait and see how things go in other communities. And to that 
point, there are cities like Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, 
Adelanto and Cathedral City which are far ahead of the others.

Palm Springs got over its fear of medical marijuana dispensaries 
years ago, yielding significant financial and public safety benefits, 
as the regulated dispensaries have generated a million dollars a year 
in taxes, while unlicensed dispensaries have dwindled.

Meanwhile, this week Cathedral City joined Adelanto and Desert Hot 
Springs in allowing large-scale medical marijuana cultivation. What 
the three cities have in common is that they have all been under 
financial constraints in recent years, making the prospects of 
generating vast sums of money to shore up their budgets and, perhaps 
ironically, sustain their public safety services, difficult to pass up.

Whatever their particular motivations, the willingness to even 
consider a policy option other than prohibition is significant. The 
cities that have opted for regulation demonstrate that plausible, 
responsible regulations not only do exist, but have the potential to 
yield significant benefits. One does not need to be a marijuana 
enthusiast, or even someone who tolerates marijuana use, to recognize this.

Regardless of what one believes about marijuana use or abuse, the 
reality is that times are changing, there is widespread demand for a 
product that is mostly confined to the direction of the black market 
and that viable alternatives to prohibition clearly exist. Those 
governments that fail to at least consider alternatives risk finding 
themselves ill-prepared to deal with legalization when that day comes.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom