Just say no. With those three little words, the war on drugs began. Some 20 years later, a new federal survey finds that more than 102 million Americans admit to having tried marijuana, the most pervasive of drugs, with 15 million saying they used it the previous month. Just say no? Not so much.
So perhaps it’s time to pause, inhale deeply and think about why legalizing pot actually makes some sense. After all, this is no longer a debate taking place in the far corners of society by people who just want to get stoned all of the time. Several state legislatures and political leaders, such as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, are openly starting to discuss the value of decriminalizing marijuana. The conversation is quiet, but it’s happening and for good reason.
Just about every state in the nation is facing monster-size budget deficits. Nowhere has this drama played itself out more bleakly than in California where the legislature spent months closing a $26-billion gap, only to end up decimating a number of state services intended to help the neediest among us. Some economists estimate that pot is the largest cash crop in the Golden State, with annual revenues approaching $14 billion. So there’s an enormous potential windfall in taxing it. A 10-percent tax would equal $1.4 billion. That’s big-time bank for a state that had to send out IOUs instead of actual dollar bills to pay its vendors over the summer.
And then there’s that tiny matter of justice, or lack thereof, when it comes to drug laws in the United States, a country with 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of its prisoners. Nearly $70 billion is spent annually on corrections. Nearly one-third of those in need of correcting are there for nonviolent drug crimes. Of all drug arrests, marijuana accounts for almost 50 percent. That’s a lot of money that could be going to improving schools, rapidly deteriorating roads and bridges, as well as – dare I say it – healthcare.
In New York, the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws, which stood firmly in place for decades, were changed this year to give judges more discretion in sentencing. Previously, punishment for possessing four ounces of drugs was a minimum 15-year-to-life sentence – the same as second-degree murder. While this was later relaxed for marijuana possession, the effect was an immediate surge in the percentage of nonviolent, low-level drug offenders making up the state’s prison population.
All of this says nothing of the fact that the brutal drug-related violence in Mexico, which has raged over the past few years, is fueled heavily by marijuana. Mexico is America’s drug dealer. The people who are happiest right now about the continued ban on pot and other narcotics are the dealers themselves.
Of course, there are serious moral and medical arguments from those that believe – with some good reason – that pot is a “gateway drug” to the harder stuff. Think needles. Or that pot causes physical damage. Although, others would quickly say it does no more damage than alcohol and cigarettes.
Marijuana is a drug.
It can be abused.
But so can McDonald’s.
And who’s to say that the damage caused by eating too many Big Macs is costing any less than the billions forked over each year to keep a bunch of stoners behind bars?
http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-potculture30-2009aug30,0,669328.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-druglaws2-2009sep02,0,4623257.story
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