New York Times: End the War on Pot

[cutthecashflow]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/opini ... .html?_r=2

New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof has an excellent column on the NYT’s opinion page calling to ‘end the war on pot.

I dropped in on a marijuana shop here that proudly boasted that it sells “31 flavors.” It also offered a loyalty program. For every 10 purchases of pot — supposedly for medical uses — you get one free packet.

“There are five of these shops within a three-block radius,” explained the proprietor, Edward J. Kim. He brimmed with pride at his inventory and sounded like any small businessman as he complained about onerous government regulation. Like, well, state and federal laws.

But those burdensome regulations are already evaporating in California, where anyone who can fake a headache already can buy pot. Now there’s a significant chance that on Tuesday, California voters will choose to go further and broadly legalize marijuana.

I hope so. Our nearly century-long experiment in banning marijuana has failed as abysmally as Prohibition did, and California may now be pioneering a saner approach. Sure, there are risks if California legalizes pot. But our present drug policy has three catastrophic consequences.

First, it squanders billions of dollars that might be better used for education. California now spends more money on prisons than on higher education. It spends about $216,000 per year on each juvenile detainee, and just $8,000 on each child in the troubled Oakland public school system.

Each year, some 750,000 Americans are arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Is that really the optimal use of our police force?

In contrast, legalizing and taxing marijuana would bring in substantial sums that could be used to pay for schools, libraries or early childhood education. A Harvard economist, Jeffrey A. Miron, calculates that marijuana could generate $8.7 billion in tax revenue each year if legalized nationally, while legalization would also save the same sum annually in enforcement costs.

That’s a $17 billion swing in the nation’s finances — enough to send every 3- and 4-year-old in a poor family to a high-quality preschool. And that’s an investment that would improve education outcomes and reduce crime and drug use in the future — with enough left over to pay for an extensive nationwide campaign to discourage drug use.

The second big problem with the drug war is that it has exacerbated poverty and devastated the family structure of African-Americans. Partly that’s because drug laws are enforced inequitably. Black and Latino men are much more likely than whites to be stopped and searched and, when drugs are found, prosecuted.

Here in Los Angeles, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at seven times the rate whites are, according to a study by the Drug Policy Alliance, which favors legalization. Yet surveys consistently find that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young blacks.

Partly because of drug laws, a black man now has a one-in-three chance of serving time in prison at some point in his life, according to the Sentencing Project, a group that seeks reform in the criminal justice system. This makes it more difficult for black men to find jobs, more difficult for black women to find suitable husbands, and less common for black children to grow up in stable families with black male role models. So, sure, drugs have devastated black communities — but the remedy of criminal sentencing has made the situation worse.

The third problem with our drug policy is that it creates crime and empowers gangs. “The only groups that benefit from continuing to keep marijuana illegal are the violent gangs and cartels that control its distribution and reap immense profits from it through the black market,” a group of current and former police officers, judges and prosecutors wrote last month in an open letter to voters in California.

I have no illusions about drugs. One of my childhood friends in Yamhill, Ore., pretty much squandered his life by dabbling with marijuana in ninth grade and then moving on to stronger stuff. And yes, there’s some risk that legalization would make such dabbling more common. But that hasn’t been a significant problem in Portugal, which decriminalized drug use in 2001.

Likewise, medical marijuana laws approved in 1996 have in effect made pot accessible to any adult in California, without any large increase in usage. Special medical clinics abound where for about $45 you can see a doctor who is certain to give you the medical recommendation that you need to buy marijuana. Then you can visit Mr. Kim and choose one of his 31 varieties, topping out at a private “OG” brand that costs $75 for one-eighth of an ounce. “It’s like a fine wine, cured, aged, dried,” he boasted.

Or browse the online offerings. One store advertises: “refer a friend, get free joint.” And the world hasn’t ended.

One advantage of our federal system is that when we have a failed policy, we can grope for improvements by experimenting at the state level. I hope California will lead the way on Tuesday by legalizing marijuana.


I invite you to visit my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.

[(weedguru)scarf]

well played sir well played

[Ziggy]

Each year, some 750,000 Americans are arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Is that really the optimal use of our police force?

First, it squanders billions of dollars that might be better used for education. California now spends more money on prisons than on higher education.

In contrast, legalizing and taxing marijuana would bring in substantial sums that could be used to pay for schools, libraries or early childhood education. A Harvard economist, Jeffrey A. Miron, calculates that marijuana could generate $8.7 billion in tax revenue each year if legalized nationally

This says it all. The war that has been declared on this inanimate object is nothing but a waste of money to say the least about it.

[Gorecore]

*rubs hands together with excitement*. Oh GOD, I hope weed is legalized in my lifetime! It'd be soooo nice to hit the pot store (equivalent to a liquor store) and pick up a weekly stash!

I've always said that money is wasted on arresting people with weed on them. Put the police to better use like cracking heads of child molesters, rapists, murderers, and celebrity-reality TV shows!

[princefan1]

This country is stupid for not legalizing weed. It just makes me so mad that something as harmful as an ant (kinda since all smoke is sort of bad for u) is illegal while alcohol and cigs are legal. Why the hell didn't prop 19 pass? Now that just makes me mad.

[king]

*rubs hands together with excitement*. Oh GOD, I hope weed is legalized in my lifetime! It'd be soooo nice to hit the pot store (equivalent to a liquor store) and pick up a weekly stash!

I've always said that money is wasted on arresting people with weed on them. Put the police to better use like cracking heads of child molesters, rapists, murderers, and celebrity-reality TV shows!

yupp that's what i always think about....I look at all the older people who have to pop pills for arthritis pain...this pain...that pain...etc. and i feel bad cause they are taking pills that eventually can do more harm than good...i'd rather be able to go get some herb....smoke...and ease my pain knowing that im not harming my body with a bunch of chemicals i don't even know about

[cutthecashflow]

This country is stupid for not legalizing weed. It just makes me so mad that something as harmful as an ant (kinda since all smoke is sort of bad for u) is illegal while alcohol and cigs are legal. Why the hell didn't prop 19 pass? Now that just makes me mad.

It apparently didnt pass because the older people in California have a more conservative approach and since they are the ones that went out and voted, they determined that it would remain illegal. I did read somewhere though that if a younger demographic would have showed up to the polls and voted, then it would have been a virtual deadlock and might have even passed.

I think in due time however California will legalize it, hell its practically legal there already. There are hardly any fines, a medical card is very easy to come by, and it is one of the most decriminalized places in all of North America.

[SpRi7e]

yeah and lots of the time they won't even give you ANYTHING for having something like weed on you, it just gives them extra paper work to do. Also like CTCF said it's because the majority of young voters don't vote, and they are the huge supporters of it being legal. FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS, SAY HOW STUPID IT IS FOR IT TO BE ILLEGAL.. but don't vote on it when it comes down to it... fucking pathetic

[Bubbles]

yeah and lots of the time they won't even give you ANYTHING for having something like weed on you, it just gives them extra paper work to do. Also like CTCF said it's because the majority of young voters don't vote, and they are the huge supporters of it being legal. FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS, SAY HOW STUPID IT IS FOR IT TO BE ILLEGAL.. but don't vote on it when it comes down to it... fucking pathetic

im willing to bet a lot of stoners thought that the first polling to see the support was the actual vote.

[SpRi7e]

huh??

[cutthecashflow]

I think they took an initial poll to see how many people would be in favour of it and bubbles meant that all the potheads probably went out and voted on the initial poll and thought it was the actual vote. I think it was an attempt at humour.

[knoodles]

I agree, it needs to be legalized. after all it´s a medicinal plant with religious attributes.

stop the useless war and legalize it.

free mary jane.

[(weedguru)scarf]

welcome