Pubdate: Tue, 07 Aug 2007
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2007 Star-Telegram Operating, Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.star-telegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/162
Author: Don Erler, Special to the Star-Telegram
Note: Don Erler is president of General Building Maintenance.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

LET THOSE THOUGHTS ON GOVERNMENT SOAR

Musings at 37,000 feet (and back on the ground in Rhode Island):

Lines approaching security clearance were absurdly long at 5 a.m. 
Thursday. That's the day that the Transportation Security 
Administration at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport started checking 
passenger identification, a function previously performed by the airlines.

My wife, Cyndy, and I were in lines for well over an hour, boarding 
the plane mere minutes before it pushed back from the gate. The 
lengthy delays, we were told, were largely the result of too many 
passengers failing to segregate their gels and liquids into 
transparent plastic bags.

Does any of this make sense? There's simply got to be a better 
system. Airliners are now safe, at least in terms of their being used 
as guided missiles, which Sept. 11 made virtually impossible going forward.

If security must be tighter than in pre-9-11 days (and I doubt that 
anything more than typical criminal profiling is necessary), why not 
use the system employed for those who routinely enter the most secure 
places on the planet? Let passengers submit to a one-time (perhaps 
renewable at specified intervals) background check, secure an ID 
badge and use that to quickly access boarding areas.

Those who fail to obtain such identification might be subject to some 
sort of scrutiny, but removing shoes (why not undies, too?) is 
ridiculous. We are wasting scarce public resources in ways that do 
virtually nothing to enhance the safety of air travel.

As we ascended out of D/FW, I wondered how many fields of illegal 
plants have been sown under our flight path. Readers have recently 
learned that millions of dollars' worth of marijuana has been 
discovered growing in North Texas.

But why are weeds worth so much money? The annual crop of weeds in my 
yard is worth no more than several hours of work and many dollars of 
expense to me. We know the answer: Some people enjoy smoking 
marijuana leaves but have to pay black-market prices. Why? Again, we 
know that this particular form of smoking is illegal.

Part of the reason, in turn, is that smoking grass is hazardous to 
human health. As we learned on Aug. 1, smoking "one joint of 
marijuana obstructs the flow of air as much as smoking up to five 
tobacco cigarettes." Yet I hear no calls for banning the sale of five 
cigarettes, or 20, or 200.

Jacob Sullum, a senior editor of the libertarian magazine Reason, 
wrote on the same day that Congress continues to refuse lifting its 
ban even on home-grown marijuana to relieve pain or nausea for cancer 
or AIDS patients. And Republican members, most of whom claim to be 
conservative, are the most recalcitrant defenders of this prohibition.

It's long past time for our country to stop its war on weed (which I 
wouldn't recognize if it stood up and asked me to vote for Bill 
Clinton, who didn't inhale). Government has little rational basis for 
telling people what they may and may not smoke.

The massive resources employed to suppress the growth and use of 
marijuana should be put to more productive uses (such as improving 
airport security in less intrusive and wasteful ways). 
Decriminalizing or legalizing the product would allow us to tax its 
purchase, put thousands of criminals out of business and free up 
scarce prison space for offenders who actually inflict harm on their neighbors.

Finally, on Sunday in Newport, I learned that Rosecliff (the mansion 
that served as the setting for the film The Great Gatsby) was built 
by a super-rich family for more than $2 million at the end of the 
19th century. It sold in 1940, toward the end of the Great 
Depression, for $21,000.

There are lessons to be learned about the fleeting nature of money 
and the overreaching of some who possess it. But unlike the 
politicians who waste public resources for airport security and for 
marijuana suppression, at least the wealthy who built and later lost 
their extravagantly sumptuous summer houses were not dissipating our 
limited collective treasury.

[sidebar]

BY THE NUMBERS

12 Number of U.S. states where marijuana is the top cash crop.

- -15 Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using 
illegal drugs.

+63 Percentage change in the number of adults in their 50s doing so.

Sources: Harper's Magazine; Jon Gettman, Coalition for Rescheduling 
Cannabis; U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake