Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 Source: Cauldron, The (Cleveland State U, OH Edu) Copyright: 2009 The Cauldron Contact: http://www.csucauldron.com/home/lettertotheeditor/ Website: http://www.csucauldron.com/home/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4482 Author: Laura Krawczyk Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) GETTING LIT DESTINED TO BECOME LEGAL? If you knew anyone who started smoking pot anytime from the 60s to roughly the end of American occupation in Vietnam, then you could assume fairly accurately where they stood politically, that they wore patchouli, and had cued up Dark Side of the Moon to The Wizard of Oz at least once after it came out. But in contemporary culture, the tendency to get torched has chiefly found its way into intellectual circles, much as opium and its derivative laudanum had in the Romantic and Victorian era political and literary radicals. We've come a long way from a "reefer madness" society, and pot being merely a left-wing counterculture, and yet the topic remains a contentious issue throughout America. In a conservative effort to reduce costs of the criminal justice system - prisons having long been overcrowded - a more liberal action may be taken after reinvestigating punishments for nonviolent offenders. Yes, that may mean reducing sentences or perhaps even decriminalizing drug offenders, although the proposed committee plans to look into more than just incarceration rates. The bill for the commission is championed by Senator Jim Webb, a Vietnam vet and former secretary of the Navy, and it has strong bipartisan support in the both the Judiciary Committee and the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee. Considering that in just seven years, from 1984 to 1991, the prison population for drug-related crimes increased five fold, the issue is long overdue for a solution. The year 1996 saw the first laws relaxing restraints on marijuana use, in California and Arizona, legalizing the plant for medicinal use, and has since spread to a total of 13. Given the proven advantages of medicinal marijuana, among the list reducing eye pressure in glaucoma patients, muscle spasms in multiple sclerosis patients, and restoring chemo or AIDS patients' appetites - with no viable or effective alternative - it's appalling the number of states that have yet to legalize marijuana for this function. Not to mention the drastically lower toxicity of the chemicals, mainly THC, in comparison to drugs prescribed for the aforesaid ailments. Therefore, it's not so much this issue as the decriminalization and personal use legalization of the drug with which I will concern myself. The ground for opposition to the drug still comes predominately from morally imperious right-wingers. The last government study into America 's drug policy dates back to the Nixon presidency, when the Schafer Commission recommended he decriminalize marijuana. You don't need to guess what his answer was. In the first online Town Hall meeting a few weeks ago, questions from all over the nation flooded whitehouse.gov about the advantages to the economy from legalizing marijuana. Not only did President Obama brush off the proposition, but he threw in a little quip, saying "I don't know what this says about the online audience." Of all people, Obama should realize the changing face of marijuana smokers, our leader himself so unabashedly admitting in his autobiography not only to marijuana use, but cocaine. It's time we get past the image of pot turning vulnerable young teens into hooligans and whores, and realize not only the advantages, but also lack of disadvantages compared to any of the nation's legal drugs such as tobacco or alcohol. Holding onto tradition for tradition's sake is not enough reason to fill our prisons with clearly innocuous offenders, or forfeit the potential $40 to $100 billion in tax revenues (estimated by Stephen Easton of the Fraser Institute) - California's Board of Equalization estimates $400 million in tax revenue for the state alone. So let's face the truth. The moral minority is not the biggest loser here - just like cigarette smokers, buyers of the hallucinogenic herb are more than likely going to be the most disappointed if legalization occurs, on account of the inevitable price hike. It'll probably be cheaper than a possession fine or prison sentence though. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom