Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: Times Record News (Wichita Falls, TX)
Copyright: 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact: http://web.timesrecordnews.com/opinions2/lte_forms/letters2.html
Website: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/995
Author: Joe Brown
Note: Joe Brown whose column appears here on Wednesdays
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DEBATE RAGES ON LEGALIZATION OF POT

I've got 74 growth rings on my personal tree stump and can remember 
pretty far back, even today. At one time, Texas had legal horse 
racing at Arlington Downs, when that city wasn't much more than open pastures.

But I can't recall if there was any legal betting at that time, or 
how Texas lost the race track that W.T. Waggoner was so involved with 
in the 1930s.

But I do know that New Mexico, Oklahoma and even Louisiana had race 
tracks and betting. They still do.

Residents of the Lone Star State cried and cried about, "all that 
Texas money" being spent on training stables, feed bills and betting 
across the borders in these other states. Residents finally had the 
legislature approve racing and a form of betting, but it wasn't successful.

Even in New Mexico it takes casinos to hold the crowds in that home 
of the All American Quarter Horse Futurity.

Congressmen in the nation's capitol are still searching for 
"something new" to bring in huge chunks of revenue.

Guess what it is? Making the sale of marijuana legal in the United 
States, but carrying a hefty sales tax.

Lobbyists and some congressmen are saying that marijuana taxes might 
be the cure for the U.S. budget.

Oh, my goodness. A 2004 report by the drug policy office said drugs 
cost Americans more than $180 billion related to health care, lost 
productivity and crime in 2002. That study lumped the effects of 
marijuana in with more dangerous drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

But marijuana advocates say history is on their side. They muster 
arguments similar to those that led to repealing Prohibition during 
the Great Depression.

One spokesperson, Jeff Miron, a Harvard economist, is quoted as 
saying, "In the early 1930s, one of the reasons alcohol was brought 
back was because government revenue was plummeting. There are some 
parallels to that now," he explained.

Daniel Stein, who operates two stores in his home state of 
California, sells marijuana for health use. He claims he generates $1 
million in revenue in California and pays his state $80,000 in sales tax.

But the federal government, which does not acknowledge his sales as 
legitimate commerce, gets nothing from his businesses.

The Office of Drug Control Policy says that weed is the most popular 
illegal drug in the U.S.

These arguments ignore the issue of the connection of marijuana and 
criminal activity. The district attorney in Berkshire County, 
Massachusetts, simply said, "It sends the wrong message to kids about 
substance abuse in general. This is a wrong message, saying it's not 
a big deal."

What do you readers think: A balanced budget or opening up the flood 
gates to wider use of the weed Cannabis?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom