Pubdate: Tue, 12 Oct 2010
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: C - 1
Copyright: 2010 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Chip Johnson
Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19)

PROP. 19's LEGAL MARIJUANA COULD IMPROVE SAFETY

For most California voters, Proposition 19 is a state initiative that 
would make recreational marijuana use legal, but I think the plan has 
social benefits that go well beyond legal pot parties.

In the long run, a successful November run at the polls could provide 
a public safety payoff in low-income communities where street-drug 
dealing qualifies as a thriving commercial enterprise.

The residual effect of drug-dealing is violence, which has decimated 
the communities where the drugs are sold. Generations of families 
have been lost to the cycle of drugs and violence and profits that, 
for some, are worth risking their lives over.

If there is a new law that holds even a chance of cutting drug 
profits and gun money from local drug kingpins and foreign suppliers, 
it's worth a try.

Last month, Pleasant Hill Police Chief Pete Dunbar told The 
Chronicle's editorial board that violence associated with street 
sales of marijuana made it "the most violent drug of all."

If that's the case, and there's no reason to doubt Dunbar's 
assessment, then why not control and regulate the market? I can't 
count how many times I've heard politicians and police officials say 
that society cannot "arrest its way out of high crime rates."

Most economists will tell you that as a commodity becomes more 
available, its value falls. So why not use government regulation to 
distribute and control the price to undercut illegal marijuana sales 
right out of existence.

Do you think the speakeasy bars thrived after Prohibition was repealed?

As the argument in favor goes, those reduced costs are passed down 
the chain, from the criminal justice system to police investigations 
to criminal trial proceedings.

Already there is a growing number of marijuana-related private 
businesses preparing to provide the consumer with a litany of 
home-grow aids and equipment should the California law pass - and 
eventually be adopted in other states.

In such a transformation, the profit to be earned from dealing drugs 
on the street may just not be worth risking lives over. And that is a 
cost savings that can be calculated in communities regaining control 
of parks, neighborhood stores and their front porches in the 
evenings. And in the poorest communities, where drug and gang culture 
dominate the landscape, it can be calculated in human life.

At least 14 states and the District of Columbia now approve some form 
of medical marijuana use, and California has been moving closer to 
legalization of recreational use for nearly a decade. While Gov. 
Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes the measure, he signed a bill last 
month reducing possession of less than 1 ounce of the drug to an 
infraction - the equivalent of a parking ticket.

If possession of less than an ounce is no more serious than a parking 
ticket, it seems imprudent for state lawmakers - and law enforcement 
agencies - to continue spending billions of dollars annually to halt 
illegal sales and use.

There are concerns that teens will have greater access to the drug if 
it's legalized - but it strains the imagination to consider how that 
would be possible. Teens who want to score some pot have myriad ways 
to accomplish the task, including obtaining a medical card and buying 
the drug at a locally regulated dispensary. There are hundreds of 
them across the Bay Area.

Marijuana is also the state's No. 1 cash crop, and greater local 
production reduces the need for smuggling efforts outside the 
country. Nearly a dozen cities, including Albany, Oakland and San 
Jose, have local measures to tax pot on the November ballot.

In Oakland, medical marijuana sales are already one of the city's 
biggest sources of sales tax revenue, and a city-sponsored ballot 
measure proposes increasing by nearly 3 times the current tax rate of 
18 percent on every $1000 in sales.

California could borrow a page from a few Midwestern states where 
purchasing a bottle of liquor still requires a trip to a 
state-operated retail store. Every identification card is checked - a 
ticket recording the purchase is required - and no children are allowed.

I don't favor Prop 19 for the recreation and leisure it promises, but 
for more important reasons.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake