Pubdate: Sat, 10 Nov 2012
Source: Buffalo News (NY)
Copyright: 2012 The Buffalo News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/GXIzebQL
Website: http://www.buffalonews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61
Author: Donn Esmonde

IT'S HIGH TIME WE STARTED LEGALIZING POT

Prepare for a migration to Colorado. Expect the population of 
Washington to explode.

In what looks to me like a blow for common sense and fiscal sanity, 
citizens in those two states voted on Election Day to legalize 
recreational use of marijuana. Willie Nelson and his entourage may 
already be on the road to Boulder. Rocky Mountain High, indeed.

Fourteen states (including New York) have reduced possession of small 
amounts of pot to a violation. Eighteen states have legalized use of 
medical marijuana, which is often a flimsy cover for healthy folks to 
get high. But this is the first time voters of a state have OK'd 
possession of up to an ounce of pot for personal use. As with 
same-sex marriage, one by one, the dominoes are falling. Indeed, I 
hear there is a smoldering effort in the State Legislature to 
legalize medical marijuana use in New York. It sounds like the "bong" 
of freedom ringing.

The so-called drug war has turned recreational users or addicts 
needing medical help into criminals. Some 750,000 Americans are 
arrested annually on pot charges, nearly nine in 10 for mere 
possession. As arguably the most benign of illegal substances, pot is 
the low-hanging fruit of legalization.

"Whatever it is - segregation, gay rights, women's rights - the 
changes come step by step," said Peter Christ.

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") is a retired Tonawanda police captain 
who a decade ago co-founded LEAP - Law Enforcement Against 
Prohibition. As he realized, the pro-legalization argument has added 
oomph when it comes from ex-cops, prosecutors and judges.

Although some see legalizing pot as a sign of the coming apocalypse, 
I view it as a stroke of sanity. We spend an estimated $10 billion 
annually enforcing laws against a drug that does far less harm to 
health and society than alcohol or tobacco. What's the point?

"Prohibition doesn't work, and we can't afford it," Christ told me by 
phone last week from Syracuse. "Deciding whether or not someone can 
ingest a particular drug should not be a function of government."

I have never much liked pot, but I have plenty of hard-working, 
otherwise-law-abiding, middle-aged and middle-class friends who do. 
To me, there's not much difference between having a drink after 
dinner or lighting up. Indeed, drinkers are far more likely than 
tokers to get rowdy and obnoxious.

Nearly everyone has a drug of choice - whether legal or illegal. 
Availability is not the issue with pot, which is not hard to come by. 
Criminalization merely gives rise to the violence and turf wars we 
saw with alcohol during Prohibition. If those battles were being 
fought on the streets of the Amhersts and Orchard Parks of America, 
instead of on its East Sides, I suspect there would be more of a 
legalization conversation.

Whatever the case, that conversation - thanks to voters in Colorado 
and Washington - just got louder. Coming soon to a state near you: 
Legalized marijuana. Inhale the reality. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom