Pubdate: Fri, 16 Nov 2012
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Page: A6

OBAMA MUST TAKE A STAND ON CANNABIS

Call it the Marijuana domino effect. Less than two weeks after
Washington and Colorado voted to legalize and regulate cannabis,
lawmakers in five other states say they are considering similar bills.

In Latin American, Mexican President Felipe Calderon says Uncle Sam
now has lost the "moral authority" to ask other nations to maintain
the cannabis prohibition and combat trafficking.

A fundamental change has occurred, he added, that requires the
rethinking of public policy in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Calderon joined the leaders of Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica on
Monday calling for the Organization of American States to study the
change, and saying the UN General Assembly should hold a special
session on the prohibition of drugs by 2015.

What didn't seem remotely possible a fortnight ago suddenly seems
inevitable.

Lawmakers in Rhode Island and Maine said they intend to introduce
marijuana legalization bills for debate next year, politicians in
Vermont and Massachusetts indicated they will, too, and Ohio may join
them.

Since even home grown marijuana smuggled from Colorado and Washington
would be far cheaper than B. C. Bud or Mexican schwag, with the
exception of a few border states, the Sinaloa cartel could soon lose
up to half its total income from American cannabis consumers.

A Mexican think-tank says the two states may do more damage to the
country's bloodthirsty narco terrorists than the war on drugs came
close to achieving.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D. C., the Obama Administration is flummoxed
by the sea change in the public mood towards marijuana and the
expensive, failed attempt to control it with criminal laws.

Few would have predicted the pot prohibition could fall almost
overnight like the Iron Curtain, nevertheless the two-state triumph
has set off a series of tremors that suggest the people's will has
shifted.

America appears to have reached a tipping point in terms of attitudes
toward cannabis and, if the weight of public opinion truly has passed
the fulcrum, change could be rapid.

Legalization campaigns are no longer smoky affairs financed by dime
bags peddled by Cheech- and- Chong aficionados and Big Lebowski- Dude
wannabes. They're well-funded, well organized and cross partisan
lines: In swing state Colorado, pot outpolled President Barack Obama.

The stoned and the sober agree the prohibition is an abject failure:
It's easier for kids to get weed than alcohol or tobacco.

Those in B. C. pushing for change have taken notice and embarked on a
similarly professional campaign that addresses middle-class concerns
instead of staging smoke-ins.

Legalization promises tax revenue for governments and an above board
alternative lifestyle for those with a gift for growing or retailing
the herb.

Washington State thinks there's a half-billion a year in tax revenue
waiting to be harvested and everyone understands the black market must
be dismantled.

Legalization will mean kids aren't saddled with lifelong criminal
records, our communities will be rid of illegal grow-operations and
gangs will lose a key profit centre.

It is estimated the U. S. could save $ 7.7 billion by legalizing pot
and generate another $ 6 billion by taxing it at the same rate as
alcohol and tobacco.

How the states propose to regulate and tax larger-scale production
and distribution is the billion-dollar question. Colorado has until
July 1 and Washington until the end of next year to issue a state wide
regulatory plan, and both say they plan to meet the deadlines.
President Obama may be willing to go with the flow.

The U. S. federal government so far has refused to denounce - or
accept - what has happened, even after the state governors asked this
week for clarification.

Obama faces 18 states that have legalized medical marijuana with a
spectrum of regulatory models that range from supplying anyone with so
much as a broken heart, to meting it out to only the seriously
debilitated and dying.

As a candidate in 2008, and again as president in 2009, Obama promised
restraint when it came to enforcing federal laws against med- pot.

His record is questionable - he has been tough on states with liberal
access and less aggressive with those maintaining more rigorous regimes.

Regardless, many of his donors and advisers urge him to use his second
term as a chance to pursue authentic drug-policy reform. He could
watch as more and more states vote on legalization, or he could lead.

Regardless, the dominoes have begun to topple: and Canada will follow.
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MAP posted-by: Matt