Pubdate: Thu, 22 Nov 2012
Source: Huntsville Item (TX)
Copyright: 2012 Huntsville Item and Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.itemonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1126

A REAL DRUG LAB IN TWO STATES

Colorado and Washington made history on Election Day when their 
citizens voted to legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol. 
The temptation for wordplay is high (we're allowed one), but the time 
for pot jokes is over. These successful legalization efforts mark a 
turning point in our nation's War on Drugs, and how we react will set 
the stage for decades to come.

In this realm of marijuana policy, we encourage the Department of 
Justice to heed the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: 
"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single 
courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; 
and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the 
rest of the country."

Semilegal marijuana has become the norm in many areas, with 18 states 
and Washington, D.C., allowing medical marijuana, and cities like 
Chicago, New York City and Detroit permitting personal possession of 
small amounts.

The degree of federal incursion into these markets has greatly 
declined over the past several years, with the Justice Department 
mostly bringing action against overly large dispensaries and warning 
proprietors when they open in inappropriate areas, such as close to schools.

And while Attorney General Eric Holder actively opposed California's 
failed legalization efforts in 2010, he has remained silent in the 
wake of these two victories. We hope Holder will continue to let 
these states act as laboratories for democracy, only stepping in if 
these legal experiments risk contaminating other states. But short of 
those circumstances, Holder should realize that we have a national 
interest in seeing these hypotheses fully tested.

State legislators from across the country have an interest in whether 
legalization does successfully raise the millions of dollars in tax 
revenue that Washington and Colorado have projected, and if this can 
happen without negative effects from easy drug access.

Texas also has a particular focus on the results of legalization, 
specifically as they apply to Mexican drug cartels. With our border 
feeling like a battle zone at times, legal American marijuana 
threatens to put a significant dent in the $2 billion that cartels 
rack up every year from the American marijuana business. After the 
horrors of guns, blood and corruption, drug criminals may find 
themselves finally undercut by, as The Economist put it, "El Cartel 
de Seattle."

Texans may not agree with these other states on proper drug policy, 
but we should be open to new ideas when it comes to fighting crime.

Our country has waged a War on Drugs for 40 years, and the only 
winners seem to be cartel lords and private prisons. Two states have 
come up with a new plan. Let's see if it works.

Houston Chronicle

Put aside GOP talking points

Texas lawmakers have tall orders waiting when they return to Austin 
next year, starting with a multibillion-dollar Medicaid IOU and the 
expectation from educators to restore the $5 billion slashed from 
schools last year. Then there's water, transportation, skyrocketing 
college tuition.

Get the picture? It's meat-and-potatoes stuff, the basics of 
government that Texans need handled.

Facing this, legislators will have more distractions next spring than 
bluebonnets sprouting on Texas roadsides, and there's no sense adding 
more by making priority items out of some of the promises voters 
heard on the campaign trail.

One is the vow to undo the state's longstanding policy of granting 
in-state college tuition to children of illegal immigrants who 
graduate from high school in good standing. Another is the promise to 
revive the crusade to define and stamp out the elusive concept of 
"sanctuary cities."

Either effort, if given rein, would guarantee the Legislature makes a 
needless meander into a grand, counterproductive waste of time. 
Either would be a guarantee of roiled passions that would make it 
harder to build coalitions for the foundational business of the state.

It so happens that both stem from familiar Republican talking points, 
and therein lies part of the problem: campaign rhetoric in the driver's seat.

We heard some of that over the summer from incoming Senate education 
chair Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who said he would be pushing tax-funded 
private school vouchers and saw it as the next "photo ID bill" in the 
Legislature. Translated, that means: "Watch out, we're coming at you."

For the record, this newspaper believes a school voucher pilot is 
probably worth a try. We doubt it's worth a scorched-earth campaign 
to get there, however.

Coming off Tuesday's election, the Legislature is still firmly 
controlled by the GOP, and the party has the nucleus of tested, 
problem-solving leadership poised for next session. The North Texas 
delegation returns veteran Republicans Dan Branch in the House and 
John Carona in the Senate, both of whom are creative impact players 
who maintain proper focus - on the state's fundamentals. We see 
emerging talent in Republican House newcomers Jason Villalba of 
Dallas and Bennett Ratliff of Coppell, who haven't been driven by 
talking points.

At the same time, political handicappers see a tilt to the right in 
both legislative chambers, owing in part to a big rookie class that 
includes many political novices.

We hope both newcomers and GOP veterans take to heart the wisdom in 
Sen. John Cornyn's post-election assessment, after the party flubbed 
key U.S. Senate contests. "We have a period of reflection and 
recalibration ahead for the Republican Party," Cornyn said.

Taken to the Texas level, that argues for respectful two-party 
governance, not scorched-earth lawmaking.

The Dallas Morning News
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom