Pubdate: Tue, 10 Sep 2013
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
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THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WILL HEAR OPINIONS FOR AND AGAINST
LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Recent poll shows 52% of public favors marijuana legalization Sen.
Patrick Leahy, committee chair, questions prosecutions for pot
offenses Foes of legalization say states haven't thought the matter
through

Clarification: An earlier version of this story contained a quote that
was misattributed.

The pros and cons of marijuana will take center stage Tuesday in
Washington, D.C., when the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a landmark
hearing on legalization.

Requested by committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the hearing
was triggered by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement last
month that federal authorities no longer will interfere as states
adopt laws to allow medical marijuana or to legalize the drug entirely.

The hearing is on conflicts between state and federal marijuana laws.
In calling for it, Leahy questioned whether, at a time of severe
budget cutting, federal prosecutions of marijuana users are the best
use of taxpayer dollars.

Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the nonprofit lobby group
Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., said he hopes for a
breakthrough in the hearing that would lead to changes in federal
banking laws, allowing marijuana sellers to accept credit cards and
checks, not just cash.

That would do a lot to legitimize the nation's marijuana industry,
safeguarding transactions from the risk of robberies and smoothing the
route away from the black market and Mexico's drug cartels, Riffle
said.

But "the elephant in the room is that we have an administration that's
essentially working around federal law" to allow states to legalize
marijuana, he said. "What we should do is just change federal law -
just legalize marijuana."

This fall, Michigan lawmakers could take up bills that would ease laws
on marijuana and widen medical users' access to it.

With public attitudes bending toward legalization in the last three
years and reaching a majority in March, those who favor legal weed say
they've reached a watershed year - one like 1930 might have felt to
those who welcomed the nationwide legalization of alcohol in 1933.

"It is historic - you can feel it," said Matt Abel, a Detroit lawyer
who heads Michigan NORML, the state chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Fans of legal marijuana say their cause just hit the tipping point,
and point to a series of events that they say prove that legalization
is on the cusp of being more than a pipe dream. They include that:

* In March, for the first time, a majority of Americans - 52% - told
pollsters they favored legalizing marijuana, according to the Pew
Research Center.

* In anticipation of retail pot stores opening this January,
recreational users are reportedly flocking to Colorado and Washington
state.

* Two national opinion leaders signaled changes of heart about
cannabis. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in his
documentary Weed last month, reversed the stance he expressed in his
2009 Time magazine article, "Why I Would Vote No on Pot." And U.S.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told an audience in Tucson last week,
"Maybe we should legalize marijuana. ... I respect the will of the
people."

Planning to be in a front-row seat at Tuesday's hearing is Neill
Franklin, who headsLaw Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a
nationwide group of mostly retired police, judges and corrections
officers who want to see all street drugs legalized.

"A nationwide policy of prohibition leads to organized crime,
underground crime, mass incarceration, very costly law enforcement,
and ironically, the drugs become widely available and more dangerous
because there are no quality-control standards," Franklin said last
week.

"We saw that with alcohol," he said.

But not all at the hearing will be in favor of all-out legalization.

Kevin Sabet, a former senior adviser on drug policy to President
Barack Obama's drug czar, is expected to testify that legalization is
being rushed into the states without understanding its consequences.

His arguments are laid out in detail in his new book Reefer Sanity:
Seven Great Myths about Marijuana, Sabet said.

"It's an appeal for a science-based and a health-based marijuana
policy, not based on legalization but also not based on incarceration
for small amounts" - and instead advocates wider access for marijuana
users to state-of-the-art drug treatment programs, said Sabet, the
director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida.

"Yes, there are medical properties in marijuana," Sabet said, "but we
don't need to deliver that by smoking a joint or eating a brownie."
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MAP posted-by: Matt