Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jan 2014
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2014 Boston Globe
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Tom Keane, Boston Globe columnist
Page: 17A

FOUNDING FATHERS' ROLE IN POT LAW

They Left Sizable Powers to States; As a Result, We' Ll Learn From 
Colorado, Says Tom Keane

Colorado's experiment with legalizing marijuana for recreational use 
shows the genius of the Founding Fathers - no, I'm not kidding. A 
federal system means something. The states that banded together to 
form the United States were independent entities that under the 
Constitution kept significant power for themselves. In one 
conception, they're "laboratories of democracy," a term drawn from a 
comment by Justice Louis Brandeis in a 1932 case 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." Colorado looks to be the pot field of 
democracy. On New Year's Day, it became the first state to make legal 
the recreational use of marijuana. It's not the only one on that 
path, but it is definitely breaking ground. We've all seen the images 
of buyers queued up to make their purchases, read impassioned 
commentary on both sides of the issue, and endured lame jokes about 
late-night munchies and Rocky Mountain highs.

But this is serious stuff. Colorado's experiment is worth trying, and 
it should teach us a lot.

The pro-marijuana folks believe there will be few negative effects of 
legalization. Indeed, they argue there will be much benefit, 
including a reduction in organized crime and a significant savings in 
police resources. They don't think use will climb among kids, nor do 
they foresee any increase in auto accidents as a result of folks 
driving while high. They point as well to public opinion; an October 
Gallup poll found 58 percent of Americans supporting legalization.

There is stiff opposition, however, some coming from credible 
organizations such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana, founded by 
former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy. They fear that legal pot will 
become simply another product for a big tobacco-like industry that 
will vigorously promote the use of weed among adults as well as kids 
(from Marlboro Man to Marijuana Man?). They are uneasy about the 
effects on work and society from a generation consistently using a 
psychoactive drug and worry, too, that pot is a gateway to harder drugs.

The arguments on both sides are largely hypothetical, however. The 
beauty of the Colorado experiment is that eventually we' ll know the 
answers, and, once we do, Colorado will become a model for the rest of us.

The various state experiments rarely stay in the lab forever. They 
either catch on (as did Romneycare, gay marriage and education 
reform) or they fall flat (as did Nevada's legalization of prostitution).

We're one country, after all, and in the long run it doesn't make 
sense to have different rules apply to residents of different states. 
That's especially the case when criminal law is involved - where 
something done in one state can mean jail time while in another it's 
perfectly permissible.

If pot's proponents are right and Colorado's experiment succeeds, 
then marijuana will eventually be legal across the country. On the 
other hand, if its opponents are correct, Colorado may rue the day it 
made the stuff legal - and other states will breathe a sigh of relief 
that it was someone else who took the risk.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom