Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jan 2014
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2014 McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Contact: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/contact/voicesform/
Website: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Note: Accepts letters to the editor from Arkansas residents only
Author: Jay Ambrose
Note: Jay Ambrose is the former director of editorial policy for 
Scripps Howard Newspapers and has been editor of The Rocky Mountain 
News in Denver and the El Paso-Herald Post. MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

GO WEST, YOUNG DRUGGIE

I live in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, and I am high. But wait. I mean 
that my house is 8,000 feet above sea level, not that I am giddily 
under the influence of marijuana legally purchased as a result of a 
historic development that could someday cause a teenager to think his 
TV is sending him secret messages.

What I am talking about is Colorado becoming the first state in the 
country to allow the selling of recreational pot without threat of 
criminal proceedings or the laughable excuse that it is for medicinal 
purposes only.

The commercial fest got underway Jan. 1. People gathered early at 37 
licensed stores, the lines were long, the waits were as much as five 
hours, the purchasers came from as far as Ohio, the prices were 
wallet-shredding, the first day's take was $1 million and the first 
year's take is expected to be $258 million.

All this was made possible by a 2012 constitutional amendment passed 
with 55 percent of the vote. The venture is intensely regulated and 
heavily taxed. Purchasers have to be 21 or older. They can buy no 
more than an ounce. They cannot consume in public. They cannot 
transport the drug across state lines. Although federal law still 
prohibits pot use, the Obama administration has said it will mostly 
look the other way.

It's thought Colorado is a gateway state and others will follow suit. 
The state of Washington is set to go next year.

The justifications? There are a number. One is that this country's 
war on drugs has imprisoned people for minor infractions and has 
helped generate and sustain drug-dealing crime of a frightening, 
bloody reach. Another is that we Americans should have the freedom to 
do what we like as long as we aren't hurting others; after all, it is 
argued, alcohol is legal. Still another point is that the economy and 
government coffers will be pleasantly blessed.

Our incarceration rate-the highest in the world-is indeed a horror, 
and rehab is a better answer to drug abuse than jail. But marijuana 
use is no longer treated a fraction as harshly as once upon a 
time-sometimes all you get is the equivalent of a parking ticket-and 
such powerfully punishing drugs as cocaine, heroin and meth are still 
illegal everywhere in this land. They and some of their cousins are 
surely enough to keep the criminal drug biz busy.

Liberty in the pursuit of pleasure seems to appeal to a wider 
ideological swath than freedom from too much government generally, 
but that's not the end of the world even if the comparison to alcohol 
is the end of careful thinking. Booze is much more embedded in our 
culture than pot, meaning its prohibition was a much bigger deal than 
marijuana's. Booze also kills something like 75,000 Americans a year 
through disease, violence and accidents, meaning we do not need more of that.

But, it's said, marijuana doesn't hurt anyone. There are arguments 
all over the lot on this, but yes, it does, and yes, pot businesses 
are going to make a mint in Colorado even as competition drives 
prices down and the drug is likely used to an extent never before 
imagined. One of the worst possible consequences, if increasing 
amounts illegally get in the hands of teenagers, is that their IQ 
development will be thwarted and their chances of psychosis immensely 
aggravated. One writer says an example of the disorder is believing a 
TV is forwarding secret messages.

My message is that other states should watch Colorado carefully for a 
number of years before experimenting themselves with the lives of 
their children.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom