Pubdate: Tue, 25 Feb 2014
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2014 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Barry Considine
Note: Barry Considine is a Halethorpe resident who says he smokes 
marijuana daily to ease the pain and muscle spasms associated with 
post-polio syndrome.

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA IS A FIRST STEP TO DEBILITATING VIOLENT DRUG GANGS

In 1982, the late Gov. William Donald Schaefer was running for his 
last term as mayor. He held one of those big dinners that politicians 
are famous for at P.J. Crickets on Pratt St. All the political 
leaders were there. I was the chef that evening and can honestly tell 
you this: When I arrived at the restaurant that afternoon, I climbed 
into the back of my blue VW mini-camper and smoked a bowl of 
marijuana. That evening, many of the attendees stuck their heads into 
the kitchen to thank the chef for the wonderful meal they had enjoyed.

Today, I'm submitting testimony to the Maryland Judicial Proceedings 
Committee in favor of Senate Bill 658, the Marijuana Taxation and 
Regulation Act, which would essentially legalize marijuana in the state.

For too many years, our efforts to criminalize drugs have led to more 
corruption. We are approaching the100th anniversary of the Volstead 
Act, which provided for enforcement of the 18th Amendment 
establishing the prohibition of alcoholic beverages - and gave a huge 
boost to organized crime in America, kick-starting the careers of 
various mobsters. The outlawing of other intoxicants has fueled the 
gangs of today, including the Crips, the Bloods, Dead Man 
Incorporated and the Black Guerrilla Family.

We know addiction is a terrible health problem. Haven't enough 
conservative Republicans gone into detox that we can at least agree 
on that? The rampant alcohol addiction that inspired Prohibition was 
just as horrible as the addictions we have today to methamphetamine, 
cocaine, heroin and far too many prescription drugs to list here. Yet 
we have turned over control of an illegal supply of all these 
intoxicants to human beings who are so violent we feel we have to 
train our Drug Enforcement Administration to behave like Seal Team Six.

Have we not seen enough senseless violence? The carnage of the St. 
Valentine's Day Massacre at the Clark Street garage in 1929, carried 
out to eliminate the last challenge to Al Capone, continues today on 
the streets of every U.S. city, including Baltimore.

The honorable men and women who make up our police forces know that 
addicts are not the problem; it is the violent criminals to whom we 
have given over control of the addict's life. It is time to give 
control over their lives to the doctors and nurses and counselors who 
can actually make a difference.

It is time to take the first step. As someone who functioned while 
living a successful and productive life in America's drug subculture, 
I can assure you of this: Whether it was pot and LSD in the '60s, or 
the Black Beauty speed and quaaludes of the '70s or the cocaine of 
the '80s, the one constant was marijuana.

When you live in that subculture, unfortunately from time to time you 
do meet hardcore junkies. Everyone I have ever met has had the same 
sad story: "I went to buy some weed one night and my guy was out. He 
convinced me it would be cool to use heroin this time, and I can come 
back tomorrow to buy weed." There it is: your gateway. But we have 
cast that gate in gold, encrusted it in diamonds and handed they keys 
to the most violent criminals the world has ever known.

It is time to end this long nightmare that has been drug prohibition. 
We can begin that by passing a sensible tax-and-regulate marijuana 
bill. In recent years, I have worked with Del. Dan Morhaim to pass a 
workable medical marijuana bill. Delegate Morhaim, who is a 
physician, is fond of saying, "It is time to get the sick and dying 
off the battlefield of the war on drugs." I say to you, it is time to 
get all the victims of the war on drugs off the battlefield, and we 
can begin doing that by ending the war on weed.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom