Pubdate: Sun, 09 Mar 2014
Source: Frederick News Post (MD)
Copyright: 2014 Randall Family, LLC.
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/Z0khz4CI
Website: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/814

NEW TACTICS FOR THE FAILED WAR ON DRUGS

The war on drugs has failed. This is one of the conclusions we are 
forced to draw from our in-depth article chronicling drug use in 
Frederick County schools, which detailed just how easy it is for 
students to get hold of heroin, LSD, ecstasy and marijuana.

One way to hit back is to target the source of the supply line by 
making marijuana legal, regulating the trade and taxing it. In early 
February, The News-Post's editorial board hosted two representatives 
of the movement to legalize marijuana in Maryland -- Neill Franklin, 
a 33-year veteran officer and executive director of Law Enforcement 
Against Prohibition, and Rachelle Yeung, a legislative analyst for 
the Marijuana Policy Project. We've taken on board and debated what 
they said, and it's convinced us there's a stronger case for 
legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana than simply decriminalizing it.

Perhaps most compelling was their contention that legalization would 
impact the criminal organizations that traffic illicit drugs. Take, 
for example, 1920s- and '30s-era Prohibition, which simply forced 
alcohol onto the black market where its bloody trade boomed under 
organized crime.

A similar situation exists today. Perhaps the most stunning 
revelation in our article on school drug use was how easy marijuana 
is to come by for many high schoolers. And marijuana is the No. 1 
product drug dealers sell, Franklin told us.

"That brings in more cash than any other single drug," he said, "and 
even more cash than when you combine some of the other drugs."

Marijuana money is a linchpin to a violent and illicit drug trade, 
its revenue driving a massive worldwide criminal enterprise. Remove 
the money and you remove the engine from the black market's car. 
Decriminalizing marijuana, while a baby step overall, leaves that 
black market untouched -- and the black market is indiscriminate 
about who it sells to. At least with regulated marijuana, age limits 
and quality controls can be set. It's not a perfect solution. Kids 
will still get their hands on drugs, as they do with cigarettes and 
alcohol, but a regulated, controlled market is still better than what 
we have now.

Sales in the first week of Colorado's legalization totaled $5 million 
- -- $5 million that didn't go into the hands of drug dealers. We'd be 
naive to assume the thousands of people who lined up to purchase 
those drugs were first-time buyers.

"In addition to us shrinking the illicit marijuana trade so that 
fewer children are drawn into that, in addition to that, we are now 
separating the millions of marijuana users in this country, and we 
know we will always have millions of marijuana users, the question 
is, where do we want them buying marijuana? Franklin said. "With the 
regulated market we have now siphoned off in Colorado thousands of 
marijuana buyers from the illicit trade."

More than that, take away the economic incentive and the buyers out 
of the equation and you indirectly impact the sale of more harmful, 
more addictive drugs that dealer may try to push in an attempt to 
create a consumer who will return again and again.

"Because [marijuana is] sold alongside other, harder drugs and that 
drug dealers have an incentive to get their buyers to purchase those 
more expensive, more dangerous, more addictive drugs as well, that is 
what is leading people who use marijuana to then go on to more 
dangerous drugs," Yeung said.

There are other arguments for regulating and taxing marijuana: Law 
enforcement is swamped; zero tolerance only seems to pack prisons and 
compound criminality; educational efforts, while laudable, are only 
making a dent in the problem; rehabilitation is a Band-Aid on the 
symptoms. Making marijuana legal may be one of the few recourses left.

Not only has the war on drugs failed, said Franklin, "it has never 
worked." He said we need a new approach, and it's hard to disagree.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom