Pubdate: Sat, 21 Mar 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Froma Harrop, the Creators Syndicate

HALF A HEART ON MARIJUANA BETTER THAN NO HEART AT ALL

Give thanks for the little things, they say. A bill that would stop 
the feds from going after medical marijuana users in states that 
permit such activity is something for which we should give thanks. 
But it is little.

Let's not criticize the sponsoring senators - Rand Paul, R-Ky., 
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cory Booker, D-N.J. - for such a 
small reprieve from the war on drugs. They've probably gone about as 
far as they could within the two-faced confines of our national politics.

If the measure becomes law, federal authorities could continue 
harassing and arresting patients, dispensaries, cultivators and banks 
serving the business in states that don't allow medical marijuana.

And what about Colorado, Washington and Oregon, states that have 
legalized marijuana for recreational purposes? Their non-medical pot 
users are still disobeying federal laws. The Obama administration is 
pretty much leaving them alone, but that's just a matter of current 
policy, Sean Dunagan, a former intelligence analyst at the federal 
Drug Enforcement Agency, told me.

"That could change with a different administration, with a different 
attorney general," he said.

Dunagan is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, former 
law officers backing legalization of all drugs.

They welcome such halfhearted reforms, but argue that they do not 
break the violent cartels that our drug laws keep in business.

And they preserve our two-tiered system of justice, which ruins the 
lives of little people and lets the well-connected off the hook.

Speaking of which, Jeb Bush admits to having smoked pot in high school.

Actually, Bush's dorm room at Phillips Academy Andover reportedly 
served as stoner central, where students would smoke hash to the 
strains of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride."

Kids from modest backgrounds were being jailed at that time for doing 
far less. Today, even a minor drug conviction bars one from many 
jobs, including joining the military.

Yet Florida's former Republican governor evidently doesn't think his 
illegal behavior should disqualify him from serving as commander in chief.

Why would he? The current holder of that job, President Barack Obama, 
also admitted to smoking pot, as did his predecessor, Jeb's brother 
George W. Bush.

If Jeb owned up to the rank injustice and fully supported ending the 
war on marijuana, that might lighten the hypocrisy factor. But Bush 
piously insists that he's against legalizing marijuana.

If states want to do it, that's OK, he says. But that leaves the vast 
majority of Americans subject to arrest for smoking a joint after dinner.

Here's an idea: Why doesn't Bush volunteer to do the time behind bars 
that youths from less powerful families were being sentenced to in 
the 1960s? He could share a cell with Patrick Kennedy, the former 
liberal congressman from Rhode Island.

In the wee hours of May 4, 2006, Rep. Kennedy crashed his car into a 
barricade on Capitol Hill while under the influence of who knows how 
many controlled substances. He served in Congress for four more 
years, leaving at a time of his choosing.

Kennedy is now a staunch foe of legalizing marijuana, but, like Bush, 
has not offered to do his time. Given Kennedy's decades of addiction, 
that would be no small piece of change.

Many argue that marijuana at high potency and in great quantity can 
be harmful. That may be so, but the same is true of many things we 
can legally consume.

If states rights is the excuse for easing up on the ludicrous drug 
war, so be it. Any change that makes life less miserable for good 
people - and saves the taxpayers huge sums - is to be cheered. But, 
oh, the waste!
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom