Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2015 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Linda Valdez

POLK'S ANTI-POT ARGUMENT MORE THAN JUST REEFER MADNESS DRIVEL

There was a time when I would have said Sheila Polk is peddling 
Reefer Madness drivel. I've long been an advocate of legalizing 
recreational marijuana - not because I use it. I don't. My preferred 
poison is a nice glass of pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc. "Are you 
stoned or just stupid?" may be a joke, but it isn't funny. I taught 
my daughter that it is a true representation of the effects of getting high.

But I think adults should make up their own minds. Passing laws 
against ingesting the leaves of one particular plant has led to 
enormous costs for society. It never made much sense.

I see strong parallels between Prohibition's era of Al Capone and 
today's marijuana laws.

But Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk offers some compelling 
arguments on the other side. She's decided to organize early and 
marshal robust opposition to legalizing recreational marijuana in our 
state, which will likely be on the ballot in 2016.

She wrote an op-ed piece in The Republic Tuesday that drew juvenile 
and insulting responses on her Twitter feed. She said there were 
angry calls and e-mails to her office. When I sat down to talk with 
her on Wednesday, she said name-calling and threats are "surprisingly 
mean-spirited," but common.

That's not too surprising. Civil discourse is as rare as an open mind 
these days.

But her message deserves to be received with both. I'm not entirely 
convinced. But she put a few cracks in some of my long-held ideas.

"I'm going to give it my all," she said. "To me, it's truly about the 
kids ... it's about building communities in which our kids can succeed."

This is where I'm tempted to roll my eyes. Legalization would 
regulate marijuana more or less like alcohol. Nobody's talking about 
selling to kids - except today's drug dealers. Kids can buy pot on 
school campuses across the state right now.

But legalizing it, she says, tells kids it's OK, it's safe. What's 
more, she points to the high number of kids in the child welfare 
system who have drug abusing parents. It's not really a victimless crime.

I get a little queasy about her argument here, too. Marijuana is not 
the same as some of the other drugs often associated with child 
abusing parents, such as methamphetamine.

One of her most compelling arguments is the change in the drug 
itself. This isn't same pot so many baby boomers grew up smoking. The 
average THC content in the 1970s was 1 percent, she says. In 
the1990s, it was up 3 to 4 percent. Now the average is 15 percent. 
Some of the edible pot products in Colorado, where recreational use 
is legal, are up to 60 percent, she says. That's a powerful drug. If 
it becomes legal, manufacturers will have an incentive to make their 
brand a little more "wow, man" than the other fella's. Potency will 
continue to rise.

What's more, once legalized, you get ad campaigns that make smoking 
pot look hip, sophisticated and more fun than a ride on Joe Camel. 
You remember Joe Camel? And how hard it was to get rid of him?

Advertisers will "target those who are most likely to use it most 
frequently," Polk says. Get ' em young. Keep ' em hooked. It's the 
old tobacco model.

Meanwhile, Colorado's experience shows taxing pot isn't all that 
lucrative. Colorado's pot czar Andrew Freedman recently told a 
marijuana forum sponsored by the UMass-Amherst School of Public 
Health that regulating marijuana and providing education and 
treatment eats up a lot of cash.

"You're not going to pave your roads and pay your teachers with 
marijuana tax revenue," he said.

In addition to Arizona, voters in Massachusetts, Nevada, California 
and Maine may get a chance to legalize recreational pot in 2016.

Instead of legalization, Polk would rather see aggressive prevention 
efforts to educate people about the dangers of all drugs - including 
marijuana. She talks about "celebrating sobriety."

I'm with her 100 percent on prevention. Education and creative 
campaigns like those old "smelly, puking habit" ads about tobacco can 
be effective. But you can do that while legalizing a product some 
adults want to use. Tobacco is legal. But public pressure turned 
smokers into pariahs.

Polk is a formidable foe of legalization arguments. We'll be hearing 
a lot more from her. She doesn't accept the "inevitability argument" 
about recreational pot from what she calls the "marijuana lobby." She 
says that's just a strategy to normalize the idea of legalizing an 
addictive substance. Those pushing legalization are interested in 
profit, not people.

"It's really all about money," she says.

The same is true of the drug cartels and hometown dealers.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom