Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 2015
Source: Silver City Sun-News (NM)
Copyright: 2015 Silver City Sun-News
Contact: http://www.scsun-news.com/silver_city-contact_us
Website: http://www.scsun-news.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3901
Author: Rep. Bill McCamley
Note: Bill McCamley, D, represents District 33 (Las Cruces, Mesilla, 
Mesilla Park, and Tortugas) in the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Save lives, boost revenue; regulate pot like alcohol

"Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody 
from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in 
five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth."

- - Will Rogers

It's time to regulate and tax the consumption of marijuana like 
alcohol. Why? The reasons are compelling, conclusive, and plentiful.

The most obvious? Prohibition increases use. When the United States 
banned alcohol in 1919 consumption initially went down. However, by 
the time it was repealed in 1932 more people were drinking more 
alcohol (a 30-40 percent increase) than they did before prohibition 
was passed. The same thing is happening with marijuana; as more 
states tax and regulate, teen use is decreasing at a significant level.

Comparing alcohol and marijuana shows the later is much safer. From 
2006 to 2010, the CDC reported that 88,000 people died from alcohol 
poisoning. Yet a category for marijuana doesn't exist because 
overdosing is physically impossible.

Furthermore, alcohol has been shown in numerous studies to trigger 
violent behavior (including domestic violence). Marijuana, on the 
other hand, is the substance least likely used by emergency room patients.

The argument that marijuana leads to harder drug use is simply 
incorrect. While 50 percent of Americans have tried marijuana, only 
15 percent have admitted to trying cocaine. That number drops to 3.6 
percent for crack and 1.6 percent for heroin.

The National Academy of Sciences, in a report to Congress, stated 
"because underage smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana 
use, marijuana is not the most common, and is rarely the first, 
"gateway" to illicit drug use.

There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana 
are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs."

Furthermore, hard drug use in states with legal marijuana will 
probably decline. After all, if you visit a dealer to buy pot they 
will always have other drugs for sale. A regulated store selling 
marijuana will not.

Prohibition increases violence by benefiting cartels and gangs.

During the years of alcohol prohibition the country's murder rate 
doubled ... only to decrease substantially after it was repealed.

In Colorado, the same thing is happening now that marijuana policies 
have been reversed. After a year of taxation and regulation, violent 
crime rates in Denver declined, as have statewide traffic fatalities.

Furthermore, as marijuana has become legal in various ways throughout 
the United States, the price for illegal marijuana grown in Mexico 
and sold by cartels has dropped by half, giving them less resources 
for their activities; namely killing people (estimated at 60,000 
murders between 2006 and 2012).

Regulating marijuana like alcohol would also be good economically.

Currently, when police, court, and incarceration costs are combined, 
New Mexico spends $33 million of your tax money to enforce 
prohibition. In light of the information presented above, that money 
would be much better used going after murders, rapists, and thieves.

Rather than marijuana revenue furthering violence, money would go to 
legitimate businesses contributing to the economy.

Currently in Colorado, legal marijuana is selling between $2,000 and 
$3,000 per pound. This is generating huge economic gains, totalling 
$700 million.

The outgrowth? Revenue for schools. Colorado's law requires marijuana 
taxes to fund education, and is expecting to bring in $100 million in 
per-year from taxes and licensing fees by 2016.

This is so much that the government doesn't know what to do with it, 
and Colorado residents may actually get a refund.

Last year I introduced House Bill 160, the Cannabis Revenue and 
Freedom Act. It would have allowed private use of marijuana for adults over 21.

Republican Party leaders killed it quickly, but I won't quit. If we 
want less crime, better schools, and a healthier state let's stop our 
outdated prohibition laws and do this right.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom