Pubdate: Thu, 30 Jul 2015
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority
Author: Ronald Angle

PROHIBITION DIDN'T WORK FOR BOOZE, DOESN'T WORK FOR POT

Since the beginning of human commerce, the basic law of supply and 
demand has mostly determined the exchange of goods. In our country, 
the demand for cannabis has clearly increased over the past half 
century. Our response to that demand has been the same as our 
nation's response to alcohol nearly a century ago: prohibition. That 
policy was a disaster for all but the illegal suppliers.

As a result of our current national cannabis prohibition, we offer 
little supply to meet the demand. To curb that demand, we put people 
in federal prisons. Yet the demand continues and Mexican cartels use 
our national forests to supply the demand. Does this make sense?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 
economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were 
estimated at $223.5 billion, or $1.90 a drink. The CDC reports 37,000 
deaths annually related to alcohol abuse. The CDC does not even have 
a category for deaths caused by the use of marijuana.

Yet, life goes on and we continue to drink, funding an enormous 
taxable industry. Does this make sense?

The logical answer is to legally satisfy the cannabis demand as we 
did with the end of Prohibition. Illegal and Mexican-funded national 
forest pot grows are driven only by the prospect of profit. 
Domestically produced cannabis will keep the price down, send the 
illegal growers back to Mexico, and give us back our national forests 
and public lands.

For more argument, go online and visit www.LEAP.cc.

- - Ronald Angle, Chico
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom