Pubdate: Sun, 16 Aug 2015
Source: Garden City Telegram (KS)
Copyright: 2015 The Garden City Telegram
Contact:  http://www.gctelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1476
Note: Editorial from The Oberlin Herald

POT TRAP: TIME TO DOWNPLAY WAR ON MARIJUANA.

Kansas is not going to give up and make marijuana legal any time 
soon, we know that.

A state that did not end Prohibition until 1984 isn't going to move 
quickly on this issue. ...

But isn't it time to stop loading down every pothead who stumbles 
into police custody with a bunch of charges that won't do him or the 
state any good?

For while simple possession of small amounts of dope is not a felony, 
many of the "tack-on" charges are. ...

And it seems like many law-enforcement officers have nothing better 
to do than search cars on Interstate 70 and other highways, looking 
for someone coming back from Colorado with a load of brownies. Sure, 
it's still illegal here. But is it worth the cost to arrest all these 
people and jail them?

We're not saying marijuana is good for the pothead or good for society. ...

What we're saying is that the war on marijuana, like the war on 
alcohol, is pretty much lost. Nearly a century ago, we tried to rid 
the world of Demon Rum. Rum won.

Fifty years ago, we still thought we could rid the world of marijuana 
if only we put enough hippies in jail.

Today, we know it's not going to happen.

Given the choice of winning one of those wars, by the way, we'd have 
no trouble voting to ban alcohol. If only we could. If only we could.

Alcohol causes more trouble, more anguish, more expense to society, 
than any other drug. Only methamphetamine comes close. ...

So it's time Kansas got realistic and stopped throwing people in jail 
for carrying around a little dope. ...

Send the deputies out to look for cattle thieves and burglars, wife 
beaters and violent criminals. ...

Free up space in our prisons for rapists, thugs, wife beaters and 
pedophiles. Send white-collar thieves to jail, not people with a drug 
problem. Drug problems, caused by marijuana or alcohol, require 
treatment, not jail time.

We can't afford to keep on fighting a war we can't win in court. The 
cost is too high.

Legalize marijuana? In your dreams.

But let's get our priorities straight and focus the legal system on 
things that count.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom