MARIJUANA BAN FAILING JUST AS PROHIBITION DID

The hearing on HB 1623, the bill to reduce penalties for marijuana
possession, made for some interesting drama in the House Criminal
Justice and Public Safety Committee.

The most eye-opening statement came from Berlin Police Chief Peter
Morency, president of the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of
Police. Morency claimed that "87 to 90 percent of our crime rate is
directly related to drugs and alcohol." This mention of drugs and
alcohol in the same breath got the attention of Democratic Rep.
Timothy Robertson of Keene. Robertson asked Morency if, following the
logic of marijuana prohibition, he would be in favor of reinstituting
alcohol prohibition.

To the astonishment of virtually everybody in the room, Morency didn't
say no. "Knowing what it (alcohol) causes to families, I certainly
would consider it," he said. "But I can't go there - it's something
that's legal now, and we have a huge financial burden as a result of
it."

I hope Morency is alone among New Hampshire police chiefs in his
unfortunate misunderstanding of history. Alcohol prohibition was one
of the most disastrous social policy failures in U.S. history. The
financial burden of policing the newly created black market proved
exponentially higher than the financial burden of enforcing legitimate
laws governing reckless and aggressive behavior. The taxation and
regulation of alcohol has been a great success in New Hampshire and
the United States. The problems caused by irresponsible drinkers are
dealt with by law enforcement, violent gangs no longer control any
piece of the alcohol market, and the term "police corruption" is no
longer associated with alcohol.

Despite the fact that alcohol is a dangerous drug, a drug strongly
associated with assaults, domestic violence and severely impaired
driving, the people of New Hampshire know better than to believe
government has any right to stop adults from drinking. Many members of
the law enforcement and criminal justice community have come to
understand that prohibition is a failure for marijuana as well (a less
dangerous drug, by any honest scientific standard), and the
organization known as Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is growing
by leaps and bounds.

We hope to one day convince the chiefs of police and others in the law
enforcement and criminal justice community that marijuana prohibition
simply creates more problems than it solves. In the meantime, I expect
the people of New Hampshire would appreciate some assurance that the
individuals who enforce New Hampshire's laws do not secretly covet a
return to the violent, crime and corruption-ridden days of alcohol
prohibition.