WE DON'T NEED POLICE PEDDLING MARIJUANA

Never has the capacity of law enforcement to do its job in America been
more strained than in the year since Sept. 11, 2001.

Charged with ever-increasing responsibility to protect the homeland, police
have their hands full investigating crimes potentially linked to organized
terror.

But now, in Arizona, it is proposed that officers take their focus off
protecting Americans in order to run a handout program - and it's not
handing out bike safety tips or meals at a soup kitchen. They are being
asked to distribute marijuana.

Citizens of Arizona will vote Tuesday on Proposition 203. If passed, this
policy would require state police to distribute marijuana to anyone with a
medical recommendation - not even a prescription - that marijuana might
mitigate some condition as minor as muscle spasms or nausea.

Handouts in doses of up to 2 ounces a month for a year would be authorized
(an estimated 200 joints can be rolled from 2 ounces). Police would supply
the demand with confiscated marijuana. With no idea of the purity of these
seized stashes, the Arizona Department of Public Safety effectively would
be required to set up a marijuana-sanitizing system to avoid lawsuits over
handouts from bad batches.

But that's not all. Proposition 203 would also make it harder to prosecute
drug offenders. It would decriminalize possession of up to 2 ounces of
marijuana so that anyone whose supply did not come from the police would
face nothing more than a $250 fine.

Proposition 203 would also eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug
offenders and require parole for those convicted of personal possession of
a controlled substance.

Proposition 203 has a long list of opponents: current Gov. Jane Dee Hull
and both candidates for governor, Janet Napolitano and Matt Salmon; U.S.
Senss Jon Kyl and John McCain; and state associations of police,
firefighters, county attorneys and sheriffs.

Proposition 203 is backed by big-spending drug legalizers like New York
billionaire George Soros who have foisted their agenda not just on Arizona
but on other states. Now, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods is
trying to give legitimacy to the Proposition 203 drug legalization
campaign. But he does not speak for law enforcement anymore. Inexplicably,
Woods has simultaneously endorsed Proposition 303, an initiative to
increase taxes on tobacco because of its harmful effects. Woods previously
spearheaded Arizona's anti-tobacco lawsuit. When Woods campaigns so
passionately against smoking cigarettes, how can he overlook the more
significant health risks associated with smoking marijuana?

Marijuana smokers show higher levels of inhaled tar and carbon monoxide
than tobacco smokers. Marijuana impairs short-term memory and concentration
and it dulls reflexes and judgment.

Proposition 203 turns law enforcement on its head, making the police
dealers of, rather than defenders against, drugs. If police are handing out
marijuana, they are not patrolling neighborhoods, responding to calls of
distress or tracking violent criminals.

The safety of our children, along with the rest of society, depends on
eradicating drug use, not spreading it. With so many real threats to our
homeland, let's not fabricate another one by decriminalizing drug possession.

William J. Bennett was the first director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy and a former U.S. secretary of education.