WHY COLORADO SHOULD TAX AND REGULATE MARIJUANA

Point No. 1. Regulation of marijuana would reduce organized crime and
access to adolescents just as the regulation of alcohol has.

Teens report they have easier access to marijuana than they have to
either alcohol or tobacco, according to a national survey released on
Aug. 20, 2002, by the national Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse at Columbia University. The results marked the first in the
survey's history that adolescents said it was easier to buy cannabis
than cigarettes or alcohol. Similar to the failed prohibition of
alcohol, marijuana prohibition creates organized crime to respond to
the substance's demand instead of allowing law-abiding businesses to
create revenue for the county.

Point No. 2. Marijuana is safer to both the user and the community
than alcohol.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice -- Bureau of Justice and
Statistics, 40 percent of those convicted of homicide had been under
the influence of alcohol at the time of their offense. Furthermore,
the national highway traffic administration has concluded that 47.4
percent of all highway deaths involved a driver intoxicated by
alcohol. Marijuana users however have "the same or lower incidence of
murders, highway deaths, and accidents than the general non-smoking
population as a whole" -- Crancer Study, UCLA. Even more interesting
is that despite the thousands of deaths from alcohol overdose
annually, there has not been a single reported case of anyone dying
from marijuana use.

Point No. 3. Legalization would protect Colorado's otherwise
law-abiding adults from the DEA's increasing arrests of non-violent
marijuana offenders.

Marijuana arrests and funding for those arrests are steadily
increasing with 785,545 people arrested in 2005 (more than twice the
arrests of 1993) according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
Annual Uniform Crime Report. Even worse, the report stated that 42.6
percent of all U.S. drug arrests were for marijuana, refuting
previous claims that minor marijuana offenses aren't targeted in the drug war.

Point No. 4 Marijuana is not addictive

Unlike tobacco and heroin, which both have a 75 percent chance of
relapse after quitting complete with withdrawal symptoms as stated in
Jack Herer's "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," marijuana creates no
physical dependency. Furthermore, it is no more habit forming than
playing video games or drinking tea. Herer cites this information
from the American Lung Association, University of Massachusetts, and
several other sources listed in his book.

Point No. 5. Legalization would generate needed money to our budget

Harvard Economist Jeffery Miron estimates in his report "Budgetary
Implications of Marijuana Prohibition" (signed by over 500
economists) that $12.2 million would be generated annually from tax
revenue in Colorado alone if marijuana were legalized.

In closing, the alcohol prohibition didn't work and marijuana's
prohibition isn't working. The current laws mislead people into
believing marijuana is worse than alcohol. People will always drink
and people will always use marijuana, so why is it that those
choosing to leisure with a safer substance are the ones being thrown
behind bars? Vote yes on initiative 44 on Nov. 7 to legalize
possession of marijuana in Colorado for individuals 21 and older. Go
to http://www.safercolorado.org for more information on S.A.F.E.R.,
the organization that created the initiative.

Gerald Clift

Vacaville, Calif.