REGULATE POT LIKE ALCOHOL

In his Sept. 22 column, "The war on marijuana is expensive," Dave
Peyton is right. Prohibition of marijuana -- just like Prohibition of
alcohol in the 1920s -- is an expensive failure that serves only to
enrich organized crime.

Look at the government's own research:

According to the U.S. Justice Department's 2006 National Drug Threat
Assessment, "marijuana availability is high and stable or increasing slightly."

In another recent government survey, 86 percent of high school
seniors said marijuana was "easy to get" -- a figure that has
remained virtually unchanged since 1975.

If marijuana were regulated like alcohol, producers and sellers would
be licensed and would have to follow a strict set of rules. Their
profits would be taxed to fund schools and police, instead of
financing criminal gangs.

It's time for an approach to marijuana that makes some sense.

Bruce Mirken

San Francisco, Calif.

Mirken is director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project.