THE WAR ON MARIJUANA IS EXPENSIVE

The Prohibition Is Not Working, As Records Show

IT'S times like these that I wish I had been alive when prohibition
was coming to an end in America.

I'd like to know if the folks who believed that the attempt to
eradicate alcohol in America was not working were labeled immoral drunks.

After all, those of us who believe marijuana prohibition isn't
working are labeled "potheads" or worse.

No matter what they think, the war on marijuana isn't working. It's
costing billions and it's giving criminal records to thousands of
people who don't deserve it.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report for
2005 was released earlier this week and it shows that police arrested
an estimated 786,545 persons for marijuana violations.

The total is the highest ever recorded by the FBI and is about 42
percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

Of all those charged with marijuana violations, about 88 per cent
were charged with possession only. The rest were charged with
"sale/manufacture," which includes cultivation of the plant for
personal or medical use.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, noted that the number of marijuana
arrests for the United States in 2005 far exceeded the total number
of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder,
manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

What's just as troubling, St. Pierre said, is that marijuana arrests
have more than doubled since the early 1990s.

Admittedly, many of those arrested never spent a day in jail. But the
criminal record follows most of them through their lives.

St. Pierre would like to know why America doesn't "tax and regulate
cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol or tobacco." So would I. And
so would millions of Americans who smoke the weed, many on a regular
basis, but do it in secret and keep their opinions to themselves lest
they suffer the stigma of being called a "pothead."

In case it matters, and whether or not you believe me, I haven't
smoked marijuana in years, although I know people who do. And
frankly, they are much friendlier and seemingly better adjusted than
people who drink to excess.

Years ago, when I brought up this issue in a column for the
Huntington newspaper, I heard from a probation officer who agreed with me.

He said he saw scores of folks who were placed on probation for
possession of marijuana.

They were normal hard-working people who didn't need to make weekly
visits to his office. It complicated their lives and clogged his
calendar, preventing him from spending more quality time with people
who had committed serious crimes and needed his help.

But he wasn't ready to go public with his belief that marijuana
should be decriminalized. If he did, he'd be labeled a "pothead" himself.

St. Pierre claims that enforcing the marijuana prohibition "costs
taxpayers between $10 billion and $12 billion annually and has led to
the arrest of 18 million Americans."

Every time I see those helicopters circling overhead in late summer
looking for pot patches, I can believe the high cost of marijuana
control and eradication.

Taxing and regulating cannabis won't solve all the problems
associated with marijuana use.

But prohibition isn't working at all, just as alcohol prohibition
didn't work. And I suspect the 94 million Americans who acknowledge
using marijuana (and the millions more who use it and don't admit to
it) would gladly submit to the taxes and the regulations rather than
feel like common criminals every time they light up.