GODDARD POSES LEGALIZING POT

PHOENIX - Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday that he might
be willing to consider legalizing marijuana if a way can be found to
control its distribution - and figure out who has been smoking it.

Goddard's comments came after a press conference Tuesday announcing
the breakup of a major ring police said has been responsible for
bringing about 400,000 pounds of marijuana across the border and into
Arizona each year since 2003.

The attorney general said marijuana sales make up 75 percent of the
money Mexican cartels use for their other operations, including
smuggling other drugs and fighting the Army and police in that country.

He said that makes fighting drug distribution here important, to cut
off that cash.

Goddard acknowledged those profits could be slashed if possession of
marijuana were not a crime in Arizona. But he said a number of other
hurdles remain before that even becomes a possibility.

Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said the operation was sophisticated,
complete with specially designed heavy-duty trucks to surmount the
border fence.

The smugglers also had solar-powered radio towers and a network of
lookouts who told the trucks, each carrying up to 2,500 pounds of
marijuana, when to move and when to hide under camouflage. He said
there even was a system of "food drops" to supply the drivers.

Goddard said the move to break up the ring has so far led to the
indictment of 59 people and the arrest of 39 of them, some in this
country legally and others who were not.

Piano said the operation was one of several under contract to Mexican
drug lords to transport the marijuana from the border through the
Tohono O'odham Reservation to Phoenix.

Piano said busting the organization doesn't stop the flow of drugs,
saying it was just one of several "transportation groups" working
with the cartel. But he said it does disrupt at least part of the
flow.

The issue of Arizona drug laws came up during questions about the
operation of drug cartels and the violence associated with their
operations, particularly in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

"The key is, they will no longer exist when people don't buy
marijuana," said Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the office
of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "This
is a market-driven economy and this is a market-driven activity."

Allen said the question of legalization to eliminate those profits is
a policy question.

"But if we're going to go down that road, what is the acceptable
amount of marijuana that you want a bus driver to have in their
system?" he continued.

"I believe it's zero," Goddard said later.

Goddard said a lot of time and money are spent on enforcement
activities like the one that resulted in the bust announced Tuesday.
He said that requires "a hard look" at the issue.

But Goddard said it's not as easy as simply declaring it legal. He
said there would need to be some controls on who gets the drugs --
and how much they use.

So far, he said, no one has found a way to put the kind of controls
on marijuana he would want before he would consider legalizing it.

Allen echoed the concern that smuggling operations are not simply
about marijuana.

He said Mexican cartels also are in the business of smuggling cocaine
and other drugs on behalf of other cartels in places like Colombia.

He said they make up the money they lose when those drugs are seized
through the profits they make selling marijuana in the United States.