GODDARD: DISTRIBUTION CONTROL NEEDED TO LEGALIZE POT

PHOENIX -- Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday 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 said marijuana sales make up 75 percent of the money that
Mexican cartels use for the 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.

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

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

The operation has so far led to the indictment of 59 people and the
arrest so far of 39 of them, some in this country legally and others
who were not.

Phoenix Police Lt. Vince Piano said the operation was very
sophisticated, complete with specially designed heavy-duty trucks to
actually let vehicles drive over the border fence.

They 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.

Piano said this operation was one of several under contract to Mexican
drug lords to transport the marijuana from the border through the
Tohono O'odham Reservation all the way to Phoenix. Piano said busting
this organization doesn't stop the flow of drugs, saying this is 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 there is a lot of time and money 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 simple as simply declaring it legal. He
said there would need to be some controls on who gets the drugs and
how much they use.

Right now I've not found, and do not know of, a way to make a
prescription control over marijuana as a consumer product," Goddard
said. "As long as we can't do that, as long as we can't put it behind
the counter and in a safe distribution, I don't believe there's any
way to make it legal."

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

If they could do that, we could certainly cut the legs out of some of
these criminal activities," he continued. "But until they do, we're
going to have to continue to go after the folks that are moving
marijuana and are thereby funding violent crimes throughout the
hemisphere."

Allen backed up Goddard's statements that the smuggling operation is
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.