SEEING THE BENEFITS OF LEGALIZING WEED

It's an idea whose time has come, gone, and may now be returning.

Legalize marijuana.

Looking for a new revenue source, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San
Francisco, last week introduced a bill to regulate the cultivation of
pot and tax its sale.

Despite its illegality, marijuana is said to be the state's largest
cash crop ($14billion), ahead of vegetables ($5.9billion) and grapes
($2.6billion).

Tax collectors estimate that Ammiano's proposal would produce
$1.3billion in new tax revenue for Sacramento. Some experts, however,
doubt the accuracy of that figure. Because legalizing marijuana will
reduce its value, they say the $1.3billion figure may be inflated.

Still, Ammiano's proposal could promise savings to taxpayers in other
areas. Decriminalizing marijuana, for example, will lower the cost of
law enforcement, now estimated to be about $170million a year in the state.

Critical overcrowding

With incarceration of marijuana offenders costing taxpayers an
estimated $40,000 a year per inmate, legalization would also reduce
prison costs. California has about 1,500 prisoners serving time for
marijuana offenses. That's 10 times as many as in 1980, says Dale
Gieringer, director of California NORML, an organization aimed at
reforming marijuana laws.

But with the state's prison population having reached levels that may
be unconstitutional, three federal judges said last month that as
much as 40percent of prisoners may eventually have to be released.

Gieringer also offers this consideration, "Marijuana is reported to
account for 61percent of the illicit drug traffic from Mexico, where
prohibition-related violence has killed over 6,800."

Legalization will not come easily. Of all the obstacles it faces, the
federal government may be the most formidable. It has opposed pot use
for decades, even in the 13 states whose laws allow sales of
marijuana for medical purposes.

But there are signs that enforcement attitudes are changing, at least
in the area of medical marijuana sales.

Attorney General Eric Holder is said to oppose further raids on those
dispensing medical marijuana. And looming in the background is a
campaign promise made by Barack Obama during his run for president:
"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding
medical marijuana users."

Asked about this after the inauguration, Holder noted, "What he said
during the campaign is now American policy."

Approving medical marijuana is no guarantee that all pot will be made
legal by the feds. But many see it as a possible step in that
direction. Officials of the Drug Enforcement Administration, usually
quick to condemn traffic in pot, have been declining to comment of late.

On the federal level, a bill similar to Ammiano's has been introduced
by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Interests that are to oppose legalization of marijuana include drug
companies, the California prison guards union and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Flip-flop confession

I was once personally opposed to legalizing pot, but my opinion
changed after meeting James P. Gray, now a retired Superior Court
judge in Orange County. Gray was present last week at Ammiano's press
conference and had this to say:

"I served 25 years on the bench and I've seen the results of this
attempted prohibition. It doesn't make marijuana less available, but
it does clog the court system. The stronger we get on marijuana, the
softer we get with regard to all other prosecutions because we have
only so many resources."

He also told those in the audience, "You and I as adults can go home
tonight and drink 10 martinis. It's not a healthy thing to do but
it's not illegal."

Which brings to mind Ammiano's answer when Slate, the online
magazine, asked if he smokes marijuana. "I certainly experimented,"
he said. "But I'm more of a martini guy."

Let the debate on legalizing begin.

Again.