IT'S SERIOUS, MR. PRESIDENT

The Drug War Is No Laughing Matter

It was disappointing to see President Obama making fun of people
during his Internet town hall forum last Thursday (March 26). Noting
that one of the most popular questions submitted asked whether he
thought legalizing marijuana could help the economy recover, he first
replied, flashing his brilliant smile, "I don't know what that says
about the online audience," before adding that he didn't believe it
was good policy. The audience in the East Room chuckled along with
him.

But it was a serious question. Marijuana is a multibillion-dollar
business in the United States, and right now neither the thugs getting
rich off it nor the millions of people purchasing it pay a dime in
taxes. Meanwhile, for decades, taxpayers have watched billions of
their dollars being wasted in a fruitless effort to prevent the sale
and use of marijuana.

The only people benefiting from that effort, besides the dealers, are
police, prison guards, judges, district attorneys and all the others
in the criminal-justice system for whom drug dealers and users are a
principal source of their livelihoods.

Meanwhile, Mexico is being ravaged by vicious drug cartels and
pervasive corruption because of the vast sums of money made selling
drugs at exorbitant prices in the United States. Drug-dealing gangs
terrorize American neighborhoods. School children in Los Angeles
practice taking cover in anticipation of drive-by shootings. If anyone
needs further evidence that this so-called "drug war" based on
prohibition isn't working, there it is.

This is one of the most serious issues facing this country--and one
that, if resolved, could not only end a long national nightmare, but
also save taxpayers and the government hundreds of billions of dollars
now being spent to capture, prosecute and incarcerate people for their
involvement with illicit drugs.

If that's not an economic-recovery issue, what is?

Mind you, there is no intrinsic difference between illegal drugs and
many that are legal. The difference between Oxycontin and heroin, for
example, is slight at most. And yet the former is available by
prescription, while the latter can be purchased only on the black market.

We control potentially dangerous legal drugs through the medical
system; why not do the same with such drugs as cocaine and heroin? And
why not legalize the relatively benign marijuana and tax it?

Yes, it's possible that a few more people will use drugs if they're
easier to obtain. Then again, it's possible use could go down, and
it's certain hard-drug users would be safer from overdosing. Either
way, the result would be far preferable to what we have now: millions
of people being thrown in jail, their lives ruined, and in Mexico
nearly 7,000 dead in the drug war.