DEAR OBAMA: GET TO THE POINT, LET GO OF THE JOINT

In journalist David Simon's acclaimed television series "The Wire," a
police major approaching retirement succumbs to the crumbling city of
Baltimore around him after a pre-teen drug runner attempts to sell
him drugs while in his uniform.

He gives a passionate, frustrated speech to his men about the days in
which police solved open-container laws by using a paper bag to avoid
the frustration of rounding up every corner drunk.

But with drugs, it's always been a different story.

There's never been a paper bag for drugs," the major tells his men,
"until now."

In the months that follow, the major embarks on a mission to clean up
his streets by moving all the drug pushers (and the violence they
bring) to several vacant row houses. Violent crime shrinks
drastically throughout the precinct.

That is, until the higher-ups catch wind of the experiment, dubbed
"Hamsterdam."

You've legalized drugs!" an outraged deputy commissioner of
operations yells at the desperate rouge.

No," the major replies. "I've decided to ignore them."

The major takes the fall for the operation, getting his pension
downgraded and his cushy retirement job revoked.

Perhaps this is what President Barack Obama is worried about with his
refusal to seriously address marijuana legalization.

Obama, who has admitted the television show's shotgun-wielding Omar
is his favorite character on TV, laughed off the fact that the
question on the minds of the majority of his online readers in a
recent town hall meeting regarded marijuana legalization.

As the distinguished Clarence Page has pointed out in several recent
columns, Obama's failure to address the issue of giving states the
power to decide and enforce their own marijuana laws is rooted in hypocrisy.

Until Obama (who Page points out is the third consecutive president
to admit use of marijuana) takes a stand and calls off the DEA dogs
and lets a state issue be a state issue, more will die unnecessarily
in a war on a drug not worth fighting over.

Obama's camp has ended the "War on Terror," or at least any
references to it as such. It's time for them to end the war on weed,
and usher in the 21st century.

Of course, marijuana won't single-handedly fix the economy. But, as a
revenue source, it is a potential gold mine much like alcohol or cigarettes.

But Obama, fresh off the notorious Special Olympics flub, won't risk
another shocking sound bite.

The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our
economy," he said.

Maybe Obama must take a trip similar to the Baltimore major, in which
he sees the unnecessary pain and suffering over outdated laws and
overzealous DEA agents who waste billions ripping up green plants
when meth, heroin and cocaine are ruining lives at a rapid pace.

He doesn't even need to make the choice himself. He simply needs to
give the states the power to "ignore."