FORGET FINES, JUST LEGALIZE AND TAX MARIJUANA SALES

To the editor:

The Gazette's editorial "New Revenue Ideas" (26 March) is the "Dumber"
that follows the "Dumb" decision by the Springfield City Council's to
raise punitive, anti-Sin fines on adults caught with less than one
ounce of marijuana.

Springfield has a long, consistent history of dumb and dangerous drug
policy decisions. Now The Gazette asks Northampton to follow
Springfield's latest foot-shooting idea.

Statewide, voters Just Said No to a lifelong criminal record for adult
possession of marijuana. Their votes embraced the $100 civil fine, but
gave no sign of demanding higher fines, either as revenue boosters or
(as the editorial wrote) as "a good way to discourage the public use
of the drug."

Such "revenue ideas" confuse the fundamental "protect and serve"
mission of police with the task of raising revenue. This can lead to
to unspoken quotas, and promotions of officers who write the most tickets.

Police pressured by money-desperate cities soon drift into a very
different mission: "To Protect and Collect," as The Kansas City Star's
investigation into such nationwide practices called it.

But Dumb and Dumber was followed March 27 by Authentically Smart: One
Page 1 Northampton lawyer Richard Evans' proposed state law to
legalize, supervise and tax adult marijuana use - exactly as we
supervise and heavily tax adult alcohol and tobacco use today.

In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, we took alcohol back
from the violent criminal gangs who had paid no taxes on their huge
profits. Prohibition had made law, law enforcement and government the
nation's laughing stock. We stopped making criminals of every adult
who drank a beer or glass of whiskey.

Hard Times are back, and governments are desperate for revenue. We can
seek it the Dumb and Dangerous way -- or we can actually find the
revenue we need the Smart way.

Robert Merkin

Florence