STOP SUBSIDIZING MEXICAN CARTELS

The horrifying drug war-violence south of the border calls to mind
the adage, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it." It's time to stop repeating failed policies that do
nothing but subsidize Mexican drug gangs.

Americans have watched in horror as thousands have been brutally
murdered by warring drug cartels. Haven't we been through this
before? The answer, of course, is yes.

During the 13 dark years of U.S. alcohol prohibition, ruthless
gangsters like Al Capone and "Bugs" Moran had a monopoly on the
lucrative booze market.

So lucrative, in fact, that these scoundrels would routinely gun each
other down rather than let a competitor share their territory. Sound
familiar? It should.

Today, the bloodbath is taking place in cities like Tijuana and
Juarez, Mexico. And, of course, the killings are no longer linked to
the alcohol trade, but to illegal drugs -- the most common of which
is marijuana.

This eruption of violence should be reason enough to immediately end
marijuana prohibition and tax and regulate it similarly to alcohol.
Prohibition simply doesn't work -- not in the 1930s and not now.

Our failed experiment with marijuana prohibition has left the supply
side of a multibillion-dollar industry in the hands of murderous
criminal gangs while doing nothing to curb American's steady demand
for marijuana. The chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's Mexico and Central America Section recently told the
New York Times that marijuana is the "king crop" for Mexican cartels.
He added that the plant "consistently sustains its marketability and
profitability."

According to Andres Rosental, former deputy foreign minister of
Mexico, more than 60 percent of the revenue going to Mexican drug
cartels is estimated to have come from marijuana

The situation is so intolerable, that three former presidents of
Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have recently joined the chorus calling
for a shift in U.S. marijuana policy.

The dangerous activity of these cartels is not limited to Latin
America. Like an international game of "Whac-A-Mole," more stringent
interdiction efforts at the border have prompted the cartels to move
their marijuana growing operations north of the border.

Every year, we read more headlines about clandestine marijuana
gardens being uncovered on our public lands. These rogue gardens not
only pose a threat to hikers and the environment, they cost taxpayers
more than a billion in eradication and cleanup efforts. If we ever
want to stop these "bootlegger"-style marijuana operations, we must
repeal marijuana prohibition.

There is no reason to believe that our nation's current marijuana
policies are reducing the use and availability of marijuana. Indeed,
marijuana's popularity has remained essentially unchanged since
President Nixon declared all-out war on the plant nearly 40 years
ago, with nearly 15 million Americans admitting to U.S. government
surveyors that they use it at least monthly.

The U.N.'s World Health Organization reported last year that
"countries with stringent user-level illegal drug policies did not
have lower levels of use than countries with liberal ones."

California has always led the nation in forward-thinking policy, and
this year legislators in Sacramento have an opportunity to do just
that on the marijuana front. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San
Francisco, has introduced Assembly Bill 390 -- legislation that would
remove criminal penalties for responsible, adult marijuana use and
set up a program to tax and regulate it, comparable with the current
system that works to control alcohol production and sales.

Passage of this legislation would not only force a national
reconsideration of marijuana prohibition, but would immediately cut
into the profits of the dangerous criminal gangs who thrive on the
illegal market.

Seventy-five years ago, FDR ended alcohol prohibition and the
bloodletting immediately ended -- replaced by a steady stream of tax
revenue to an ailing U.S. economy.

Let's do the same with marijuana before more lives and dollars are
lost in this prohibition-fueled war.