FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS FOR BATTLE TO LEGALIZE POT

Pot, or not?

This is the next big culture-war question that will divide and
energize voters and possibly determine the successor to Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger.

After more than a decade of doing the medical marijuana sham -- wow,
we must have a lot of sick people in California -- the state next year
likely will decide whether to permit adults to legally use pot simply
for the sake of getting stoned.

Two different ballot measures have been proposed in recent weeks.
There also is a bill by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco
Democrat, that would legalize and tax the drug.

Prepare yourself for a barrage of truths, half-truths and outright
distortions leading to the November 2010 election.

The television commercials? They'll be crazy.

Get ready for ads featuring doctors in white gowns, pot smokers in
Amsterdam, Dragnet-style, just-the-facts-ma'am depictions of reefer
madness and fields of marijuana growing as far as the eye can see --
pretty as grapes waiting to be picked on a summer day.

Can you imagine what "Saturday Night Live" would do with a pot
proposition?

A skit with this punch line surely is coming: "Have another toke,
dude. Every hit you take is another dollar for California's cops and
teachers."

Marijuana -- which grows as fast as and is as difficult to eradicate
as .. a weed -- will be portrayed two ways: a widely enjoyed vice
that, if finally taxed, will shore up California's budget, or an
addictive drug that destroys lives and tears at the fabric of society.

Judging by what federal drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said last week in
Fresno -- "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit" -- the
race to shape opinions in California and other states contemplating
legalization is escalating.

Just a few weeks earlier, Kerlikowske -- who opposes legalization --
told a public radio station in Seattle, where he formerly was chief of
police, "We will wait for evidence on whether smoked marijuana has any
medicinal benefits -- those aren't in."

(I guess the definitive results are in now. At least in Kerlikowske's
mind.)

The anti-marijuana forces will try to convince voters that the drug is
the pathway to harder drugs such as meth and heroin, long-term use can
destroy short-term memory and some habitual users suffer from
depression and anxiety.

The pro-cannabis crowd will send out this message: marijuana is as
safe as a martini, if not safer. And with 15 million Americans using
it at least once a month, the drug already is the king of California's
cash crops, generating about $14 billion in black-market revenue a
year. So why not tax it?

Meanwhile, the Mexican drug cartels will continue to do serious harm
to the Sierra by planting, fertilizing and harvesting illicit
marijuana crops.

Be assured that they last thing the drug lords want is legalized
marijuana.