BALLOT MEASURE IS WAY TO PROPERLY POLICE POT

As a retired Orange County judge, I've been on the front lines of the
drug war for three decades, and I know from experience that the
current approach is simply not working. Our marijuana policy must
change in order to achieve the following goals:

. Reduce marijuana consumption by children.

. Stop or reduce the violence that accompanies the growing and
distribution of marijuana.

. Stop or reduce the corruption that accompanies the growing and
distribution of marijuana.

. Stop or reduce crime both by people trying to get money to purchase
marijuana and by those under its influence.

. Reduce the harm to people who consume marijuana.

. Reduce the number of people we must put into our jails and prisons.

California's Initiative to Tax, Control and Regulate Cannabis - which
will appear on the November ballot will accomplish each of those
goals. Our present policy of marijuana prohibition will never
accomplish any of them - prohibition has been pursued since the early
1970s, and the entire situation has gotten demonstrably worse.

As an added benefit (no small thing during these challenging times)
the initiative will generate billions of dollars in revenue to fund
essential services, according to studies by the Board of Equalization
and the Legislative Analyst's Office.

By allowing each city in California the option to devise a program
for the regulated sale of cannabis to adults, marijuana would soon
become less available for children. Why? Ask young people and they
will tell you that currently it is easier for them to obtain
marijuana than alcohol. That's because today's illegal marijuana
dealers don't ask for ID!

The initiative contains significant safeguards and controls: It
increases the penalty for providing marijuana to minors, expressly
prohibits public consumption, forbids smoking marijuana while minors
are present and bans possession on school grounds.

Regulating cannabis will put street drug dealers and organized crime
out of business just as the repeal of alcohol prohibition put the
Al Capones of booze out of business. This will allow police to
redirect their resources toward protecting the public by preventing
violent crime.

Most of the health risks of the usage of marijuana today are caused
by its unknown strength and unknown purity. For example, sometimes
the illicit marijuana has been laced with methamphetamines. But the
FDA resolved virtually all of these problems with over-the-counter
and prescription drugs years ago, just as the repeal of alcohol
prohibition virtually eliminated the "bathtub gin" impurity problems.

Under this initiative, all crimes committed by people under the
influence of marijuana would still be prosecuted, just like we do
today with alcohol-related offenses. Holding people accountable for
their actions, instead of what they put into their own bodies, is a
truly legitimate criminal justice function.