WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF MARY JANE BEING LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA?

California should legalize marijuana.

I can already hear people's fingers typing on keyboards for letters
to the editor, but hear me out. I'm not basing my assessment on an
obsession for Mary Jane, but from a real belief in the economic
power of the reefer.

Last week, California's secretary of state certified a November vote
on a ballot measure that would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana.
The new campaign for legalization does not focus on altering the
social stigma surrounding the drug but highlights its potential
cash benefits. It's a bold, intelligent move for those in favor of
legalizing marijuana.

There are benefits to legalization and also, amazingly, drawbacks.
In this column I will attempt to analyze the arguments for and
against marijuana legalization.

I wondered, if we dropped the social stigma of potheads, where
marijuana would stack up compared to other legal drugs, like
alcohol. To compare the two substances can be difficult because they
have different health affects, however they are similar because both
impair the user in some way. You can either be drunk or high (or
both, if you're so bold).

Also, people can become addicted to either substance, but in today's
world, when a person might be addicted to food, sex or the Internet,
everyone's addicted to something. I am not an expert on health, law
enforcement or marijuana, but I will try my best to provide factual
and constructive information.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana
intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination,
difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with
learning and memory. Also, the drug's effects on learning and memory
can last for days or weeks after use.

Long-term use of marijuana can cause some changes in the brain when
a person is under withdrawal, like changes in the activity of nerve
cells containing dopamine. Dopamine neurons are involved in the
regulation of motivation and reward. It is important to note that
these neurons are somewhat impacted by virtually all drugs that can
be abused, therefore alcohol abuse would have similar results.

A person who smokes marijuana is more likely to have respiratory
problems than a person who smokes cigarettes. The extra respiratory
problems associated with smoking marijuana usually lead to those
users taking more sick days than tobacco smokers because of
respiratory illnesses.

The abuse of any drug can affect your health adversely but it can
also result in billions of dollars of economic losses because of
reduced productivity. The U.S. National Institutes of Health
estimated that the economic costs of alcohol and drug abuse adds up
to $246 billion, based on 1992 data. Two-thirds of the costs of
alcohol abuse are related to lost productivity because of alcohol
related illnesses and deaths.

All drug abuse was combined in this study (cocaine, heroine, etc.),
therefore marijuana should be only a fraction of the following
statistics. In drug abuse, for drug abuse, more than one-half of the
estimated costs were associated with drug-related crime. But if
marijuana were legal, this expense might be reduced. Lost
productivity because of drug-related illness is estimated to cost
about 14.5 percent of the total economic cost of drug abuse, while
premature deaths and health care expenditures cost approximately 25 percent.

The use of marijuana and alcohol, when it is abused, does not only
affect the individual but also the overall society. However, it is
difficult to extract exactly what marijuana costs society because in
several studies its costs are lumped together with all
other illegal drugs. Supporters of the bill are prepared
with strong counter attacks for their opponents. One radio add will
feature a former deputy sheriff saying that the war on marijuana has
been lost. The former law enforcement official states, "It's time to
control it and tax it."

If law enforcement officials did not have to focus on the war on
marijuana, they might be able to save money and valuable prison
space. They could focus on more violent offenders and crimes.

Proponents of the bill say that legalizing marijuana can generate
$1.4 billion for the state, which is a lot of green for a state with
a $20 billion deficit. The money raised from legal sales could go to
support California's collapsing education system. Students are
already rioting in the streets because of increased education costs.

But while medicinal marijuana is legal in California, and 13 other
states, a state law allowing for the legal sale of the drug would
violate federal law. Also, all three candidates running for governor
of California say they oppose the measure.

The Sunshine State is in a bad economic position and the revenue
provided by legal marijuana sales could generate tax money that
would be a stitch in California's deep financial wound. Proponents
of the bill will need to make some serious arguments, based on hard
data, to support legalization's economic benefits. Legalization
could make some definite cash but it also has some obscure costs
that need to be defined more clearly. I don't foresee the bill
passing this year, but it has definite potential for the future.