LEGALIZING MARIJUANA NOT REALLY A DOPEY IDEA

Who knows, in the near future, on a Friday night after a tough week
of work, those so inclined could legally fire up a joint.

And who knows, by California allowing that, some of this might happen:

A) The tax base gets a much-needed bump.

B) Cops can chase real bad guys, not recreational pot smokers.

C) The medical marijuana farce goes up in smoke because the drug can
be had legally. (A lot of bad backs? Mysteriously cured!)

D) And another possible consequence: Prisons would have more room to
house society's worst criminals, particularly violent sex offenders.

The proposed Chelsea's Law includes a one-strike penalty against
those who commit forcible sex crimes against children. It's named for
Poway teenager Chelsea King, killed by convicted sex offender John
Albert Gardner III.

There's one problem, though. Prisons are jammed.

So is it time to take the bold step and legalize marijuana, which
might help ease the problem? Momentum for it is growing.

A referendum will be on the November ballot, permitting personal use
of the drug for those 21 and over. Cities or counties could allow for
its sale and tax it. (Or not, it'll be up to them.) It'll also be OK
for people to grow small amounts of it.

"It would free up prison spaces for really, really bad guys," said
Aaron Smith, California policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Granted, California's prisons are not overflowing with marijuana
criminals. Only about 1,630 -- or 1 percent -- are serving time for
either having significant amounts of marijuana, selling the drug or
cultivating it.

But 1,630 spaces are 1,630 spaces. (Enjoy one, John Gardner.) By
comparison, there are 2,446 inmates -- or 1.4 percent -- serving time for rape.

Right now, it seems as if a lot of people were smoking something when
crafting the current marijuana laws.

Go to a medical marijuana storefront. When I did, I saw mostly young
people, um, in pain. It's easy to get a doctor's approval for medical
marijuana. You don't have to have something horrible like cancer.
Insomnia will do. And who can sleep well in these times?

The San Diego City Council is wrestling with how to regulate medical
marijuana storefronts because they started popping up more,
particularly after the Obama administration said it wasn't going to
attack those operating under state guidelines.

The San Diego County District Attorney's Office has raided a number
of medical marijuana providers over the years, claiming they were
selling the drug illegally. But convictions have been tough to get of
late. In two recent cases, the operators were acquitted, with jurors
complaining that the state laws are unclear.

The trials took weeks.

How much is all of that costing us? Well, don't stop counting. The
DA's office said it's not giving up when it comes to trying to
convict an operator it thinks is more Cheech & Chong than Dr. Welby.

The police are also cracking down. In 2008, the most current year for
statistics, 78,000 marijuana arrests were made statewide. About
four-fifths were for small amounts of marijuana -- less than an
ounce. It's a misdemeanor, so you don't get jail time, but it's on your record.

These misdemeanor arrests have been skyrocketing, jumping 127 percent
from 1990 to 2008. While cops are going like gangbusters against pot
smokers, they're not doing so well when it comes to violent
criminals. In 1999, the statewide clearance rate for violent crimes
was 50 percent.

In 2008, it was 43.5 percent.

"One of the best reasons for doing this is it allows for the
reallocation of law enforcement," said Quintin Mecke, spokesman for
San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who has introduced legislation
to legalize marijuana for those over 21.

If it's made legal, it's also goodbye to the black market's
near-total control of the sale and distribution of it, Mecke said.
And some of the crime associated with that, including violent turf
wars in Mexico, will drop.

If government controlled and taxed it, the possible revenue could be
around $1.3 billion, Ammiano's office has estimated.

Some, of course, question all of this. Legalizing marijuana is no
silver bullet, said Dana Stevens of the El Cajon-based Communities
Against Substance Abuse. If the marijuana is taxed, how in the world
can that price compete against what a street dealer charges, she asked.

Her biggest concern, though, is how it affects young people. "What's
it telling them?"

If marijuana weren't so accessible now, such arguments might be more
compelling.

A Field Poll last year showed that 56 percent of Californians support
legalizing the drug, so it's not a, um, pipe dream.

And if Chelsea's Law becomes a reality, we, as a society, have to make choices.

Or build more prisons.