MEDICAL POT FOES CAUSE CRIME

Less Prohibition Begets Law and Order

Opponents of medical marijuana dispensaries want more prohibition,
even though less would get rid of the stores.

The struggling campaign to ban medical marijuana stores in Colorado
Springs will almost certainly fail. Petition organizers market the
cause with an odd website that oozes desperation and hyperbole.

The "call to action" section of letusvotecos.org says: "The medical
marijuana industry is taking over Colorado Springs and El Paso County
and it's time we did something about it. Let's do it for our
children! " (Emphasis theirs).

Almost nobody believes medical marijuana stores, which operate in
commercial spaces that have long been part of the scenery, are taking
over the city. Ask friends or colleagues if they've ever noticed a
medical marijuana store and it's a good bet several will say they
have not. In a year or two the majority of these businesses will fail
and a few will survive, as we see in the wake of any entrepreneurial
gold rush that accompanies the onset of a new trade sector.

Do these new retailers threaten children? It's hard to understand
how. Only adults with permission from doctors are allowed to shop at
the stores. If anything, the stores help children by eliminating
street dealers who have no compunction about selling drugs to kids.

In the unlikely event the prohibition peddlers get their ban on the
ballot (please do not sign the petitions), the measure is likely to
fail. The Gazette's editorial department perceives overwhelming
support for a well-regulated and taxed medical marijuana trade,
probably because it harms the criminal underground dealers. In the
event a moratorium somehow passes, it would likely fail a legal
challenge because the Colorado Constitution protects medical marijuana.

A better option, for those who wish to eliminate marijuana stores,
would involve working to make the drug more mainstream. We have
medical marijuana stores only because pharmacies won't sell the drug.
Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger, at the headquarters in Illinois,
said the company has had no discussions of entering the medical
marijuana trade and emphasized the fact federal law forbids it.

Imagine if federal law allowed medical marijuana. Walgreens and other
major pharmacies would not hesitate to sell it. Medical marijuana
would be dispensed by pharmacists. It would be sold no differently
than much more harmful and addictive narcotics, such as morphine and
Vicodin, which are used legitimately by most and are abused by those
who feign pain in order to get high.

Marijuana is consumed in great quantities, and it always will be.
Prohibition only alters the distribution point. Before state medical
marijuana laws, all marijuana sales belonged to criminals. Today,
with less prohibition, a growing portion of sales belong to an
above-board mom-and-pop industry that pays taxes and checks the
eligibility of clients. Federal legalization would shut the industry
down because mainstream pharmacies would take the customers - just as
supermarkets that sell liquor eliminate most small liquor stores.
Prohibition causes mayhem; acceptance facilitates order.

- - Wayne Laugesen , editorial page editor, for the editorial board.