POT BUSTS -- READING BETWEEN THE LINES

I'll bet a beer that most of you would have no problem finding a gin
and tonic, if booze was illegal today.

Guys like Al Capone would see to that. Big Al, they say, was knocking
down $60 million per year in the late 1920s from alcohol alone, during
a period when our government brain trust decided the best way to get
people to sober up was to pass an 18th Amendment banning the sale,
transportation and manufacturing of alcohol in America.

Big Al wasn't that smart, but he was smart enough to know a sucker
when he saw one and Uncle Sam was the biggest sucker of all.

Unfortunately, Uncle Sam doesn't learn from his mistakes (don't get me
started).

This War On Drugs he is waging today is a loser, serving only to
create more Al Capones than ever before and draining our resources to
the point that we may soon spend more to eradicate and incarcerate
than educate.

The definition of insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and
over and expecting a different result.

Last week there was a raid on some federal land around here where they
say some Mexican nationals were growing a thousand or more marijuana
plants.

It was a sizable bust and the law enforcement task force filled bags
and bags of the weed that an estimated 15 million Americans smoke at
least once per month.

It made great headlines, but if you read between the lines, it won't
make a difference. Especially not to the so-called Mexican cartel
leader who probably sent a handful of poor laborers up here to plant
and grow pot.

The poor guy they caught was probably living in the woods, working his
tail off by day, sleeping in the dirt by night, supplied with
tortillas and beans and maybe, if he made it home with the pot, a
pocketful of pesos.

He didn't make it home with the pot, but to the guys at the top, who
sit in Mexican palaces and control everything around them, last week's
bust was nothing. A few seeds lost, maybe some tortilla money and a
few laborers who could be replaced with the snap of the fingers.

I ran across a column last week from the former governor of New Mexico
Gary Johnson headlined, "Legalize Marijuana To Stop Drug Cartels."

In it, Johnson indicates that Mexican drug cartels make at least 60
percent of their revenue from selling marijuana in the United States.

The FBI, he writes, estimates that the cartels now control
distribution in more than 230 American cities.

"How are they able to do this?" he asks. "Because America's policy for
nearly 70 years has been to keep marijuana -- arguably no more harmful
than alcohol -- confined to the illicit market, meaning we are giving
criminals a virtual monopoly on something that U.S. researcher Jon
Gettman estimates is a $36 billion per year industry, greater than the
corn and wheat combined."

I know.

"Marijuana is a gateway drug! If we legalize it our kids will smoke it
and then start shooting heroin into their eyeballs!"

I don't think so. Most people I know say they had a drink long before
they smoked pot. Our parents kept the liquor cabinet well stocked.

Besides, any high schooler will tell you it may be more difficult to
buy beer than pot in Nevada County.

Dealers don't ask for IDs.

Since the bad guys always control the illegal drug trade -- much as
Capone and his men did in the Roaring 20s (an estimated 227 gangsters
were killed during a four-year span in Chicago) -- there is a lot of
blood, as the various cartels fight for control of the industry.

"The violence in Mexico is out of control and is destroying that
country," Johnson writes. "Some schools are even teaching their
students to duck and cover to avoid being caught in the crossfire."

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has finally concluded that a new
approach is needed and that an open debate on legalizing and
regulating marijuana in particular may be the only way to end the
violence that has killed more than 28,000 Mexicans in just the last
four years.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government hasn't been interested in joining
that debate, which makes you at least wonder what's really behind the
so-called War On Drugs (again ... don't get me started).

What our government ought to figure out is why its citizens like to
get stoned and/or drunk every day. What are they trying to escape?

Ten minutes of CNN might answer that one.

According to the Proposition 19 advocates (on the November ballot to
legalize marijuana), there is an estimated $14 BILLION in marijuana
sales each year in California alone and the cash-strapped state gets
nothing.

Under Prop 19, juveniles would not be allowed to legally purchase or
possess marijuana, just like alcohol today.

And ... just as with alcohol ... you wouldn't be allowed to drive
under the influence of marijuana.

Advocates argue that legalization would allow our cops and courts to
focus on the really bad crimes, saving hundreds of millions of dollars
currently spent arresting, jailing and prosecuting non-violent pot
growers and users.

And then there are the taxes. The state tax collector and Board of
Equalization estimate that California -- facing a $20 billion
shortfall and no budget -- could generate more than $1.4 billion by
taxing marijuana, adding it to the list of so-called "sin taxes" that
includes alcohol and tobacco.

I'm not a huge fan of taxes, but I'd rather see some of the pot money
go to our schools and highways than to fund some Fat Cat's illegal
empire.

At the end of the day, argue Prop 19 advocates, "Outlawing marijuana
hasn't stopped 100 million Americans from trying it."

It should not go unnoticed, as you head to the polls in November, that
the most strident opponents of California's Prop 19 are the drug lords
and growers who stand to lose their tax-free fortunes. They would love
your support.