MARIJUANA'S TRUE POTENCY AND WHY THE LAW SHOULD CHANGE

The U.S. war against marijuana has failed and actually threatens
public safety and rests on false medical assumptions. Guest columnist
John McKay, Seattle's former U.S. attorney, argues why the laws
against marijuana should be changed.

I DON'T smoke pot. And I pretty much think people who do are idiots.

This certainly includes Marc Emery, the self-styled "Prince of Pot"
from Canada whom I indicted in 2005 for peddling marijuana seeds to
every man, woman and child with an envelope and a stamp. Emery
recently pleaded guilty and will be sentenced this month in Seattle,
where he faces five years in federal prison. If changing U.S.
marijuana policy was ever Emery's goal, the best that can be said is
that he took the wrong path.

As Emery's prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official,
however, I'm not afraid to say out loud what most of my former
colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong
and should be changed through the legislative process to better
protect the public safety.

Congress has failed to recognize what many already know about our
policy of criminal prohibition of marijuana -- it has utterly failed.
Listed by the U.S. government as a "Schedule One" drug alongside
heroin, the demand for marijuana in this country for decades has
outpaced the ability of law enforcement to eliminate it. Perhaps this
is because millions of Americans smoke pot regularly and
international drug cartels, violent gangs and street pushers work
hard to reap the profits.

Law-enforcement agencies are simply not capable of interdicting all
of this pot and despite some successes have not succeeded in
thwarting criminals who traffic and sell marijuana. Brave agents and
cops continue to risk their lives in a futile attempt to enforce
misguided laws that do not match the realities of our society.

These same agents and cops, along with prosecutors, judges and
jailers, know we can't win by arresting all those involved in the
massive importation, growth or distribution of marijuana, nor by
locking up all the pot smokers. While many have argued the policy is
unjust, few have addressed the dangerously potent black market the
policy itself has created for exploitation by Mexican and other
international drug cartels and gangs. With the proceeds from the U.S.
marijuana black market, these criminals distribute dangerous drugs
and kill each other (too often along with innocent bystanders) with
American-purchased guns.

Our wrongheaded policy on marijuana has also failed to address the
true health threat posed by its use. While I suspect nothing good can
come to anyone from the chronic ingestion of marijuana smoke, its
addictive quality and health risk pale in comparison with other
banned drugs such as heroin, cocaine or meth. Informed adult choice,
albeit a bad one, may well be preferable to the legal and policy
meltdown we have long been suffering over marijuana.

Not only does our policy directly threaten our public safety and rest
upon false medical assumptions, but our national laws are now in
direct and irreconcilable conflict with state laws, including
Washington state. So called "medical" marijuana reaches precious few
patients and backdoor potheads mock legitimate medical use by
glaucoma and chemotherapy patients. State laws are trumped by federal
laws that recognize no such thing as "medicinal" or "personal" use
and are no defense to arrests by federal agents and prosecution in
federal courts.

So the policy is wrong, the law has failed, the public is endangered,
no one in law enforcement is talking about it and precious few
policymakers will honestly face the soft-on-crime sound bite in their
next elections. What should be done?

. First, we need to honestly and courageously examine the true
public-safety danger posed by criminalizing a drug used by millions
and millions of Americans who ignore the law. Marijuana prohibition
has failed -- it's time for a new policy crafted by informed
policymakers with the help of those in law enforcement who have
risked their lives battling pot-purveying drug cartels and gangs.

. Second, let's talk about marijuana policy responsibly and with an
eye toward sound science, not myth. We can start by acknowledging
that our 1930s-era marijuana prohibition was overkill from the
beginning and should be decoupled from any debate about "legalizing
drugs." We should study and disclose the findings of the real health
risks of prolonged use, including its influence and effect on juveniles.

. Third, we should give serious consideration to heavy regulation
and taxation of the marijuana industry (an industry that is very real
and dangerously underground). We should limit pot's content of the
active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), regulate its sale to
adults who are dumb enough to want it and maintain criminal penalties
for sales, possession or use by minors, drivers and boaters.

Federal criminal law should give way to regulation, while prohibiting
interstate violation of federal laws consistent with this approach.
In short, policymakers should strive for a regulatory and criminal
scheme like the one guarding that other commodity that failed
miserably at prohibition, alcohol.

As my law-enforcement colleagues know well from chasing bootleggers
and mobsters, this new regulatory and criminal approach will still
require many years of intensive investigation and enforcement before
organized criminal elements are driven from the vast marijuana
market. DEA and its law-enforcement partners must therefore remain
well equipped and staffed to accomplish this task: to protect our
families from truly dangerous drugs and to drive drug cartels, gangs
and dope dealers from our society.