CHANGING STATE POT LAWS, ATTITUDES

Forcing notions of proper lifestyle or personal behavior on all of
society is usually problematic even when a relatively small minority
resists the imposition.

Banning any substance that is in high demand, even by a minority of
the population, generates a spectacularly lucrative and corrupting
black market that not only thwarts effective enforcement, but effects
a transmutation of law enforcement into something resembling a police state.

By abolishing a victimless personal choice, prohibition makes
criminals of otherwise decent citizens.

Drug prohibition has distracted American law enforcement from
protecting the public from real crime, to focus on a futile war on
drugs that does little more than create more police power to
appropriate the property of anyone even suspected of being involved
in drug trafficking.

America's war on drugs is transmogrifying our police -- leading them
to overzealously, and too often mistakenly, bust down doors,
confiscate property, and injure, kill or incarcerate folks who have
hurt no one.

Moreover, prohibition creates violent crime here and abroad. The
savage violence plaguing Mexico is a result of America's obstinate,
irrational, insistence on continuing drug prohibition.

With Proposition 19, Californians have an opportunity to begin
putting an end to this insanity. California has long been the
nation's avant-garde exemplar leading the nation into needed change.
Passing Prop. 19 would continue that role.

The arguments against Prop. 19 are exemplified in a recent editorial
by the Los Angeles Times and in a commentary by Gov. Schwarzenegger.
Both warn that legalizing marijuana would endanger public safety.

However, considering the zeal with which law enforcement has
conducted the war on drugs, and the savagery of the turf wars among
drug gangs, the public is more in danger from prohibition than it is
from fellow citizens choosing to use marijuana.

The timid L.A. Times stresses that because legalizing marijuana would
put California in direct confrontation with federal law, Prop. 19
should not be passed. But the state's voters have already defied the
feds by allowing medical marijuana, and even though the peeved feds
descended on the state, California has stood its ground.

This display of perseverance for freedom, common sense and compassion
has encouraged other states to follow California's lead.

Both the L.A. Times and Schwarzenegger belittle the financial aspect
of Prop. 19, taxing marijuana. They say the expected tax money, $1.4
billion, is insignificant.

If $1.4 billion is insignificant, why are politicians promising to
find a billion or so here and a billion or so there? Because it all
adds up. Pennies make dollars, and billions make 100 billions.

The L.A. Times fears that because Prop. 19 would allow each local
jurisdiction to regulate marijuana, there would be regulatory chaos.
Yet, after the nation came to its senses and ended the prohibition on
alcohol, many states had dry counties and jurisdictions with varying
regulations on alcohol. Those states did not collapse into chaos, and
neither will California if Prop. 19 passes.

And since when are local self-determination and self-government a bad
thing? Isn't our current Democrat candidate for governor advocating
just that -- bringing power closer to the people and away from its
concentration in Sacramento?

Agreed, Prop. 19 is not perfect, but it doesn't have to be. It is a
needed step toward reason, freedom and justice. Ironically, in
supporting the federal health-care reform act, the L.A. Times argued
that even with its deficiencies the progress the health-reform act
provided made it worth passing.

The deficiencies could be addressed later. What was most important
was to get the ball rolling. Why isn't that same argument being
applied to marijuana legalization under Prop. 19?

Passing Prop. 19 may be more symbolic than effectual, but then so was
dumping tea into Boston Harbor. Look where that led.

Freedom, common sense and justice usually don't come easily. There
are always powerful forces of ignorance, selfishness and entrenched
political privilege arrayed against them. Sometimes you need to stop
talking and do something.

Passing Prop. 19 would be a shot heard around the world.