ILLINOIS EYES CALIFORNIA'S MARIJUANA PROPOSITION

David Yepsen says California is known for setting political trends in
the United States, and that may be the the case again. If the state
passes Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana.

"Things that happen there will often times come this way," Yepsen
said Wednesday.

Yepsen, director for the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said he
believes legalizing marijuana in Illinois would be a gradual change,
starting with the legalization of medicinal marijuana. The medicinal
use of marijuana is already legal in the District of Columbia and 14
other states, including California, Montana and New Jersey.

If passed, a proposition on the Nov. 2 ballot in California would
allow people 21 years old or older to possess or transport up to one
ounce of marijuana for personal use or cultivate a 25 square foot
plot in a non-public place.

The proposition would permit local government to regulate and tax
commercial production and sale of marijuana while "prohibiting people
from possessing marijuana on school grounds, using it in public,
smoking it while minors are present, or providing it to anyone under
21 years old," according to California's Secretary of State's website.

The Daily Egyptian surveyed 125 people on campus Monday about the
legalization of marijuana. People were surveyed in or around the
Student Center, Northwest Annex, the College of Business, the Lesar
Law Building, Morris Library, Lawson Hall, Faner Hall and the
Illinois Avenue pedestrian bridge.

Sixty percent the people students in the Daily Egyptian's
non-scientific survey said marijuana should be legalized, 16 percent
were neutral and 24 percent were against legalizing marijuana.

According to a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center for the People &
the Press, the national average shows 41 percent of Americans favor
legalizing marijuana. Twenty years ago, only 16 percent said the use
of marijuana should be legal, according to the study. Fifty-eight
percent of people 30 years old or younger believe marijuana should be legal.

Nearly three quarters of Americans favor their state allowing the
sale and use of marijuana for medical purposes if prescribed by a
doctor, according to the study.

"(Legalizing medical marijuana) may clarify federal and state laws
and how the government would regulate it," Yepsen said. "And then,
perhaps, people will find they are comfortable with it or not."

John Clemons, lecturer for the department of criminology and criminal
justice, said he opposes legalizing marijuana even for medicinal purposes.

"(In California) anybody could get it if you can find someone to
write you a prescription," he said. "It would be totally abused."

A bill to legalize the use of medical marijuana in Illinois passed
through the Senate in May 2009 and is now under House review, said
Dan Linn, Illinois executive director of National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act would
legalize the use of medicinal marijuana in Illinois, Linn said. He
said the bill is stricter than laws in other states, including
California, which legalized medicinal marijuana in 1996.

Chris Fralish, coordinator of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program at
the SIUC Wellness Center, said as a drug counselor, he would like to
see multiple changes in federal and state policies relating to the
war on drugs. He said incarcerating individuals for marijuana use
without treatment is not effective.

He said he believes every individual has different reasons, some more
valid than others, for being for or against the legalization marijuana.

"There has to be a balance looking at the issue," he said. "It has to
be seen through multiple lenses to answer the question of whether or
not we legalize it."

He said it is his job as a substance abuse counselor to be aware of
the risk for substance abuse in each individual.

"Each person has a different threshold for addiction," Fralish said.
"But we'll probably see an increase in addiction because of the
increase of access (if it becomes legalized)."

He said he has seen patients with marijuana withdrawal, though it is
not as intense as controlled substance abuse withdrawal such as
cocaine or methamphetamine. There is a difference between a
psychological dependency and physical addiction to a drug, and both
can happen with long-term marijuana use, Fralish said.

He said treating someone with an addiction would be more difficult if
it were legalized without wide-spread treatment facilities in place.

Linn said cannabis prohibition is a failed policy that has not
successfully deterred use of marijuana. He said there is a large
segment of the population who should not be considered criminals for
growing, cultivating or distributing marijuana.

"It makes criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens," he said.
"There is no record of someone dying from a marijuana overdose, yet
it's still seen as a dangerous substance."

The U.S. federal government spent more than $19 billion dollars in
2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second,
according to the policy. The War on Drugs initiative, including a set
of drug-related policies, began with the Controlled Substance Act of 1970.

There were 48,861 cannabis arrests in Illinois in 2004, compared to
the 48,754 arrests for all other controlled substances, according to
the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Linn said money is wasted on the arrest and the possible
incarceration of people who use marijuana. He said it costs $20,000
to $35,000 per year to incarcerate one person for one year depending
on the severity of the crime.

He said the criminal justice system would save money by not enforcing
the policy and exhausting their resources by arresting nearly the
same amount of people for marijuana as other controlled substances.

Clemons said he disagrees with the argument that legalizing marijuana
would lift Illinois out of its financial crisis.

"It's ridiculous. Why don't we sell assault rifles on the street?" he
said. "You don't do bad things to generate funds for the federal government."

He said he believes Illinois should reduce penalties for possessing
marijuana and not use incarceration as the solution but he said he is
against the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana in Illinois.

Clemons said the government should not legalize marijuana as a means
to cut costs within the criminal justice system.

Linn said with California voting on Proposition 19 Nov. 2, he
believes Illinois will soon follow suit.

"At this point, we're in such a financial crisis. The state would be
making money from some type of tax for the legal distribution of it,"
he said. "So it's a win-win economically for the state and local
governments of Illinois."