NO TO GANJA MADNESS

Proposition 19, the Nov. 2 ballot measure that would legalize the
possession, cultivation and transport of marijuana for "personal use"
by adults over 21, and would allow local governments to regulate and
tax it, may be the worst drafted legislation since 1996, when
Proposition 215 legalized "medical marijuana."

That decision by voters 14 years ago set California on a collision
course with the federal government that continues today. It led to
the explosion of marijuana dispensaries in urban areas throughout the
state, almost all of which, according to law enforcement authorities,
operate in violation of the law. And, while it does provide a legal
source for marijuana for the relatively small number of people who
use it for legitimate medical purposes, officials say it is abused by
many, many more.

Consider the specific provisions of Proposition 19.

It would allow every one of California's nearly 480 cities and each
of its 58 counties to develop their own regulation and tax schemes
for the cultivation, processing, distribution, transportation and
sale of marijuana. In San Diego County alone, that could mean 19
separate sets of regulations and taxes - one for the unincorporated
areas and one for each of the 18 cities. That provision alone is an
invitation to law enforcement chaos.

In addition, the proposition would create, in the words of the
California Chamber of Commerce, a "legal quagmire" for employers up
and down the state. A business would be limited to addressing
marijuana use to situations where it could prove that an employee's
job performance was actually impaired, making a mockery of employer
efforts to create a safe, drug-free workplace.

And, since marijuana would remain illegal under federal law,
Proposition 19 would only multiply the legal conflicts that already
exist over medical marijuana.

These are hardly the only reasons to oppose this measure.

Contrary to the oft-cited argument that legalizing marijuana would
drive the murderous Mexican drug cartels out of the marijuana trade
in California, the widely respected RAND Corp. concluded from its
extensive study of the issue: "Legalizing marijuana in California
would not appreciably influence the Mexican drug-trafficking
organizations and the related violence unless exports from California
drive Mexican marijuana out of the market in other states." And even
then, it said, legalization "may not have much impact," at least in
the short run.

None of this even begins to address the debatable questions of
whether marijuana is less harmful or more harmful than alcohol or
tobacco. As if those answers even matter. Do we really want to
legalize yet another substance known to be harmful and, yes,
sometimes addictive?

There are many other questions and issues regarding marijuana. But
the legal and enforcement chaos it would create is more than reason
enough to oppose Proposition 19.