IS IT HIGH TIME TO LEGALIZE POT?

There's a marijuana generation gap.

If you're over 30, there's a good chance that if you inhale, you hide it.

Under 30? You probably don't bother with the secrecy, unless you're
talking to the boss.

Many young adults I interview casually mention smoking pot the same
way boomers talk about relaxing with a few beers.

As in, "We went to the beach, smoked some weed."

The weird thing? I'm old enough to be their dad.

The interesting thing?

They'll be voting on whether to legalize marijuana in November along
with their more secretive parents.

But not all parents who smoke are so secretive.

Matt Mirmak, an operations analyst for a financial services company,
lives in Irvine, is married and has a nine-year-old daughter. And
Mirmak, on occasion, in private, smokes weed.

How do I know? He told me.

But his public stand isn't so much about smoking as it is about
government poking its nose into an area it shouldn't be bothering
with and wasting billions of dollars while ruining thousands of lives.

Mirmak, who grew up in Irvine and graduated from Augsburg College in
Minneapolis, says he wants to "take the underground black market and
bring it above ground."

The ballot initiative, Mirmak says, will remove marijuana from the
hands of juvenile gangs, allow communities to make autonomous
decisions about pot and provide tax revenue.

Mirmak, who describes himself as a "17-year recovering alcoholic,"
says he only rarely smokes these days. And his response for those who
say legalization will lead to a generation of marijuana addicts?

"Hogwash."

Who's against Prop. 19 in Orange County?

There are the usual opponents: Placentia and Garden Grove police
chiefs, Anaheim and Fullerton police associations, City of Laguna
Niguel, Orange Chamber of Commerce, Orange County Coalition of Police
and Sheriffs and Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.

Hutchens recently coauthored an op-ed article listing several
concerns about Prop. 19. One of her main points was that it would
prevent employers and law enforcement from cracking down on people
who are stoned. She also urged people to read the proposal.

Good idea. But when you follow Hutchens' advice, you read that the
proposition seems to actually address her primary concern:

"This Act shall not be construed to affect, limit or amend any
statute that forbids impairment while engaging in dangerous
activities such as driving," the proposition states. It adds, "the
existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually
impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected."

However, some on the anti-Prop. 19 team may surprise you.

Meet Robert Kushner of Lake Forest. At least, that's the alias he
uses in public.

Kushner is a professional pot grower. He won top honors for his
Indica strain of marijuana at this summer's Medical Cannabis Cup
sponsored by High Times Magazine.

And Kushner is against Prop. 19.

His reasoning, he explains, is that medicinal marijuana patients may
be left out if Proposition 19 passes.

I suspect they'll be OK and some have told me so.

I also suspect Kushner has another concern.

Large, legal growers may undercut Kushner's business.

Who else might be hurt if Prop. 19 passes? The Mexican drug cartels.

According to the DEA, cannabis accounts for slightly more than half
of the cartels' trade. They'll survive, but they might be weakened if
Prop. 19 passes and other states follow.

Besides, Mirmak, who else in Orange County favors Prop. 19?

There's the Orange County Democratic Party, retired Superior Court
Judge Jim Gray, the folks over at the headquarters for NORML, the
National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, and few others.

After that, it seems pretty quiet.

Or are people already voting with their wallets?

Cities such as Lake Forest and Dana Point report brisk business at
medical marijuana dispensaries, even as they're busy shutting them
down. And last I looked at an online map, there were more than 75 pot
shops in Orange County.

A Field Poll survey released in late September reported that Prop. 19
is up by 7 points, 49-42, with about 8 percent of voters undecided.

At first blush, the number of people in favor of the proposition
seems shocking in an age in which "Just Say No" Red Ribbon Weeks are
still popular. But being against drug abuse no longer automatically
means being against the legalization of marijuana.

A government report in September from the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration stated marijuana use has increased by
8 percent over the last decade. The report also stated the number of
kids 12-17 who believed marijuana was harmful dropped from 54.7
percent in 2007 to 49.3 percent in 2009.

Those figures stand in stark contrast to the dollars we're pouring
into the war on drugs and its human toll.

The FBI tells us 858,408 people were arrested on marijuana-related
charges last year, about 9 percent of them in California. That was a
1.3 percent increase from the year before. In all, pot busts
represented 52 percent of all drug arrests.

It would appear that 30 years after Sir Paul McCartney was arrested
in Japan for possession of cannabis, Americans want a change in the
war on drugs.

A national Angus Reid poll released in July found that 65 percent of
Americans consider the war on drugs a flop.

I recently interviewed a woman who asked if I'd heard Alcoholics
Anonymous' definition for insanity. I hadn't.

"It's when you keep doing the same thing over and over again and
expect different results."