IS WEST VIRGINIA GOING TO POT?

Some Say the Mountain State Needs to Legalize Marijuana, but Others
Fear Taking the Plunge.

The country remains in economic instability -- to the point some
would say it is literally "going to pot."

Traditional forms of revenue from manufacturing and other economic
sectors are down in West Virginia and throughout the country. Many
states are finding themselves in the red. Jobs are scarce.

As the country continues to struggle with a $1 trillion budget
deficit, other options are being explored to generate revenue. And
those options include the legalization of marijuana for recreational
use. California voters in November will decide whether to support
Proposition 19, a state rule that would make recreational use of
marijuana legal so the state can tax and regulate the drug as it does
alcohol and tobacco.

Federal authorities have vowed to enforce federal laws, regardless of
whether California voters decide to legalize marijuana within the
state's borders. Proponents claim the passage of the proposition
could pump an estimated $8 billion dollars into the Golden State's
struggling economy.

According to a recent Cato Institute study conducted by Jeffrey A.
Miron and Katherine Waldock titled "Making an Economic Case for
Legalizing Drugs," the nation as a whole could save about $8.6
billion in law enforcement efforts by decriminalizing marijuana.

With potential savings in the billions and the ability to generate
more, why are more states such as West Virginia not pursuing
legalizing marijuana for taxation and regulation -- especially when
it is the Mountain State's No. 1, albeit illegal, cash crop?

Law Enforcement Not Convinced

Eric Sterling, former assistant council to the U.S. House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee and Crime Subcommittee and
current president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, said the
U.S. spends on average $15 billion a year fighting drugs, including marijuana.

He said the revenue generated from ending the War on Drugs would help
take a chunk out of the budget deficit. He believes all drugs,
including marijuana, should be decriminalized

"We are not saving lives. The quality of drugs has gone up, while
prices have dropped. It is like cell phones, televisions and
computers. As time goes on, products have bettered in quality and
have become cheaper. We are not winning," Sterling said.

West Virginia State Police Sgt. M.T. Smith, who works with the
state's Bureau of Criminal Investigations and heads the marijuana
eradication program, does not agree. He said drugs such as marijuana
are more dangerous than ever. He said strains of marijuana are more potent.

"Pot is a different animal, and it's hard to say without a crystal
ball what the results would be" if it were decriminalized, Smith said.

Smith pointed to prescription drugs as a legal drug that is still
abused. He said too many people have misconceptions that marijuana is
not dangerous. He said violence still can be associated with
marijuana, and its users can become addicted.

"The misconception is we arrest people for smoking pot and crowding
jails. No, we arrest people who are distributing 50 pounds of pot and
are carrying a handgun," Smith said.

Jim Rubenstein, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of
Corrections, said he agrees with Smith that prisons are not crowded
with people who are smoking pot.

"People that end up in jail because of marijuana are here because of
a more serious felony associated with the pot charge, whether it be
gun possession, some kind of violence or other drugs," Rubenstein said.

Smith said violence is associated with marijuana because of the drug
trade. He said people steal it while it is growing, and violence
erupts when a dealer shorts a buyer or vice versa.

"We even had an incident of a civilian helicopter spraying power
lines (that was) shot at by a grower," Smith said.

Smith said he just is not convinced legalization is the route to go.

"There will always be issues even if legalized. Next thing you know,
it will be like cigarettes. People will be battling about where you
can smoke it," Smith said.

You Reap What You Sow

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, said it is time for lawmakers
to recognize the financial benefits of decriminalizing marijuana and
regulating it as they do tobacco and alcohol.

"There are unsafe substances in alcohol, caffeine and tobacco, but
they are legal," St. Pierre said. "They are products that are harmful
to the user only if the user over indulges, yet they are still legal."

He said the illegality in alcohol and tobacco comes when it is
misused, such as when it falls into the hands of children. St. Pierre
said children have easy access to marijuana and all drugs because it
is unregulated. He said regulation helps prevent children from having
an open market for alcohol and tobacco.

St. Pierre also said legalized marijuana faces the same social
scrutiny as alcohol. He cited as examples working while intoxicated,
driving while intoxicated or overuse.

"There will always be those that go over the line, but that is why we
have laws and regulations," St. Pierre said.

St. Pierre said the financial benefits from legalization have the
potential to be great as well. He said it only costs pennies per
pound to produce outdoor grown pot and $1 per gram for marijuana grown indoors.

"Think of the money from state-imposed sin taxes and regular sales
taxes that could be made. Cigarettes are massed produced and barely
have a small profit margin," St. Pierre said.

Expenses and Revenues

St. Pierre said states could benefit financially through legalization
in two ways: by taxing the product and then reaping the revenues from
the new taxes and by eliminating the cost of enforcement. According
to the Cato Institute study by Miron and Waldock, West Virginia
spends nearly $95 million in drug enforcement annually and would
bring in $93 million in revenue from drug legalization.

"Those are numbers a small state like West Virginia cannot ignore,"
Sterling said. "States have to ask themselves what the cost spent in
fighting drugs is compared to what we are getting in return."

Smith disagreed with those figures.

He said the value placed on plants that are confiscated by law
enforcement officials are rough estimates only. That's because many
plants are confiscated and destroyed early in the growth stage. He
said when law enforcement is coming up with an estimated street
value, officers have to price every plant as a fully matured female
plant that produces buds for street sale.

"Not every plant, even when not eradicated, reaches that potential.
So we just throw a street value on it based up maturation," Smith said.

St. Pierre said concrete data on the revenue from legalization does
exist. He said California's figures are based on the amount of
marijuana already being taxed in California by the state's tax department.

"The nation will see the benefits financially based upon what
California does. One in eight Americans lives in California, and if
you removed California's economy from the rest of the country it
would be the sixth largest world economy (about the size of France's
economy). So those figures are concrete," St. Pierre said.

He said it will take another state besides California, such as New
York, Ohio, Illinois, Texas or Florida, to open the federal
government's eyes to legalizing and taxing marijuana.

"When a state like one of those realizes the financial benefits, then
smaller more conservative states like West Virginia will come on
board. Public support continues to grow 20 percent every 10 years.

"By 2020, public support will be a supermajority of 65 percent. That
is hard to ignore," St. Pierre said.