WHY I SUPPORT LEGAL MARIJUANA

We Should Invest In Effective Education Rather Than Ineffective Arrest And
Incarceration.

Our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm than good. The
criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming
the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many
other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative
consequences.

Law enforcement agencies today spend many billions of taxpayer dollars
annually trying to enforce this unenforceable prohibition. The roughly
750,000 arrests they make each year for possession of small amounts of
marijuana represent more than 40% of all drug arrests.

Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers
billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while
providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually. It also would
reduce the crime, violence and corruption associated with drug
markets, and the violations of civil liberties and human rights that
occur when large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens are subject
to arrest. Police could focus on serious crime instead.

The racial inequities that are part and parcel of marijuana
enforcement policies cannot be ignored. African-Americans are no more
likely than other Americans to use marijuana but they are three, five
or even 10 times more likely-depending on the city-to be arrested for
possessing marijuana. I agree with Alice Huffman, president of the
California NAACP, when she says that being caught up in the criminal
justice system does more harm to young people than marijuana itself.
Giving millions of young Americans a permanent drug arrest record that
may follow them for life serves no one's interests.

Racial prejudice also helps explain the origins of marijuana
prohibition. When California and other U.S. states first decided
(between 1915 and 1933) to criminalize marijuana, the principal
motivations were not grounded in science or public health but rather
in prejudice and discrimination against immigrants from Mexico who
reputedly smoked the "killer weed."

Who most benefits from keeping marijuana illegal? The greatest
beneficiaries are the major criminal organizations in Mexico and
elsewhere that earn billions of dollars annually from this illicit
trade-and who would rapidly lose their competitive advantage if
marijuana were a legal commodity. Some claim that they would only move
into other illicit enterprises, but they are more likely to be
weakened by being deprived of the easy profits they can earn with marijuana.

This was just one reason the Latin American Commission on Drugs and
Democracy-chaired by three distinguished former presidents, Fernando
Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto
Zedillo of Mexico-included marijuana decriminalization among their
recommendations for reforming drug policies in the Americas.

Like many parents and grandparents, I am worried about young people
getting into trouble with marijuana and other drugs. The best
solution, however, is honest and effective drug education. One survey
after another indicates that teenagers have better access than most
adults to marijuana-and often other drugs as well-and find it easier
to buy marijuana than alcohol. Legalizing marijuana may make it easier
for adults to buy marijuana, but it can hardly make it any more
accessible to young people. I'd much rather invest in effective
education than ineffective arrest and incarceration.

California's Proposition 19, which would legalize the recreational use
and small-scale cultivation of marijuana, wouldn't solve all the
problems connected with the drug. But it would represent a major step
forward, and its deficiencies can be corrected on the basis of
experience. Just as the process of repealing national alcohol
prohibition began with individual states repealing their own
prohibition laws, so individual states must now take the initiative
with respect to repealing marijuana prohibition laws. And just as
California provided national leadership in 1996 by becoming the first
state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, so it has an
opportunity once again to lead the nation.

In many respects, of course, Proposition 19 already is a winner no
matter what happens on Election Day. The mere fact of its being on the
ballot has elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana
and marijuana policy in ways I could not have imagined a year ago.

These are the reasons I have decided to support Proposition 19 and
invite others to do so.

Mr. Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management and founder of the Open
Society Foundations.