POT: TURNING LEGAL

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In Tuesday's U.S. election, several attempts to
legalize marijuana fell short. By a margin of 3.8 million to 3.3
million, California voters declined to approve pot possession for
recreational use. Arizona, Oregon and South Dakota rejected medical
marijuana, but two Massachusetts districts gave tentative approval.

Regardless, it seems clear that public support is fading for America's
police blitz that throws hundreds of thousands of young people into
cells for smoking the wrong plant.

Ask yourself: Why should it be a crime to smoke shredded pot leaves,
while it's perfectly legal to smoke shredded tobacco leaves? Why does
one leaf send you to prison, but the other doesn't? Highly addictive
tobacco kills 400,000 Americans prematurely each year -- yet
authorities welcome it, while branding marijuana a terrible evil.
That's illogical.

"Our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm than good," financier
George Soros wrote last week in The New York Times. He pointed out
that 750,000 Americans are jailed each year for small amounts of pot
- -- their lives and futures marred by criminal records. America loses
much of their potential contribution to society and the economy.

Blacks are punished far worse than whites, because of lopsided
prosecution. Research shows that young whites smoke more pot -- but
blacks are caught and prosecuted at much higher rates. "This makes it
more difficult for black men to find jobs, more difficult for black
women to find suitable husbands, and less common for black children to
grow up in stable families with black male role models," columnist
Nicholas Kristof wrote last week.

About the only groups benefiting from America's drug laws are smuggler
gangs. Endless police crackdowns keeps street prices sky-high, which
keeps traffic flowing.

Fourteen states already have approved medical marijuana. The Latin
American Commission on Drugs and Democracy -- headed by the
ex-presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico -- advocates
decriminalization as a way to halt deadly international
trafficking.

A Newsweek poll found that 70 percent of likely voters under 30
support legalization. Their age cohort will be more dominant in future
elections.

If pot were legal, like other agricultural crops, the price soon would
drop, and criminals would lose interest. State and local governments
would reap revenue from controlled, licensed pot sales.

Almost a century ago, prohibition of alcohol was a dismal blunder for
America. Rum-running unleashed unstoppable organized crime. Police
wasted much of their time nailing speakeasies and secret drinkers --
or taking payola to look the other way.

Prohibition of pot doesn't work any better than prohibition of booze
did. Despite Tuesday's election setbacks, the future seems clear:
Eventually, marijuana leaves will be as legal as tobacco leaves.