FIXING STATE'S MARIJUANA LAWS

California has two minds on marijuana. Voters in 1996 thought it was
OK for medicinal use, and just about any adult can get a
"recommendation" to legally consume medical marijuana. But on Nov. 2,
voters just said no to fully legalizing pot for recreational use and sale.

It's technically illegal to sell medical marijuana in California
(it's supposed to be shared among collective members), yet several
cities have enacted gross receipt taxes to raise revenue off the sale
of medicinal pot. The city of Los Angeles is currently considering
taxing medical marijuana. And voters from La Puente just approved a
measure to tax medical marijuana sales in the city.

Meanwhile, last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new law
that reduced the penalty for possession of an ounce of marijuana from
a misdemeanor with arrest to an infraction with a $100 fine - no more
serious than a speeding ticket.

And he went on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," this week and
declared, "No one cares if you smoke a joint or not."

That may be true, yet, in California it's still a felony to grow, buy
or sell marijuana for recreational use, even if you're growing your
own personal stash.

To sum up the state's schizophrenic drug policy: Nobody cares if you
have a joint, but you could end up in jail for acquiring that joint.

As California has slowly begun to decriminalize the use of marijuana,
the state has failed to address the very serious question of where
marijuana comes from.

Unfortunately, we see the results the crazy policy plays in our parks
and in the Angeles National Forest, where elaborate illegal pot
plantations have been discovered, and on our southern border. Just
last week, federal authorities discovered 25 tons of marijuana in a
San Diego warehouse that was the end of the line for a 1,800-foot
long tunnel running from Mexico.

It was just one of the schemes Mexican cartels have used to smuggle
marijuana into California and the United States. So far, the state
has been largely insulated from the horrific murders and violence
perpetrated by the cartels south of the border, but how long before
the drug war heads north?

But California policy ignores the fact that the appetite for
marijuana and the decriminalization of pot possession will only fuel
these illegal grow operations and the Mexican cartels.

Marijuana advocates figured legalization was the solution to state's
schizophrenic drug policy, but Proposition 19 wasn't the answer. The
measure would have allowed local governments to craft their own
regulation and taxes on the sale of marijuana, which would have
created a confusing patchwork of rules. And the federal government
was expected to crack down on any attempt in California to legalize
the sale of marijuana.

If California's leaders are going to go down the path of
decriminalizing marijuana possession, then they need to take a hard
look at the growth, distribution and sale of marijuana. It's simply
illogical to make possession an infraction and acquisition a felony.