POT LEGALIZATION NEEDS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

Proposition 19, an initiative to legalize the recreational use of
marijuana, was soundly defeated in the November election after
California's political establishment, Democratic and Republican, came
out strongly against it. We had concerns with a provision related to
the ability of employers to combat marijuana use at the workplace, but
we are glad to see that advocates are planning to take another stab at
the issue for the November 2012 election.

It really is time to look at ways to reduce the drug war and all the
costs, injustices and assaults on individual liberty that this war
entails. A starting point could be marijuana legalization, given its
wide use and nonaddictive nature, although the devil always is in the
details.

The Marijuana Regulation and Tax Act of 2012 would "repeal all
California state laws that prohibit marijuana possession, sales,
transportation, production, processing and cultivation by people 21
years of age and older." It does not repeal laws regarding "driving a
motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana; using or being under
the influence of marijuana in public or in the workplace; smoking
marijuana in the presence of, or providing, transferring or selling
marijuana to, a person under the age of 21."

Opponents in the Prop.19 debate mainly argued that marijuana
legalization would lead to widespread drug use and spark a crime wave.
As advocates for a freer society, we do not believe that government
action - legalization or prohibition of substances - is the key to
determining how people behave. If government bans produced improved
behavior, then alcohol Prohibition would have been a rousing success
and all the many efforts by the environmental community to ban things
(plastic bags, etc.) would be legislative models for action.

Furthermore, marijuana use essentially is already decriminalized in
California, which defangs the idea that legalization will take us into
some new and dangerous territory.

Beyond the freedom issue, there are practical reasons for legalizing
marijuana, and other drugs for that matter. We don't condone drug use
but, instead, recognize that government bans drive up the cost of
these products and thereby create strong incentives for the most
brutal crime syndicates to become involved in their production and
distribution.

That point was rarely discussed during the Prop. 19 debate. Another
missing point, made eloquently by the late conservative writer William
F. Buckley, was that the drug war leads to wanton violations of civil
rights and procedures - civil forfeiture, for example - typically
found in less-free nations. We recall a National Review editorial from
editor Buckley's days : "(I)t is our judgment that the war on drugs
has failed, that it is diverting intelligent energy away from how to
deal with the problem of addiction, that it is wasting our resources,
and that it is encouraging civil, judicial and penal procedures
associated with police states. We all agree on movement toward
legalization, even though we may differ on just how far."

We're glad to see the new proposition circulated in the hope that some
of the above issues can be seriously debated.