TICKETING FOR MARIJUANA USE MAKES MORE SENSE TODAY

I have a confession to make. I hope it won't make you think ill of me.

I have never smoked marijuana, not even a puff. Not ever.

Not that I didn't have my chances. Back in 1970, I was covering the
Wadena Rock Festival in Iowa (sort of Woodstock lite) when a young
woman came up to me and said: "Want me to turn you on?" I'm pretty
sure she was talking about pot. I respectfully declined.

Yes, I know, it was weak of me. The best and the brightest of my
generation were courageously yielding to temptation while I, coward
that I was, retreated from it.

Part of it, I suppose, was the fear of getting caught. When that girl
made her proposal to me, a headline flashed through my mind:
"Semi-famous Columnist Busted While Smoking Dope with Teeny Bopper."

It would not have done my career any good, to say nothing of my marriage.

So it was thanks but no thanks for me. Still is.

I wouldn't bring up any of this except for Prop 19. That was the
ballot initiative in California that would have effectively legalized
the cultivation and sale of marijuana in the state. It was defeated,
but supporters say the proposed law was badly worded and they'll try
again next time. In any case, the issue isn't going away anytime soon.

The case for legalization is fairly strong. Each year, we spend some
$10 billion enforcing our marijuana laws and arrest 750,000 people
for possession of small amounts of the drug. Many of these people go
to jail at considerable expense to the state and their reputations. A
classic lose-lose situation.

Despite that, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has found that the
drug has remained "almost universally available to American 12th graders."

In other words, if we really are waging a war on drugs, we're losing.

There's even some question over how effective the laws are in
preventing usage. According to Evan Wood, writing in the Los Angeles
Times, "In the Netherlands, where marijuana has been sold in licensed
'coffee shops' since the 1970s, about 20 percent of the adult
population has used the drug at some time ... In the United States ..
42 percent of the adult population has used marijuana."

Maybe that's true, maybe not. What's inarguable is that the marijuana
trade, much like the illegal liquor business during Prohibition, has
spawned a network of violent gangs who control it. Legalization would
put them out of business. Maybe.

That said, the case against legalizing marijuana is also a strong one.

Smoking pot isn't healthy.

It's smoking, for one thing. We know what that does to your lungs.

And really, do we need yet another avenue of escape from reality? Our
children spend an inordinate amount of time in front of the
television set or on the Internet or playing video games.

So now you want to make it easier for them to retreat even deeper
into disengagement?

I don't think so. What I'd like to see is for society to
decriminalize marijuana without legalizing it. Make it like a
speeding ticket. Fine people for using it but don't destroy their lives.

That's a hypocritical solution I suppose, but I hide behind the words
of the great French philosopher, Francois de La Rochefoucauld:

"Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue."

You'd be surprised how often that comes in handy.