LEGALIZING MARIJUANA WOULD DO NO HARM

Question: If total legalization of marijuana was a ballot issue in
our state, how would you vote?

You would be allowed to grow it, sell it, smoke it, chew it, drink it,
eat it legally - no misdemeanor, no felony. Maybe marijuana would be
kept under thumb as we do with age restrictions on tobacco and
alcohol, but for those older than 18 or 21 - legal.

Question: How much is marijuana worth if it has been legalized?

Question: Is marijuana life-threatening?

Question: Which is the bigger health problem - municipal water supply
or marijuana?

Question: Is marijuana addictive?

Question: Is marijuana an introduction to other strong, life-altering
substances?

Interesting questions, huh?

A recent Gallup poll found, for the first time ever, 50 percent of
Americans polled are in favor of total legalization of marijuana. Only
44 percent were against it.

The trend toward legalization of marijuana moved me to ask a dozen
Columbians the first question. All of them were on the far side of 50,
all had college educations, only one was an admitted pot smoker in her
youth and there were both conservatives and liberals. I expected most
to vote "no."

Almost all said: "Keep my name off the record, but I'd probably vote
to legalize if there was some age limit on its usage like we do with
booze."

One person who had been both a heavy tobacco smoker and a pot user in
her 30s no longer uses either. "It was easy to quit marijuana," she
said, "but it took five years to get away from tobacco."

A quick review of the questions above.

The value of marijuana if it is legalized? Marijuana comes from the
same hemp plant as rope and clothing and a lot of other things. Only
the leaves and flowers are psychoactive. Modern botanical methods
allow hemp to be altered to produce marijuana in greenhouses, with no
emphasis on the fibrous stalks used in industry.

Street value of good marijuana could run up to $300 an ounce - $3,000
a pound - because it is illegal to produce and sell. If marijuana
becomes legal, the value of a pound will fall from $3,000 to $1. Grow
it yourself like tomatoes.

Is weed lethal? Ingesting as food or drink in huge quantities could
lead to death - like anything else you eat in excess. Smoked? No.

Is it addictive? No more than a favorite food. Tobacco? Very
addictive.

Is it a springboard to opiates, etc? There is no proof it
is.

City water or marijuana? Depends on the city.

So what are the problems with legalization? We might soon find out. A
group for the reform of marijuana laws - NORML - is working to get the
100,000 signatures needed to put legalization on the November 2012
ballot.

The key word is legalization - not decriminalization.

The city of Columbia, not Boone County, joined 16 states in April 2004
to decriminalize a small amount of weed - 11/4 ounces - by a 61
percent vote and to allow 11/4 ounces to be legal for medical use.
Thus, if you are found with an ounce of weed, you pay a $250 fine, and
you have no record. Good as far as it goes. An ounce and a half, and
you find yourself in the Iron Bar Hilton with a felony charge.

Legalization will simply take dealers off the street. It will leave
the use of marijuana up to the parents, not the street peddlers. When
pot sells for no more than your backyard tomato crop, the dealers move
on, the police tend to more serious matters, lives will no longer be
shattered by laws that are unheeded.

To answer my first question: If the legalization of marijuana is on
the ballot in November 2012, Ol' Clark will vote for its passage. I
welcome you to join me on the bandwagon.