FORMER POLITICIAN: TIME TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

When my one-time political rival and always friendly acquaintance
Gatewood Galbraith passed away this month, his eulogies invariably
noted that his insightful political reform ideas were often
overshadowed by his strident advocacy for marijuana legalization,
consigning him to the role of perennial candidate and courthouse jester.

Part of Gatewood's problem was that he looked the part: often
disheveled, always mellow. He also preached an admirably consistent,
but widely controversial, libertarian philosophy that scolded
government whenever it tried to establish moral standards for society.

Neither played well among a large segment of the commonwealth. Many
Kentuckians associate pot smokers with the "anything goes"
counterculture of the 1970s that they blame for the decline of
personal responsibility. Others worried that the logical extension of
Gatewood's libertarianism could lead to legalizing "harder" drugs,
prostitution, even polygamy. Indeed, most Kentuckians believe that
there must be some moral principles established to guide public policy.

Consider me the anti-Gatewood. I've never "inhaled"; I've never even
handled a joint. And I'm so passionate about the value of values that
I wrote a book about it: The Compassionate Community, in which I argue
that the universal moral mandate "to love your neighbor as yourself"
should guide our public policy.

But while Gatewood and I come from different places, now that I've
removed my electoral blinders as a recovering politician and
thoroughly analyzed the issue, I've concluded that Gatewood was right:
It's high time to legalize marijuana.

As I summarize below, legalizing cannabis would enable our
commonwealth to better reflect universally-shared moral values, such
as compassion toward the sick, justice in our legal system and
economic opportunity for all.

Health concerns

Despite last week's news of a new peer-reviewed study that suggests
that casual marijuana use can have beneficial health effects without
the adverse lung damage that tobacco wreaks, cannibis, like any drug -
particularly when used heavily - might pose long-term health
complications. However, there is a clear consensus around the following:

- - Cannabis is not as addictive as alcohol, tobacco or certainly drugs
like cocaine and heroin.

- - Marijuana is much less physically debilitating than those drugs, as
well as many legally-prescribed synthetic painkillers.

- - Deaths from a marijuana overdose are extraordinarily
rare.

- - There's a significant and growing amount of evidence that cannabis
helps relieve symptoms of many serious medical conditions - including
cancer, glaucoma and AIDS - and can be a better alternative to
narcotic painkillers.

Given the balance of equities, 16 states and the District of Columbia
have chosen the compassionate route and legalized marijuana for
medicinal purposes. Unfortunately, this half-measure has created an
unexpected set of complications. Some state legislatures and public
health advocates are up in arms about stories of doctors who abuse
their authority and "patients" who game the system. And federal laws
that conflict with the states can place physicians in difficult legal
positions.

That's why the California Medical Association recently urged its state
to move toward full legalization. The association understands that
relieving their sickest patients - those among the least of us - is a
moral imperative.

Criminal justice

There's no conclusive evidence that marijuana use or abuse leads to
violent crime. Yet there have been more than 20 million arrests for
marijuana-related crimes in the U.S. since 1965, taxing our already
overcrowded corrections system. Not only is there a moral question
associated with locking someone up for a victimless crime; there's a
significant economic dimension.

Here in Kentucky, it costs taxpayers $19,000 a year to imprison one
inmate. Incarcerating nonviolent pot smokers and distributors
accordingly has cost Kentucky taxpayers millions, if not tens of
millions of dollars - money that's desperately needed for essential
public services.

A significant slice of corrections funding could instead be freed for
proven, effective drug treatment programs (such as the
nationally-celebrated Recovery Kentucky) that truly tackle the problem
of drug dependence and empower addicts to take control of their lives.

Mere decriminalization of marijuana use would seem to help address our
corrections crisis. But it would do little to mitigate the horrible
violence associated with cannabis trafficking by organized crime
cartels here and murderous drug gangs in Mexico. The creation of a
legal, domestic marijuana industry - fully regulated like alcohol to
ensure a safe product and to prohibit sales to minors - would cut off
the financial lifeline that empowers gangs to disrupt our streets and
threaten our southern border.

Economic opportunity

Kentucky's farmers - many of whom live in some of the nation's poorest
counties - have suffered mightily in recent years, as global demand
for Kentucky tobacco has plummeted. Marijuana legalization could be an
enormous boon to state agricultural production. Cannabis is already
Kentucky's number one cash crop - we're second only to California -
with an estimated $1 billion worth seized here annually. That
represents a fraction of potential income under a legal regime.

With state poverty and unemployment rates at morally unacceptable
levels, legalizing marijuana could create thousands of new jobs in
agriculture and associated industries such as warehousing, packaging,
transportation, advertising and distribution.

Then don't forget the economic benefit to the rest of us. Taxing the
legal product could produce over time a multi-billion dollar infusion
into the state and local governments that are struggling to meet such
basic moral needs as quality public schools, health care for the poor
and affordable higher education.

It's always important to scrutinize any efforts to solve our economic
and social problems through the legalization, taxation, or expansion
of so-called "vices" that, when abused, can impair the lives of
addicts and their families. That's why it's critical for any cannabis
legalization regime to be strictly regulated, and significant sums be
set aside for drug treatment programs.

As a matter of public policy, though, our focus shouldn't be on the
private morality of individuals who choose to smoke pot, but on the
public morality of the nation. The beneficial impacts of legalizing
marijuana for our neighbors who struggle with serious illness, for our
heavily-burdened system of criminal justice, and for the job creation
and economic opportunity it would bring to our commonwealth would only
serve to strengthen Kentucky's moral fiber.