DRUG WAR JUNKIES

Telluride is the latest city to introduce an initiative that would make
adult personal possession of marijuana the lowest police priority-even
lower than jaywalking. Officials at Sensible Colorado, an organization that
hopes to achieve statewide legalization and taxation of marijuana by 2008,
predicts Boulder might see a comparable measure in the next two years.
Seattle passed a similar initiative with 58 percent support in 2003, and
according to a report in the Seattle Times both supporters and foes have
deemed the measure effective.

The idea behind the initiative is to free up police from enforcing petty
marijuana possession crimes and allow them to spend their time on more
serious crime without drawing fire from the community for being lax on pot.

Dominic Holden, organizer of Seattle's famed Hempfest and the man who
spearheaded the initiative says since it passed, marijuana arrests have
dipped in Seattle by 75 percent. And guess what? Would you believe it if we
told you: So far, there's been no widespread public pot usage, no
pandemonium, no spike in violent crime, and not even a smidgen of bedlam.

Holden's advice to supporters of the movement is simply: Don't lose. And we
couldn't agree more. A similar Boulder ballot initiative, if defeated,
would draw far too much attention to personal marijuana usage and could
cause just the opposite effect. Police would feel vindicated in busting
peaceful pot smokers since their actions would be backed by a majority of
voters.

One can only hope the successful model in Seattle can help America break
its nasty drug war addiction and usher in a new era in which police are
free to focus on more serious crime.