IS WAR ON DRUGS WORTH THE COST?

Inspector Linton Robinson is right.

The amount of illegal drug activity in the Valley is considerable and far
beyond the detachment's current ability to police.

Marijuana is easily accessible and a cash cow for a number of underground
entrepreneurs. And underground profits are leading to organized crime and
all of the dangerous and violent side effects that come with it.

And we also agree with Robinson that pouring in more resources is necessary
to help police efforts and make more arrests and convictions.

But we worry that it may also lead to more sophisticated operations -
pumping up the cost of doing business for organized crime and therefore the
stakes of the business and the dangers associated with it.

Wouldn't it be simpler, cheaper and safer to decrminalize marijuana, take
it out of the hands of organized crime and put it in the hands of the
government?

Wouldn't the community be better off if marijuana growers were taxed and
the money put toward health care?

Wouldn't we be safer if our sizable pot industry operated with debit cards
and storefronts rather than guns and basements?

Wouldn't the community be better off if the resources used to arrest and
prosecute pot growers went instead toward educating users on its dangers?

We do not advocate pot use, not any more than we advocate smoking tobacco,
drinking alcohol or overeating.

We just would rather have our understaffed and underfunded police
department focused on laws that increase public safety rather than reduce it.