LET THOSE THOUGHTS ON GOVERNMENT SOAR

Musings at 37,000 feet (and back on the ground in Rhode Island):

Lines approaching security clearance were absurdly long at 5 a.m.
Thursday. That's the day that the Transportation Security
Administration at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport started checking
passenger identification, a function previously performed by the airlines.

My wife, Cyndy, and I were in lines for well over an hour, boarding
the plane mere minutes before it pushed back from the gate. The
lengthy delays, we were told, were largely the result of too many
passengers failing to segregate their gels and liquids into
transparent plastic bags.

Does any of this make sense? There's simply got to be a better
system. Airliners are now safe, at least in terms of their being used
as guided missiles, which Sept. 11 made virtually impossible going forward.

If security must be tighter than in pre-9-11 days (and I doubt that
anything more than typical criminal profiling is necessary), why not
use the system employed for those who routinely enter the most secure
places on the planet? Let passengers submit to a one-time (perhaps
renewable at specified intervals) background check, secure an ID
badge and use that to quickly access boarding areas.

Those who fail to obtain such identification might be subject to some
sort of scrutiny, but removing shoes (why not undies, too?) is
ridiculous. We are wasting scarce public resources in ways that do
virtually nothing to enhance the safety of air travel.

As we ascended out of D/FW, I wondered how many fields of illegal
plants have been sown under our flight path. Readers have recently
learned that millions of dollars' worth of marijuana has been
discovered growing in North Texas.

But why are weeds worth so much money? The annual crop of weeds in my
yard is worth no more than several hours of work and many dollars of
expense to me. We know the answer: Some people enjoy smoking
marijuana leaves but have to pay black-market prices. Why? Again, we
know that this particular form of smoking is illegal.

Part of the reason, in turn, is that smoking grass is hazardous to
human health. As we learned on Aug. 1, smoking "one joint of
marijuana obstructs the flow of air as much as smoking up to five
tobacco cigarettes." Yet I hear no calls for banning the sale of five
cigarettes, or 20, or 200.

Jacob Sullum, a senior editor of the libertarian magazine Reason,
wrote on the same day that Congress continues to refuse lifting its
ban even on home-grown marijuana to relieve pain or nausea for cancer
or AIDS patients. And Republican members, most of whom claim to be
conservative, are the most recalcitrant defenders of this prohibition.

It's long past time for our country to stop its war on weed (which I
wouldn't recognize if it stood up and asked me to vote for Bill
Clinton, who didn't inhale). Government has little rational basis for
telling people what they may and may not smoke.

The massive resources employed to suppress the growth and use of
marijuana should be put to more productive uses (such as improving
airport security in less intrusive and wasteful ways).
Decriminalizing or legalizing the product would allow us to tax its
purchase, put thousands of criminals out of business and free up
scarce prison space for offenders who actually inflict harm on their neighbors.

Finally, on Sunday in Newport, I learned that Rosecliff (the mansion
that served as the setting for the film The Great Gatsby) was built
by a super-rich family for more than $2 million at the end of the
19th century. It sold in 1940, toward the end of the Great
Depression, for $21,000.

There are lessons to be learned about the fleeting nature of money
and the overreaching of some who possess it. But unlike the
politicians who waste public resources for airport security and for
marijuana suppression, at least the wealthy who built and later lost
their extravagantly sumptuous summer houses were not dissipating our
limited collective treasury.

[sidebar]

BY THE NUMBERS

12 Number of U.S. states where marijuana is the top cash crop.

- -15 Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using
illegal drugs.

+63 Percentage change in the number of adults in their 50s doing so.

Sources: Harper's Magazine; Jon Gettman, Coalition for Rescheduling
Cannabis; U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.