IT'S TIME WE JOIN MAINSTREAM AND SCRAP DRUG LAWS MIRED IN FAILURE

This November, Arizonans have the opportunity to help advance the nation
into what is now mainstream thinking on drug policy. Proposition 203 will
bring Arizona up to date with virtually all of the developed world in its
policy toward marijuana use.

Most of Western Europe has come to the conclusion that they have more
important jobs for their law enforcement personnel than arresting people
who smoke pot - jobs like combating terrorism and arresting thieves,
murderers and rapists.

They have decided that arresting pot smokers is a poor use of valuable law
enforcement resources. So they no longer do it.

Prop. 203 prohibits incarceration for possession of small amounts of
marijuana and puts teeth in Arizona's "medical marijuana" law. And it would
free up our jails, and our police, for the real threats to our freedom and
safety.

A 2001 Arizona Supreme Court report showed that referral to treatment
rather than incarceration, the law since 1998, was yielding positive
results, with an annual savings to Arizona's treasury of at least $6.7 million.

Prop. 203 builds on this success.

Most of the developed world by now also recognizes that marijuana has
legitimate medicinal uses, especially for cancer patients suffering under
chemotherapy, AIDS patients wasting away from their disease, and others
with debilitating pain and neurological syndromes.

Yet, even though nine states have passed laws allowing doctors to prescribe
marijuana to severely and terminally ill patients, the federal government,
still stuck in the mentality of the 1950s, continues to obstruct the
public's will. It is as if the drug war bureaucrats, protective of their
jobs, have an irrational fear of an inanimate object. That's called "voodoo."

The federal government, with its voodoo drug policy, has threatened doctors
with loss of their narcotics licenses and banishment from Medicare and
Medicaid if they are caught prescribing marijuana. This has cast a chilling
effect on all of the states that have passed medical marijuana laws.

Prop. 203 gets around this problem by taking the doctors off the hook. It
would allow patients to apply directly to the state Department of Health
Services for a medical marijuana permit. A doctor would be asked to verify
the patient's diagnosis on the application, and that marijuana has been
shown to be useful for the problem. If approved, the patient would be given
marijuana at authorized distribution sites, supervised by the Department of
Public Safety. The DPS would use marijuana confiscated from drug dealers,
after screening for safety.

And having the DPS handle the distribution makes good sense. This means
patients don't have to go to drug dealers in back alleys to get their
federally prohibited medicine. It means the DPS ensures its safety. And
takes business away from those who deal in harder and more dangerous drugs.

The opponents of rational, humane drug policy reform have lost all
credibility with the public. The people know that marijuana can help ease
pain and suffering at times that other drugs don't work.

Prop. 203 can impact the nation by charting a new course for drug policy -
a course that leads away from the stale, failed approach in which we remain
mired, and into the new mainstream.