Marijuana Prohibition

Re: Michael Hiltzik's column "Is pot the biggest cash crop? Only if you're on drugs," April 20: Nailing down the value of a black-market commodity like marijuana is something of a Zen sport. We do know that billions of dollars are spent every year in this country enforcing unenforceable marijuana laws. We also know that a significant amount of new revenue would be generated through strict regulation. Taken together, that's a financial impact the state simply can't afford to ignore in these desperate times.

As The Times reported Wednesday, voters did not approve Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure on Tuesday's ballot. Despite the defeat, this is still a watershed moment in the long struggle to end marijuana prohibition in this country. California's historic ballot initiative has impacted the national debate for the long term, placing marijuana legalization squarely in the mainstream of American politics. It is likely to maintain that status for years to come as the national reform movement builds on this remarkable campaign and on the overwhelming support of younger voters.

Regarding the 6,000 marijuana plants found in the endangered species habitat of the Angeles National Forest (Aug. 1): Here is a prime example of why drug prohibition is far worse than a controlled and regulated system. If it were not for our nation's prohibitionist policies, that endangered habitat would still be in its pristine condition. Marijuana prohibition has been in effect for going on 70 years, yet there is more marijuana being grown is this country now. These growing operations are just like the moonshine stills of alcohol prohibition, except on a much grander scale and far more devastating to the environment.

Just days ago, Proposition 19's prospects seemed shaky. A Los Angeles Times/USC poll found likely voters opposing it by 51% to 39%, and the Yes on Prop. 19 campaign was short on funds. Then George Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist with a long-standing interest in loosening drug laws, resuscitated its chances with a last-minute $1-million donation. In a statement outlining his support for ending marijuana prohibition, Soros said, "Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing billions of dollars in revenue annually.

As The Times reported Wednesday, voters did not approve Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure on Tuesday's ballot. Despite the defeat, this is still a watershed moment in the long struggle to end marijuana prohibition in this country. California's historic ballot initiative has impacted the national debate for the long term, placing marijuana legalization squarely in the mainstream of American politics. It is likely to maintain that status for years to come as the national reform movement builds on this remarkable campaign and on the overwhelming support of younger voters.

D.A.R.E. America Chairman Skip Miller writes in his Jan. 28 Times Op-Ed article, "Don't legalize marijuana," that his organization has been successful in its efforts to reduce illegal drug use in the U.S. by educating schoolchildren. Indeed, protecting young people has long been used to justify marijuana prohibition. But in reality, our drug laws have failed to stop marijuana use among American youth but have succeeded in punishing them with damning criminal records, loss of financial aid for college and removal from after-school activities.

Your article about the cannabis coffee shops of Amsterdam ("The Corner Hashish Joint," Dec. 10) held useful insights into an approach to drug control that is gaining popularity internationally. There are about 2,000 cannabis coffee shops throughout Holland, the nation with the lowest hard-drug-use rate in Europe. This system of tolerance has worked so well that 17 European cities and provinces this year signed the Frankfurt Accord to implement tolerance in their communities as a drug abuse reduction project.

The streets are safe once again thanks to those intrepid Orange County drug warriors who succeeded in getting a misdemeanor "giving away marijuana" conviction against medical marijuana supplier Marvin Chavez (Nov. 20) Oh sure, his defenders will say that it was sneaky and underhanded--not to mention expensive--for Orange County prosecutors to send in undercover operatives posing as dying cancer patients begging for relief. Despite the real cancer and AIDS patients who attended the trial and prayed for Chavez, retiring Deputy Dist.

The law is the law. If we unquestioningly accepted that maxim, imagine where we would be today. Jim Crow would be alive and well, rivers and skies would be polluted, and women wouldn't be allowed to vote. Yet such is the mindset of many of those who criticize Proposition 19, the marijuana regulation and taxation initiative on the November ballot. In his July 18 Times Op-Ed article, UCLA public policy professor Mark A.R. Kleiman declares that state legalization "can't be done." He points out, correctly, that if the initiative is successful, the federal marijuana prohibition laws will remain in place.

Re "Davis Fights to Suspend Licenses in Drug Cases," May 24: I think it's disgusting that California Gov. Gray Davis is seeking to revive William Bennett's "smoke a joint, lose your license" law. The law was created at a time when the former drug czar felt a need to "create consequences" for marijuana smokers. Consequences like denying them the opportunity to function as productive, taxpaying members of society. Enough Americans have smoked marijuana to know that the government has been lying about its alleged adverse effects for years.

Proposition 19, which would partially legalize marijuana in California, would do little to curtail the violent Mexican organizations that smuggle it across the border, according to a new study by drug policy researchers that takes aim at one of the main arguments proponents have made for the initiative. The report released Tuesday by Rand Corp., the nonpartisan research institute in Santa Monica, estimates that legalized marijuana could displace the Mexican marijuana sold in California, but concludes that would erase no more than 2% to 4% of the revenues the gangs receive from drug exports.

The law is the law. If we unquestioningly accepted that maxim, imagine where we would be today. Jim Crow would be alive and well, rivers and skies would be polluted, and women wouldn't be allowed to vote. Yet such is the mindset of many of those who criticize Proposition 19, the marijuana regulation and taxation initiative on the November ballot. In his July 18 Times Op-Ed article, UCLA public policy professor Mark A.R. Kleiman declares that state legalization "can't be done." He points out, correctly, that if the initiative is successful, the federal marijuana prohibition laws will remain in place.

D.A.R.E. America Chairman Skip Miller writes in his Jan. 28 Times Op-Ed article, "Don't legalize marijuana," that his organization has been successful in its efforts to reduce illegal drug use in the U.S. by educating schoolchildren. Indeed, protecting young people has long been used to justify marijuana prohibition. But in reality, our drug laws have failed to stop marijuana use among American youth but have succeeded in punishing them with damning criminal records, loss of financial aid for college and removal from after-school activities.

A proposal to legalize and tax marijuana in California was approved by a key committee of the Assembly on Tuesday, but it is not expected to get further consideration by the Legislature until next year. Despite a procedural glitch, backers hailed the committee's action as historic because it represented the first legislative approval of the proposal. "This vote marks the formal beginning of the end of marijuana prohibition in the United States," predicted Stephen Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a pot legalization group.

Re: Michael Hiltzik's column "Is pot the biggest cash crop? Only if you're on drugs," April 20: Nailing down the value of a black-market commodity like marijuana is something of a Zen sport. We do know that billions of dollars are spent every year in this country enforcing unenforceable marijuana laws. We also know that a significant amount of new revenue would be generated through strict regulation. Taken together, that's a financial impact the state simply can't afford to ignore in these desperate times.

Regarding the 6,000 marijuana plants found in the endangered species habitat of the Angeles National Forest (Aug. 1): Here is a prime example of why drug prohibition is far worse than a controlled and regulated system. If it were not for our nation's prohibitionist policies, that endangered habitat would still be in its pristine condition. Marijuana prohibition has been in effect for going on 70 years, yet there is more marijuana being grown is this country now. These growing operations are just like the moonshine stills of alcohol prohibition, except on a much grander scale and far more devastating to the environment.

A proposal to legalize and tax marijuana in California was approved by a key committee of the Assembly on Tuesday, but it is not expected to get further consideration by the Legislature until next year. Despite a procedural glitch, backers hailed the committee's action as historic because it represented the first legislative approval of the proposal. "This vote marks the formal beginning of the end of marijuana prohibition in the United States," predicted Stephen Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a pot legalization group.

Proposition 19, which would partially legalize marijuana in California, would do little to curtail the violent Mexican organizations that smuggle it across the border, according to a new study by drug policy researchers that takes aim at one of the main arguments proponents have made for the initiative. The report released Tuesday by Rand Corp., the nonpartisan research institute in Santa Monica, estimates that legalized marijuana could displace the Mexican marijuana sold in California, but concludes that would erase no more than 2% to 4% of the revenues the gangs receive from drug exports.

Re "Davis Fights to Suspend Licenses in Drug Cases," May 24: I think it's disgusting that California Gov. Gray Davis is seeking to revive William Bennett's "smoke a joint, lose your license" law. The law was created at a time when the former drug czar felt a need to "create consequences" for marijuana smokers. Consequences like denying them the opportunity to function as productive, taxpaying members of society. Enough Americans have smoked marijuana to know that the government has been lying about its alleged adverse effects for years.

The streets are safe once again thanks to those intrepid Orange County drug warriors who succeeded in getting a misdemeanor "giving away marijuana" conviction against medical marijuana supplier Marvin Chavez (Nov. 20) Oh sure, his defenders will say that it was sneaky and underhanded--not to mention expensive--for Orange County prosecutors to send in undercover operatives posing as dying cancer patients begging for relief. Despite the real cancer and AIDS patients who attended the trial and prayed for Chavez, retiring Deputy Dist.