Nationwide, marijuana, the most widely used illicit drug, accounts for about 45 percent of drug arrests. If Californians decide to legalize pot, other states will surely follow suit - a development that would free police to pursue more serious offenders, open up prison space, and spur the decriminalization of other narcotics. It might also lead to a new revenue source for cash-strapped cities and states.

None of that would happen immediately. State and local authorities in California would still have to sort out countless details, including whether to allow the sale of marijuana and collect taxes. U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has added to the uncertainty by insisting he will continue to enforce federal drug laws. But in a time of tight budgets and redirected priorities, Holder's reactionary stance may prove short-lived.

Counting federal, state, and local funds, the United States spends about $45 billion a year to enforce drug prohibition. That's money that we could have spent on education, bridges, bullet trains, and research to cure dread diseases.

Meanwhile, Americans continue to demand mind-altering substances. (Among others, the Mexican government complains that it cannot stop drug cartels unless Americans stop purchasing their drugs.) In 1979, according to government statistics, about 25 million Americans over the age of 12 used an illicit narcotic. By 2009 - with hundreds of billions spent and hundreds of thousands incarcerated - 22 million Americans over the age of 12 used an illicit narcotic.

This losing war has a high casualty rate, especially in communities of color. Though research indicates black Americans and Latinos are less likely to use drugs than whites, countless studies have shown that they are much more likely than whites to be arrested and prosecuted. The high incarceration rate for black men helps to explain much of the dysfunction in poor black neighborhoods: Imprisoned black men make poor fathers, husbands, and providers.

The Drug Policy Alliance, which favors legalization, recently released a study of marijuana arrests in various California municipalities. While Latinos were three times as likely to be arrested as whites, blacks were subject to rates of arrest anywhere from four to 12 times higher than whites, depending on the city. That's why the California chapter of the NAACP, the National Black Police Association, and the National Latino Officers Association have all endorsed Proposition 19.

Given the violence associated with the drug trade, especially in poor urban neighborhoods, you might be surprised that any police groups would favor legalizing a narcotic. But the violence is a consequence of the black market. The prohibition of alcohol created criminal enterprises and a wave of well-known gangsters such as Al Capone. Laws prohibiting narcotics have had a similar outcome.

Wouldn't legalizing marijuana just lead to more usage? Yes, it probably would. But scientific studies have shown that marijuana use is, generally speaking, no more detrimental than alcohol use. The predictable consequences of increased consumption can be handled by a law enforcement establishment already well-trained in handling alcohol intoxication.

Here's hoping California ends its modern-day reefer madness by legalizing marijuana.

Cynthia Tucker is an Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)

Author: Cynthia Tucker

Published: October 31, 2010

Copyright: 2010 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

URL: http://drugsense.org/url/SZLPtqU7

Contact: Inquirer.Letters@phillynews.com

Website: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/

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