THIS week Washington became the second US state (after Colorado) to legalise the sale and consumption of marijuana.

Already no one in Australia who smokes small amounts of pot worries about arrest and prosecution.

It’s time we followed the Americans’ lead and removed this drug from our criminal statutes. I know pot can lead to harder drug use and is also linked with schizophrenia in some cases.

Having said that, there’s also a strong link between the consumption of alcohol and addiction to other drugs, yet no one is planning a return to prohibition.

Police rarely bother to apprehend someone smoking a joint, because it’s not regarded as a particularly serious crime.

Most magistrates, confronted as they are with far more egregious transgressions of the law, would decline to convict and punish casual marijuana users.

If the laws against pot are being routinely ignored, we should get rid of them. To do otherwise is to encourage contempt for the law more generally.

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In addition to legalising weed, Washington State and Colorado have decided to tax its users. In Washington, for example, marijuana costing the same as a packet of cigarettes here (ie, $US26) contributes around $US6 to state revenue.

Now, we know Australian state government taxes are under pressure.

Instead of pretending that people aren’t smoking marijuana, why not acknowledge the fact and earn money from a habit of which hundreds of thousands already partake?

The use of drugs like marijuana does generate all sorts of social and health problems. Despite this, people still smoke it, just as they drink alcohol and consume cigarettes.

Legitimising and taxing pot is a better way of dealing with it than pretending the habit doesn’t (or shouldn’t) exist. And if state coffers are swelled along the way, who really loses from decriminalisation?

Tom Elliott is drive time host on 3AW weekdays from 3pm-6pm.

telliott@3aw.com.au