One, it shows marijuana use is not just for the young and wild. We can only assume the age bracket — where AARP membership and senior discounts begin — was considered significant because it says old people are smoking.

Three, it shows a decline in marijuana usage: Back when boomers were young, half of us were smoking pot. So if just 5 percent of us are still smoking, usage has dropped dramatically.

Or fourth: The handwriting on the wall is getting bigger. We need to make pot legal. You don't want Grandma and Grandpa doing hard time, do you?

We get closer to legalizing pot all the time.

A national poll in October found that 44 percent of Americans support legalization — up from 36 percent in 2005. Fourteen states have made marijuana legal for medical purposes since California became the first in 1996. Fourteen other states are now considering changes in their laws against marijuana, ranging from allowing medical marijuana to decriminalization.

Florida is not among those 28 states, though polls have shown that a majority of Florida voters support medical marijuana. A group is trying to get medical marijuana on the Florida ballot this fall. Here's hoping they succeed.

This is what some of us always believed would happen with marijuana laws: People would realize the folly of keeping marijuana illegal and change the laws. I think we imagined it would happen sooner than it did and in more sweeping federal fashion, rather than the slow trickle of state-by-state.

But as you get older — say 55 to 59 — you realize that's how things work. Look at health care reform. Ever since Franklin Roosevelt, there have been efforts to institute some form of national health insurance. Now, 60 years later, President Obama finally succeeded. Sometimes, it takes decades for the steady plodding of logic and determined supporters to get the right thing done.

Ending the prohibition on marijuana is about taking it out of the dark of criminal activity and profit and bringing it into the light of the nation's daily commerce. It's just so logical.

If we tax marijuana, government will have much more revenue — for things such as health care. If we regulate marijuana, it will reduce its availability to children — who can get it illegally from friends and acquaintances. If we eliminate the penalties for possession, we can stop the unfair and costly jailing of people — whose only crime is preferring marijuana to alcohol when they relax.

If we legalize marijuana, we can make marijuana available nationwide to those who need it medically — and eliminate such farces as Wal-Mart firing a Michigan employee who failed a drug test after using marijuana prescribed by his doctor.

And if we legalize, we can help stop the drug cartel violence, which is ripping apart Mexico and spreading into the U.S. According to the Marijuana Policy Project, the largest marijuana reform organization in the U.S., more than 18,000 people have been killed in Mexico by drug violence since 2006.

The U.S. Justice Department reports that cartels do business in 230 American cities. Annually, 60 percent to 70 percent of marijuana sold by cartels is sold in the U.S. It's an annual $8 billion to $10 billion industry for the cartels, whose violence will continue as long as they are making money.

We will never eradicate the human affection for intoxication, as was proved by the failed efforts of alcohol prohibition in the early 20th century. But we can stop the violence and costs associated with marijuana prohibition by taking its distribution out of the hands of criminals — and stop criminalizing those who use it.

It's the right thing to do. If only to save Grandma and Grandpa from embarrassment.

Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)

Author: Gerald Ensley

Published: March 24, 2010

Copyright: 2010 Tallahassee Democrat

Contact: letters@tallahassee.com

URL: http://drugsense.org/url/RhXK2gfN

Website: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/

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