Letter: Marijuana Proposal
John Chase
April 17, 2008
News Herald
Recent proposals to liberalize anti-pot laws would have us leave pot smokers alone and go after kingpins. It's a great sound bite, but it won't do anything to take out the astronomical profit potential in growing, transporting and selling pot.
Clamping down on supply while ignoring demand will actually increase profit, even if demand stays flat. If there is more money in pot, more entrepreneurs will enter the pot business, and if pot is also illegal, they will be potentially violent men, disrespectful of the law.
Consider the legendary violence and disrespect for the law during the 1920s, when we arrested alcohol kingpins but not alcohol drinkers. It was lucrative, illegal, untaxed profit and it attracted men like Al Capone and Roy Olmstead. Ultimately, it was this, and the need for the liquor tax revenue, that ended our "oenoble experiment." Exactly the same reasons apply today to end marijuana prohibition.
These recent proposals are a baby step, but legalization is the only long-term solution to put kingpins out of business permanently and sweeten the public treasury with the revenue now going to them.
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