On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder addressed an issue that needs to be discussed at the adult table. We know that we spend hundreds of millions, if not billions, as a nation and across the states investigating, arresting, prosecuting and jailing our citizens who possess, sell and use marijuana recreationally and medicinally.
Two states have recognized the futility to criminalize marijuana and twenty others have legalized it for medicinal purposes. These states have pioneered the change and acceptance of the philosophy that marijuana is not a "pathway" drug. Instead, Washington and Colorado have seen the financial benefits to the state coffers via tax and are developing laws to treat it like tobacco and alcohol.
To place people in prisons for possessing minimal amounts of pot with rapists, murderers and other hardened killers is absolutely ludicrous. This is the essence of the attorney general's position on this issue, and on this, I agree with him.
I have written on similar issues related to pot in the past. Go to my blog, frankmchalesviews.blogspot.com and look for One Toke Over The Line, A Unique Legacy and Potpourri and you will get a sense of my feelings on this.
I will admit that I have smoke a few joints in my life and have decided as a personal choice, it is not for me. But I know many people who use it either recreationally or medicinally, and certainly don't deserve to go to prison.
40 years ago, the several states cracked down severely on people who went to the local bookie to place bets on numbers, football pools, horse racing and other forms of what was considered illegal gambling. Then, lawmakers decided that the income the state(s) could realize to offset mounting state debt was tremendous and wrote bills to change the laws on this heretofore illicit activity.
Today, the states are the biggest bookies in the world, with daily numbers, off track betting, lotto, mega, casinos and other regulated gambling in the several states. And the jackpots get bigger all the time, as many states contribute to shared games.
Isn't time to take an adult position and have that conversation on marijuana? I think it is.
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