“The passage of Initiative 502 provides state and local governments with an opportunity to significantly improve the criminal-justice system for the next generation. A windfall of half a billion dollars in tax revenue is projected by 2015, according to the state. State and local leaders should use the money to invest in law enforcement,...
Read more →“The notion that the U.S. somehow owes it to Mexico not to let Colorado and Washington experiment with cannabis legalization is not really a thoughtful notion.” Mark Kleiman at the Reality-Based Community
Read more →“I doubt that either state can effectively prevent locally-grown marijuana from crossing state lines, but hell, they can’t prevent it now either. So I’m with Mark: there’s no need to announce any public change of policy, but Obama should tell DEA to lie low for a while and see how Colorado and Washington do....
Read more →“The Colorado measure is much more radical than the Washington measure. Both intend to establish regulated markets on the alcohol model, something the federal government could probably shut down with relatively modest effort if it decided to. But Colorado also legalizes every resident to grow his or her own marijuana, and to give away...
Read more →A “grow your own” system might make marijuana legal but without exploding consumption rates. “Mark Kleiman.. parses the possibilities: “…A “grow-your-own” system with an unregulated market of small-scale producers has some attractive features, compared to the alcohol model: There won’t be any marketing executives using their ingenuity to create as many as possible of the...
Read more →(OP-ED): “Today, an estimated 20 percent of 10th-graders and 26 percent of 12th-graders in our state have used pot at least once in the prior month. No one can say with certainty whether the new law will have an effect on youth… Substantial tax revenues generated from the legal sale of marijuana to adults will be...
Read more →Roger Roffman at CNN: “What is a public health model? In brief, it’s an approach that acknowledges use of marijuana can present harms to the user and to public safety, and includes provisions to prevent or ameliorate those harms. A public health model includes six key elements. Washington state’s new law incorporates each of them. The first is...
Read more →U.S. News consults a round of opinion leaders on the central question. Op-eds include: YES — Marijuana use isn’t grave enough to be labeled a crime - ALISON HOLCOMB, Drug Policy Director of the American Civil Liberties Union YES — Pot is safer than tobacco and alcohol - PAUL ARMENTANO, Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of...
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