Spencer letter: War on drugs
Governor Otter and our congressional delegation want Donald Trump to crack down on the states that have legalized marijuana. I can’t make sense of this reasoning if they want to do something about the drug problems in this country.
Let’s say we have these goals: (1) decrease marijuana use, especially by children, (2) reduce addiction problems, (3) reduce associated criminal activity.
We lost the War on Drugs years ago. Making marijuana illegal is what keeps the drug cartels and criminals in business. Think of pushers giving free pot samples to junior high kids. This predation entices those kids to recruit others for the pusher to sell to and to try to advance them on to other, more dangerous drugs. The black market makes criminals.
Legalization in other countries and states has shown criminal activity largely dries up when the supply is legal and regulated. Money and personnel resources become available for education and treatment instead of spending billions on policing, trials and prison for huge numbers of people.
It’s time to try something else. You don’t have to approve of smoking marijuana to be in favor of legalization.
Bob Spencer, Boise
This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Spencer letter: War on drugs."