|
|
[國際新聞] Ian Mulgrew: U.S. vote could signal
Ian Mulgrew: U.S. vote could signal beginning of the end for War on Drugs
With three states contemplating legalizing marijuana and a growing chorus of support, prohibition’s days seem numbered
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/world/us-election/Mulgrew+election+could+signal+beginning+Drugs/7496816/story.html#ixzz2BMQNI2sp
The country that launched the so-called War on Drugs 40 years ago is finally debating an exit strategy.
Nearly a century after criminal bans on cannabis were adopted across the continent, on Tuesday three American states may legalize marijuana for adult use and regulate the Demon Weed like alcohol.
Voters in Washington, Oregon and Colorado are mulling ballot propositions that would radically alter the North American policing and drug-policy landscape.
Denver’s Mile High City moniker soon could be another wink-wink, double-entendre Cheech-and-Chong joke.
It’s one thing for a South American republic to consider legalizing pot, or Portugal to allow personal possession, quite another for the global anti-drug paladin to falter.
These states truly are considering tossing in the towel.
Two years ago, California voters came close — rejecting a similar measure, Proposition 19, by a close margin: 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent.
The Washington State measure, though, looks like it is going to pass according to the latest polls.
Colorado’s could as well, though Oregon’s looks headed for defeat.
The difference in the spectrum of support for legal grass between this election and the California vote is evident in the response by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Facing Proposition 19, the feds sternly warned that regardless of the vote they would enforce anti-pot laws in the state.
This time, the department is doing little sabre rattling in the face of a much broader spectrum of support for these propositions than existed in California.
New Approach Washington, for instance, is a coalition of doctors, lawyers, substance abuse treatment and prevention experts, business people and parents who want change.
John McKay, the former U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Vancouver’s Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, is one of its star supporters.
“The criminal marijuana prohibition is a complete failure,” he now widely insists.
Thanks to McKay’s former work for the Bush Administration, Emery was extradited to Seattle in 2010 and imprisoned for selling cannabis seeds by mail order.
He’s doing a five-year stint in a Mississippi pen and still has about 600 days before he might be given early release.
His wife Jodie will be in Seattle Tuesday night video streaming the results of the vote for PotTV (www.pot.tv).
“It’s going to be an historic occasion,” she says. “I’m so excited.”
McKay has been joined by a chorus of similar establishment voices now singing a reggae tune — including Seattle City Lawyer Pete Holmes, former Superior Court Judge Robert Alsdorf, ex-Seattle FBI Special Agent in Charge Charles Mandigo, Washington State Sen. Maralyn Chase and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson.
Still, a legal showdown between the two levels of government is inevitable if even one of the three states votes to free the weed.
It’s happening now over medical marijuana.
Many states have legal medical marijuana programs but U.S. federal authorities continue to authorize raids on compassion clubs and to arrest suppliers.
These initiatives all make similar arguments — it’s time to refocus massive law-enforcement expenditures directed at pot towards violent and property crime.
Nationwide, it is estimated the U.S. could save $7.7 billion by legalizing pot and generate another $6 billion by taxing it at the same rate as alcohol and tobacco.
Instead of letting gangbangers get rich, these propositions say it’s time government collected taxes on cannabis and used the revenue for education, health care and substance abuse prevention.
Washington State believes it can harvest half-a-billion dollars in revenue, not to mention the millions reaped in enforcement savings.
The measures aim to take marijuana out of the hands of illegal drug organizations and put it under a tightly regulated, licensed system run by liquor control boards.
And they address collateral concerns such as marijuana users driving while addled.
There is also a similar movement afoot in B.C. to drive the same kind of change.
“When we talk about cannabis, the effect of law enforcement is to make the problem worse in almost every respect,” says former B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant.
He’s one of a handful of attorneys general, Vancouver city mayors, provincial health officers and a long list of others saying Legalize It.
“Exactly 80 years ago (in 1932), Colorado voters approved a ballot measure to appeal alcohol prohibition, and that came before it being repealed by the federal government,” said Mason Tvert, co-director of the Yes on 64 campaign in Colorado.
“And it was the individual states taking that type of action that ultimately resulted in the federal (Prohibition) repeal (in 1933).”
As happened with alcohol, so it is beginning to happen with marijuana.
No matter what the outcome of the votes, the bugler is sounding retreat. |
|
發表於 2012-11-5 07:02
|