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US: Fasten your seat belts for battle to legalize pot Bill McEwen The Fresnobeee Wednesday 29 Jul 2009 This is the next big culture-war question that will divide and energize voters and possibly determine the successor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. After more than a decade of doing the medical marijuana sham -- wow, we must have a lot of sick people in California -- the state next year likely will decide whether to permit adults to legally use pot simply for the sake of getting stoned. Two different ballot measures have been proposed in recent weeks. There also is a bill by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat, that would legalize and tax the drug. Prepare yourself for a barrage of truths, half-truths and outright distortions leading to the November 2010 election. The television commercials? They'll be crazy. Get ready for ads featuring doctors in white gowns, pot smokers in Amsterdam, Dragnet-style, just-the-facts-ma'am depictions of reefer madness and fields of marijuana growing as far as the eye can see -- pretty as grapes waiting to be picked on a summer day. Can you imagine what "Saturday Night Live" would do with a pot proposition? A skit with this punch line surely is coming: "Have another toke, dude. Every hit you take is another dollar for California's cops and teachers." Marijuana -- which grows as fast as and is as difficult to eradicate as ... a weed -- will be portrayed two ways: a widely enjoyed vice that, if finally taxed, will shore up California's budget, or an addictive drug that destroys lives and tears at the fabric of society. Judging by what federal drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said last week in Fresno -- "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit" -- the race to shape opinions in California and other states contemplating legalization is escalating. Just a few weeks earlier, Kerlikowske -- who opposes legalization -- told a public radio station in Seattle, where he formerly was chief of police, "We will wait for evidence on whether smoked marijuana has any medicinal benefits -- those aren't in." (I guess the definitive results are in now. At least in Kerlikowske's mind.) The anti-marijuana forces will try to convince voters that the drug is the pathway to harder drugs such as meth and heroin, long-term use can destroy short-term memory and some habitual users suffer from depression and anxiety. The pro-cannabis crowd will send out this message: marijuana is as safe as a martini, if not safer. And with 15 million Americans using it at least once a month, the drug already is the king of California's cash crops, generating about $14 billion in black-market revenue a year. So why not tax it? Meanwhile, the Mexican drug cartels will continue to do serious harm to the Sierra by planting, fertilizing and harvesting illicit marijuana crops. Be assured that they last thing the drug lords want is legalized marijuana.
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