July 28, 2011
It may be time to combine legalization with education
The Daily News has made a good case for keeping marijuana illegal, but it misses an important point — finding and using marijuana is so easy that it is practically legal already.
Anyone who wants to smoke a joint can easily be accommodated. Just ask around. Someone you know is bound to know someone who can help you. Or if that doesn’t work out, take a stroll downtown or on Tranquille Road some evening.
Despite the best efforts of law enforcement officials and billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, it’s just as easy for a teenager to buy pot as it is to buy alcohol. Of course, they shouldn’t be using it, especially at that age when their brains are still growing. I’m talking about efforts to restrict access. Those have failed.
Money now being wasted on marijuana interdiction would be better spent on education. There is a lot of science to show the harmful effects of marijuana, and people should be made well aware of it so they can make informed choices on whether to try it. In fact, with program such as this in place, marijuana use could conceivably decrease if it were made legal.