Legalize the Ganja

I read an interesting editorial today regarding the resounding success of Portugal's drug decriminalization experiment. Go read the article for yourself, but basically it can be summed up by a few statistics:

"Drug use among 13- to 15-year-olds fell from 14.1 per cent in 2001 to 10.6 per cent in 2006. Among 16- to 18-year-olds it has dropped from 27.6 per cent to 21.6 per cent. This, incidentally, has come after years of steadily increasing drug use among the young; between 1995 and 2001, use in the 16-to-18 bracket leapt up from 14.1 per cent to its 2001 high. This drop has come against a background of increasing drug use across the rest of the EU."

I do, of course, feel a conscientious requirement to inform you that these statistics come from a study by this libertarian think tank, so we can't exactly call this the most unbiased reporting the world has ever seen. Still though, stats are stats.

I'm a nineteen year old kid, so you are naturally going to expect me to be in favor of legalization. Truth be told though, I don't smoke. Politically and logically, legalization simply makes sense. Reason numero uno is pretty well summarized in the editorial I just linked to. Drug use seems to fall when the kick of its illegality is taken out of the equation. For those of you who know your history, when Great Britain legalized opium in China during the Opium Wars, they pretty much killed their own industry.

There is, however, another fairly compelling argument specifically in favor of marijuana's legalization. The weed kids smoke today isn't Bob Marley's grass. No, I've seen first hand this stuff can be laced and altered in ways that I'm pretty damn sure aren't doing anyone any favors. It's being chopped and grown in a warehouse in Brooklyn by a toothless Jamaican guy (sorry Jamaicans), and dished out to me and my college buddies. There are reported cases of lacing that have sent people to the hospital. No bueno.

Legalization allows for a legitimization and regulation of a previously illegitimate and unregulated industry. It allows for honest profits, a new economic niche and, potentially most importantly, the drastic reduction of drug war related deaths.

Oh, and the federal government will save a bunch of money, which is a pretty good thing right about now.