Suzi Wizowaty

I always imagined that the push to legalize marijuana came from small-time users who otherwise lived within the law--i.e. generally law-abiding folks who didn't want to go to jail for what they considered a harmless activity. In all honesty, it wasn't an issue that I gave much thought to.

But over the past decade I've spent more time working in jails, off and on, and thus have bumped up against enormous numbers of young people serving time for crimes related to drugs--using drugs, stealing to get money for drugs, committing a crime while under the influence of drugs, etc.

(Sometimes the drugs may have been prescribed--to the inmate or someone else--but let's talk just about illegal drugs.)

Like most people, I assumed drugs were the problem. Until I came across LEAP, which changed my thinking. LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) is a group of over 5,000 cops, judges, prosecutors, DEA and FBI agents, prison wardens and corrections officers across the country who have spent years fighting a completely ineffectual "war on drugs" and want a different approach. Here is their argument: (For more info see www.leap.cc.)

The only way to control drugs is to legalize them. The only way to pul illegal drug providers out of business is to make drugs legal. Every 13-year-old kid (this is their argument) can get drugs more easily than alcohol.

Compare national statistics on the number of deaths caused by tobacco, car crashes, aspirin -- and marijuana. Guess which causes zero deaths (www.drugwarfacts.org)? In countries where drugs are controlled, regulated, and taxed, use has decreased. The U.S. has the toughest laws and the worst problem (they argue). Legalizing marijuana alone would bring the illegal drug population from 13 million to 3 million. In 2008, a Harvard economist argued we'd save over $70 billion by not putting drug users in jail(www.wecandoitagain.com).

They say that in Vermont, we waste $2-3 million of state money arresting, charging, processing and incarcerating people for simply small amounts of marijuana.

They point out that the so-called "gateway theory," which argues that drugs like marijuana lead to harder drugs, was based on one study that asked 100 heroin users whether they'd used marijuana. (It could have asked whether they'd drunk coffee or eaten apple pie.)

Fascinating stuff and worth thinking about. Talking about legalizing drugs is considered political suicide. But repeating an activity over and over expecting a different result (our "war on drugs") may be even more crazy.