CBS News: “Advocacy Group Seeks Pot Regulation, Education”

[Jimbo]

June 20th, 2008 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director

It has always struck me as a ironic that under our current drug prohibition policies, cannabis is legally defined as a “controlled” substance. By what definition? Right now, there are tens of millions of Americans of all ages purchasing unknown quantities of marijuana of variable quality from millions of unknown, unregulated dealers.

As for the absurdly titled Office of National Drug Control Policy, what on Earth do they think they’re controlling? Certainly not the domestic production of pot, which has increased ten-fold in the past 25 years from 1,000 metric tons (2.2 million pounds) to 10,000 metric tons (22 million pounds). Not the importation of pot, a mere 10 percent of which is likely interdicted by law enforcement annually. And most certainly not the use of pot, which has been tried by almost 100 million Americans — many of whom, according to the Drug Czar’s own rhetoric, are supposedly starting at younger and younger ages.

It’s drug law reformers — not prohibitionists — that wish to bring regulation and control to what is now an unregulated, illicit black market commodity. It is NORML, not the Drug Czar, that has testified in favor of taxing and regulating cannabis in a manner similar to al**hol — with the drug’s sale and use restricted to specific markets and consumers.

While such an alternative may not entirely eliminate the black market demand for pot, it would certainly be preferable to today’s blanket, though thoroughly ineffective, expensive and impotent criminal prohibition.
NORML Blog Blog Archive CBS News: “Advocacy Group Seeks Pot Regulation, Education”