The perils of opposing decriminalization
OK, we knew it had to happen. Up to this point, virtually no serious dissent against Chicago's marijuana decriminalization proposal had been expressed, but in today's Chicago Tribune is this letter to the editor from Kevin J. Hacker, a 36th Ward Republican committeeman (to those who aren't familiar Chicago politics, a Republican in the city wields roughly the same amount of power that a Democrat would wield in the Bush administration).
Here's the letter in italics, with my own comments in regular type
Pot plan
Chicago -- This is regarding "Daley open to marijuana tickets; Mayor, cops agree that fines are better than case dismissals" (Metro, Sept. 22).
Mayor Richard M. Daley's support for a plan to ticket and fine those found to be in possession of marijuana instead of arresting them sends the wrong message to our children.
The message they are going to receive is that smoking marijuana isn't a serious offense and is equivalent to rolling through a stop sign.
As opposed to the messages they recieve now: (1) When you break a law, it doesn't really matter, since it's going to get tossed out in court anyway; (2) Bad drugs are bad drugs and there isn't really any difference between marijuana and a drug like heroin; and (3) That if they really want to get buzzed, they should be drinking alcohol like good Republican committeemen, even though alcohol misuse can be fatal over the long-term or short-term, compared to marijuana, which kills no one.
Perhaps the mayor needs to do more research on the subject of drug addiction and the effect it has had on our society.
If arresting marijuana smokers is such a great policy, how come addiction problems continue to be rampant? Why indeed is anyone smoking marijuana at all? Addiction problems are increased by prohibition, while in states and municipalities that have decriminalized, no huge increases in marijuana use have occurred.
Many experts in the field of drug addiction have studied the issue and have determined that very few young people use other illegal drugs without first trying marijuana.
Nor do they use illegal drugs without trying alcohol, tobacco, cola and refined sugar. As Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project recently noted: "But marijuana users in Amsterdam, with access to a regulated market completely separate from the hard drug trade, were far less likely to use cocaine, opiates, amphetamines or Ecstasy [than Americans]."
Instead of encouraging drug use, the mayor should be speaking against its use regardless of the experiences of his generation.
Oh that hippy-dippy Mayor Daley, zonked out on goofballs like every other young person who came of age in the 1960s. And now they're back at it, encouraging drug use. I've heard if you play some of the Mayor's press conference answers backwards, you can actually hear the words "Getting high is groovylicious-licious-licious."
We live in a very different time and the pressure on our children is greater than it has ever been.
Today the availability of even more damaging drugs than marijuana is greater and they are becoming less expensive.
As so often happens, drug warriors unwittingly make the best points for drug policy reform. If the price of more damaging drugs are really dropping while availability increases, despite the fact that more than 700,000 Americans are being arrested for marijuana each year, along with hundreds of thousands of other drug offenders, isn't it clear that not only the policy of arresting marijuana smokers, but the whole damn drug war has failed?
Why let down our guard and send this destructive message?
Kevin J. Hacker, 36th Ward
Republican committeeman
That abstract message (which the kids don't seem to decipher all that well) has a concrete cost in the real world: millions spent, clogged courts and diminishing respect for police and the criminal justice system. If Kevin J. Hacker wants to foot the bill by himself, he's welcome to, but he has no right to place this burden on the rest of us.
Looking forward to that next letter, Mr. Hacker...
9:48:23 AM 
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