Arizona Attorney General might consider legalized marijuana

Goddard might consider legalized marijuana | State News | eastvalleytribune.com
Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday he might be willing to consider legalizing marijuana if a way can be found to control its distribution – and figure out who has been smoking it.

Goddard said marijuana sales make up 75 percent of the money that Mexican cartels use for other operations, including smuggling other drugs and fighting the Mexican army and police.

He said that makes fighting drug distribution here important to cut off that cash. He acknowledged those profits could be slashed if possession of marijuana were not a crime in Arizona.

But Goddard said a number of other hurdles remain before that even becomes a possibility.

Arizona drug laws came up during questions about the operation of drug cartels and the violence associated with their operations, particularly in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

“The key is, they will no longer exist when people don’t buy marijuana,” said Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the office of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “This is a market-driven economy and this is a market-driven activity.”

Whoa.  This is something when an Attorney General even broaches the subject of legalization.  Arizona is beginning to feel the heat from the intense shooting war on their Southern border.  They’re realizing that you cannot stamp out the suppliers when there is an overwhelming demand for their product.  The Mexican cartels can simply buy the people, ammunition, and equipment they need.

But he still can’t make the leap.  Legalization is not even a “possibility”.  He says there are other “hurdles” that remain.  How would we control its distribution?  Well, you’re not controlling it now, the criminals are, so anything you try at this point has got to be more successful.  Here’s an idea: model what they’re doing now, but make it a legal and regulated enterprise!

How will we know who’s been smoking it?  Well, how do you do that now?  Your question supposes that legal cannabis will mean suddenly that people will smoke it.  They’re smoking it now!  If cannabis is so subtle a drug that the only way you can assume someone is on it is to catch them in possession of it in their jeans pocket or its metabolite in their urine, then just how badly do you need to know someone is smoking it?

We’ve been at Prohibition so long that its obvious failure and demonstrated harms are less scary to politicians and law enforcement than the thought of a young adult growing and smoking a plant with no repercussions.