POT PUSH ARGUMENT IS NOTHING BUT SCHWAG

Make pot legal because the war on drugs is pointless.

Make pot legal because adults should have the right to do what they
want in the privacy of their own homes.

Make pot legal because the drug is no more disruptive than alcohol,
our country's most misunderstood and abused legal drug.

There are a lot of valid arguments for making marijuana legal in
Colorado. Making it legal because it will make the world a safer
place isn't one of them.

Nevertheless, that's the argument behind one group's recent filing of
a statewide ballot initiative that would make marijuana legal for
adults under state law. The group, Safer Alternative For Enjoyable
Recreation (SAFER), is campaigning for the initiative under the
premise that the public should be free to make the "rational
decision" to smoke dope instead of shooting tequila without being
punished for it.

So, basically, getting high is better for you, and for society, than
getting drunk.

Certainly, alcohol is cited much more frequently as a contributing
factor in car wrecks, broken homes and workplace absenteeism. We all
know of someone who has screwed up the life, or the lives of others,
because of alcohol. The biggest problem we see with potheads is they
eat a lot of Oreos and listen to too much Widespread. But campaigning
for the legalization of pot under the premise that it is a "safer"
drug ignores the fact that using any drug can be harmful. Certainly
there are a lot of people who think smoking a little bit of dope
isn't that big of a deal. Voters in Denver recently passed an
initiative that removed all penalties for private adult marijuana
use. But Denver city officials and police say the citywide initiative
has no merit because state law still makes using pot illegal. SAFER's
executive director, Mason Tvert, says his group had "no choice" but
to take up the fight on behalf of Denver voters.

SAFER's initiative itself isn't a bad idea. If passed, it would only
make pot legal in those communities that have decided to
decriminalize it. So, for example, if Vail voters decided that
smoking a joint shouldn't be illegal, then it wouldn't be. To keep
pot illegal, communities wouldn't have to change a thing.

Marijuana use is so rampant that people frequently forget that it's illegal.

The frequent arrests made here in Eagle County for pot possession
indicate that a lot of people use marijuana.

And a lot of pot users aren't getting caught, either.

That doesn't necessarily make using pot a good idea. Marijuana is no
better for the body than alcohol or cigarettes. But in the big scheme
of things, using weed doesn't hurt society any more than moderate use
of alcohol. Decriminalizing a drug that rarely affects anyone other
than the user frees up police to fight crimes that really are the
bane of our society. In fact, society might be better served if pot
was legal and users were taxed to the brink to buy it.

SAFER's campaign is bound to get support from thousands of pot users
and thousands of non-pot users who think arresting people for smoking
weed is a waste of time and taxpayer money. Legalizing pot for those
reasons is worthy of discussion.

But making pot legal because it will make our communities safer?

Whoever came up with that must be on something.