There is no question California and its communities are suffering during this poor economy.  State government and local governments are struggling for improved and new revenue streams.  One proposed “solution” being hotly debated at the Capital is the legalization of marijuana. The concept being that California could legalize the drug similar to tobacco and tax the drug, leading to windfall revenues for the state. This short sighted “solution” is a terrible idea that would create a host of new problems for the state and compound already existing issues surrounding the drug.

On the surface this may seem like a reasonable idea.  Many people believe marijuana is “no big deal.” The facts and history of this drug like others suggest something very different. I encourage Newman residents to conduct their own research and study the issue before signing a petition or voting with misguided emotion only. Some areas to research and consider are:

The revenue promised by the proponents of legalizing marijuana will not materialize:  The prestigious RAND Corporation has analyzed legalizing and taxing marijuana, and has concluded that it will NOT raise significant revenue. 

Legalization will dramatically increase marijuana use among children: Alaska decriminalized small amounts of marijuana for adults in 1978. That law remained in effect until its repeal in 1990. A major reason for the repeal was that marijuana use among children was double that of any other station in the nation.

Organized criminal combines will flourish: Legalization proponents would have you believe that organized crime will get out of the marijuana business once it is legalized. The evidence refutes this. When the Netherlands legalized so-called marijuana cafes in the 1980s there were only three organized crime operations in that country. Today there are over 90 because crime organizations from across Europe descended on the Netherlands to get a piece of the marijuana café action. We can expect the same results in California. It is naïve to think that the major cartels will meekly go away if marijuana becomes legal. Organized crime will not get out of the marijuana business; instead, the organized criminal cartels will thrive.

Highway fatalities will rise if marijuana is legalized: Even now, driving under the influence of drugs kills 8,000 people a year and maims another half million nationwide. Legalizing marijuana will result in the kind of availability that will increase its use and will only exponentially increase highway fatalities.

We can expect an increase in auto-burglaries, robberies and residential burglaries:  We know this because that’s what happened in Alaska when they decriminalized drugs from 1978 until they abandoned that failed experiment in 1990. During that period, there was a dramatic increase in those crimes as users committed crimes to get money to buy marijuana. Legalization will place a particularly difficult burden on law enforcement due to the horrific budget cuts that we have incurred.

I hope this information has been helpful. It is not my intent to tell you how to vote or what to believe, only to shed some light on other perspectives that you may not hear in the mainstream media. As with any issue we should form our own opinions, conduct our own research, analyze our findings, and come to our own conclusions.

Adam McGill is chief of police in Newman.