Marijuna, Marijuana and Marijuana

Marijuana should be legal. Plain and simple. The war on drugs started 50 years ago and no progress whatsoever has been made. We are doing better in the war in Iraq than we are on the war on drugs, and you know how that is going. There are a lot of battles to fight with limited resources and fighting marijuana is a huge waste of money. What can Arcata do? Not much. Some say it is a state issue; Humboldt County has made it a county issue. Arcata can support medical marijuana laws, which affect our HSU students everyday. We need to encourage the university to stop punishing students who lawfully possess marijuana for medical purposes.

Arcata should not prioritize the criminalization of marijuana. We should encourage law enforcement here and other places in the County and State to direct its resources toward dangerous drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine. Every penny spent in arresting a person on marijuana charges, whether it be for possession or cultivation, is a penny that could have been spent on persons dealing methamphetamine, cocaine or heroin. Or more so, it is money that could have been spent on drug counseling for harder drugs.

Every marijuana arrest takes a police officer off the street and away from dealing with violent crimes. When an arrest is made the officer is off the street for at least an hour and often much more. Then he or she will spend many hours and days waiting around a courtroom while the case meanders its way to a conclusion.

Let's use our law enforcement resources more wisely.