Obama's Pot Plan

I'm all for Obama's plan to let states have their medical marijuana laws without federal interference. I'm for marijuana legalization, really, but this kind of change would have to happen incrementally, and this is a start (although I don't know that Obama's plans go this far).

The reasons I'm for this are:

• The drug war is expensive and hasn't worked,
• Marijuana really is no worse than alcohol or tobacco,
  
• Legalization might reduce drug trafficking (and violence) near our southern border,
• It could be a valuable crop for US farmers to grow, and
• We could tax the heck out of it.

The Cato Institute has some good info on the war on drugs.

This quote is kind of dumb:

"We cannot hope to eradicate the drug trade if we do not first address the cash cow for most drug trafficking organizations - marijuana," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

In 30 years, we've made little progress in eradicating the drug trade, and we won't, because if we stop drug production in one country or drug trafficking via one route, they'll just find another country and another route. I think if we let marijuana go, we will have more resources (money, time, jail cells) to devote to heroin and cocaine, which are harmful and nobody wants to legalize.

Note: this post has nothing to do with my personal recreational habits.