Legalizing marijuana

Voters in California will get to decide in November whether to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana in the state.

The number of state and local legislators who are willing to consider legalizing pot is increasing. There are good reasons why people with diverse political leanings, especially conservatives, could favor legalization. Legalization of marijuana offers financial rewards for the public as well as the private sector. On the one hand, legalization would limit the involvement of government in the private lives of citizens, cut the costs of law enforcement, reduce crime, and relieve some of the pressure on the justice system. On the other hand, it would boost profits for local businesses and thereby increase tax revenues to aid the financially strapped public sector.

Those who fear that society will crumble if marijuana is legalized ought to note that the widespread availability of alcohol has not threatened to cause the collapse of our vital institutions: hospitals, banks, transportation and communication systems continue to function even as liquor stores continue to thrive.

Even as many people have a strong need for intoxication, many more have a solid determination to remain sober. While alcohol is widely available, a sizable part of the population avoids it altogether.

The movement toward health and fitness continues to gather momentum. While there are social pressures on individuals to drink and smoke, there are balancing forces on them to avoid completely the use of recreational drugs including alcohol and tobacco. While getting high will always be popular in some groups, there is widespread pity and disgust for the people who impair their faculties with any sort of drug.

Social pressures are powerful means for limiting the use of intoxicating substances. In many ways and on many occasions, social pressures are more powerful than laws.

Even lifelong alcoholics who are completely committed to getting and remaining drunk, but who have no desire to commit suicide, are unlikely to favor flying on planes where the pilots are intoxicated. Nor are they likely to favor being operated upon by surgeons whose abilities are compromised by drugs.

In brief, most of us agree that there are times and places where sobriety is imperative. Intoxication will never be universally tolerated, even if drugs are universally legalized. This assumes the right and the duty of employers to make their work environments drug-free. It assumes that the state will continue to prohibit driving while intoxicated. And it assumes that parents will continue to prevent their children from using drugs, including alcohol, inappropriately.

Making pot legal and readily available is likely to encourage some people who have never tried it to buy some and smoke it for the first time. A number will likely become continuing users. But to those who argue that legalizing marijuana sets a dangerous precedent, that legalizing marijuana is one step on a slippery slope toward legalizing all sorts of drugs for recreational use, there is a point of view that offers a balance: reasonable people enforce limits on 'slippery slopes'.

In reality, at some point, people say, "No, this is too much; we will not go farther". No reputable firm condones the use of intoxicating drugs on the job. Blood testing for the use of illegal substances is a requirement, and should continue to be a prerequisite for hiring and continued employment in many quarters. So the 'slippery slope' argument is not an effective argument for avoiding any change in laws or public policies.

For some, however, the legalization of marijuana is too much to countenance. Their votes figure in the outcome of this dispute, too. Every supporter and every opponent of the initiative has a vote, so let the voters decide on the matter.