19

19 is my favorite number. This has everything to do with the fact that there are two 19s in my birth date, one for the century and one for the day. Whenever I bet a number in Keno or roulette, 19 will always be the first to come to mind. I even have fond remembrances of the Yankees' #19 of the 1950s, "Bullet" Bob Turley.

And now 19 is my favorite proposition. As in Prop 19, the California initiative to legalize small amounts of marijuana for personal use. Although most California propositions lately have been either fiscally irresponsible (Prop 13 and all those restrictions on legislative budgeting), or discriminatory (Prop 187 attacking immigrants and Prop 8 rejecting gay marriage), this one is maybe The Best Ever. It is the first major salvo fired against the insanity of the drug war, and it has major fiduciary advantages as well.

For eons, this natural substance has been cultivated and used for medicinal and palliative purposes, as well as for its pleasant relaxant qualities--unlike alcohol and tobacco, two other much more dangerous and narcotic substances that need to be cured or prepared artificially. Yet tobacco is legal and alcohol is legal and each cause massive illness and deaths in the hundreds of millions. Cannabis has never been known to kill a single person. so, in this insane policy, it is registered as a Class A Drug--the most dangerous and narcotic--by our Drug Enforcement Agency and people have had to live out their lives in prison sentences because of its use.

There is no evidence whatsoever to substantiate any of this proscription. Up till the 1920s cannabis was regularly used for medicinal purposes. Then, when liquor was legalized again in the 1930s, the liquor lobby used the fear of Mexican immigrants in Texas to push through laws associating social unrest with their marijuana usage. Weird fantasies like "Reefer Madness" propagandized the apparent evil of the weed. And so it has stayed, even though Nixon's commission on marijuana suggested that it was not dangerous. He just ignored the findings.

Finally, with the Baby Boomers coming to political prominence, a crack in this insanity permitted the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes again. But politicians have steered clear of suggesting that marijuana be afforded the same legal status of alcohol and cigarettes--even if the control and taxation of pot could have major fiscal benefits to states' budgets.

In California there is not one major politician who supports Prop 19, even Jerry Brown, who certainly has used it. But there are major law enforcement agencies who do state clearly that it would help majorly to deflect their efforts to real crime prevention. Not to mention what would happen to drug cartels--certainly bands of gross evil careening through Mexico and knocking on our borders--who would be crippled when denied this great source of contraband.

If you don't think so, ask about what happened to bootleggers when Prohibition was lifted.

Arguments made against legalization have always been feeble. Yes, it is not a good thing for children to smoke pot, but legalization would probably make it harder rather than easier for kids to get pot, since it wouldn't be sold so much on the street, and their ages would prevent them from purchasing in stores. Just as now, kids can always find their parents' stashes, just as they can find a bottle of beer in the fridge or a pack of Camels in Mom's drawer.

The most idiotic claim is that legalization would "send the wrong message." Claiming marijuana as a "gateway" drug is ridiculous. It's no more a gateway drug than root beer is to a rum and coke. People will always seek food and beverage and drugs to enhance mood. In fact, the human brain has a special receptor to cannaboloids (sic?), the chemical substances in pot, suggesting that there is an evolutionary advantage to its usage. You want to hear a wrong message? How about "smoking makes you look cool?" Or "let's get together with a glass of Schlitz."

If marijuana legalization were to come to pass--putting aside the slow Federal contradiction to local state laws--our penal population would be significantly reduced, enhancing the lives of thousands of victimless "criminals" who have been unjustly imprisoned, and saving the taxpayers their substantial upkeep. Tax monies on pot sales would flow into local coffers. Police forces would divert their resources to actual crime fighting. Drug cartels would be heavily crippled. Those seeking its medicinal benefits would not have to jump through hoops or overcome their anxieties to attain their needed supply.

Would there be greater pot use? Of course. But what's wrong with that?