Wesley

Pomeroy,

founder of the Law Enforcement

Assistance Administration and a former police chief said in a

recent issue of the Drugs and Drug Abuse Education Newsletter

what many in law enforcement will admit, if they can speak off

the record, and that is that marijuana cannot be controlled. It

is a weed that can be grown anywhere. One can grow it in her

bathtub, in his flowerpot, their outside garden or anyplace else.

The greatest amount of marijuana

actually destroyed by

eradication, as a practical matter, is that which is grown wild

rather than that which is cultivated for consumption.

Eradication will not stop the people from smoking marijuana.

At present marijuana is part of an unregulated, untaxed

underground market. If allowed to surface, marijuana could be

better controlled and at the same time, turned into an asset to

be used against other more harmful substances.

B. Prohibition Fuels The Underground Economy.

Wharton Econometrics determined for the President's

Commission on Organized Crime in 1986 that one-half of organized

availability of marijuana would allow us to educate and treat

those with hard drug problems.

It is estimated that the domestic marijuana crop is the

largest cash crop, overall, in the United States. It has an

estimated value of thirty three billion dollars.

Revenue from

this large cash crop could be used to improve our economy. The

tax revenues could fund treatment and education for those

addicted to hard drugs.

It is clear that the unintended beneficiaries of our

current drug prohibition include those whose profits have

increased because prohibition causes higher prices. In the

1980's, like in the 1920's, Prohibition and the application of

increased penalties increases the risk which, in turn, increases

the price and the profit.

Since the actual costs of production

remains about the same the profit margin increases.

Interestingly, Prohibition's inclusion of drugs such as

marijuana with hard drugs such as crack/cocaine and heroin, has

also contributed significantly to the prevalence of hard drugs in

our underground markets and in our society. One can obviously

smuggle a smaller amount of cocaine at a significantly greater

value with less chance of detection than it would take to smuggle

a larger amount of marijuana of comparable value. Smaller is

easier. Drug Enforcement Administration reports indicate that

the costs of bulk cocaine in Florida has gone down dramatically

while the cost per unit on the street has remained the same. An

obvious effect of this is to increase the margin of profit. It

is also demonstrative of the increased volume. The underground

market has an interest in turning people toward more harmful

drugs since they are easier to handle and produce easier profits.

Lumping marijuana with hard drugs is counterproductive and makes

this underground market more harmful to our society.

95-568 - 89 - 7

- 7

This highly profitable underground market is not going

to be eliminated by brute force.

Massive police sweeps, as

demonstrated in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, may

disrupt the underground market place or cause it to move to a

different location, but they do not eliminate it.

A young

person from an urban ghetto who has no hope of a real future

often would rather stand on the street corner and make a

thousand dollars a day selling crack/cocaine than work harder and

longer hours for the minimum wage in a fast food restaurant.

Profits fuel this illegal drug system and prohibition drives up

prices and increases profits.

This blackmarket economy has so much money that it's

vast temptations extend beyond the urban poor and reach out to

law enforcement. There now appears to be, on the average, more

than one hundred cases of drug related police corruption

prosecuted every year. Officers have been known to rob drug

dealers of cash because they cannot complain. Some even rob drug

dealers of drugs which they later resell because they know that

there is no place for the victims to go.

There are even some experts who believe that the

proliferation of crack/cocaine in our urban areas is related to

the increased profits which are the natural corollary to

increased prohibition efforts. Crack is a drug dealing MBA's

ideal. It is easier to move around than something bulky like

marijuana and the profit margin is greater. It is also cheaper

to produce. It can be sold at a relatively low cost while still

making a large profit and it, unlike marijuana,

addictive customer.

creates an

It is a marketing idea generated by

prohibition. It expands the illegal market and the illegal financial empire of the underground drug economy. Why take the

same risk for marijuana as for cocaine when there is more money

in cocaine?

Prohibition makes cocaine more attractive to market

forces than marijuana.

C. The Cure Is Worse Than The Disease.