If Pot Were Legal

Recently, the Obama Administration issued an order not to prosecute marijuana cases against licensed individuals in states in which it is legal to grow and sell it for medicinal purposes. This is long overdue, and quite frankly does not go far enough. If marijuana were to be completely legalized for adult recreational use, the benefits would be incalculable, but I'll try to list the main ones:

1. State and federal law enforcement officials would be have more resources to fight real crimes, since they would no longer have to pursue adult users of cannabis;

2. If marijuana were available to adults at bars and smoking restaurants, it would be highly regulated, as are alcohol, cigarettes and cigars, and could be effectively kept out of the hands of minors;

3. Sales, vice and income taxes could be imposed on the vendors and growers, thereby generating income from what is now an underground industry;

4. Legitimate businessmen could get involved, and gangsters and hustlers could either reform or be squeezed out by the law-abiding; and

5. Cannabis could also be grown for the production of rope fiber, the purpose for which it was originally cultivated before people discovered its other, more entertaining uses.

I myself do not smoke it. I don't eat it. I don't use it. I'm also a conservative who almost always voted Republican when I lived in the United States. But I join no less a conservative than William F. BuckleyWilliam F. Buckley Jr., who was also for legalization of marijuana. It's about time.