Obama gets hazy on reefer economics

Well a surprising column by the Tribune's Clarence Page:

For all of the keen intellect that President Barack Obama showed in his online town hall meeting, he didn't seem to know much about reefer economics.

When asked whether legalizing marijuana might be a stimulus for the economy and job creation, he played the question for laughs.

"I don't know what this says about the online audience . . .," he quipped as his studio audience chuckled and groaned. "But . . . this was a fairly popular question. We want to make sure that it was answered," he said.

Sure. So you could knock it, I thought.

Obama's response: "The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."

No stimulus? Hey, more than a few blinged-out, Escalade-driving pot dealers would dispute that notion. You want a "green" industry? Free the weed, dude.

I wouldn't mind a support on this issue of decriminalizing marihuana, but basically I'm not coming out of the gate in support of it. If nothing else we should stop trying to determine which drugs should or shouldn't be allowed. Is weed as big of a killer as either alcohol or crack?

Well weak question. You'll hear those who think it should be decriminalized says that one could die from alcohol, however, one can't die from marihuana. Perhaps marihuana isn't much different from alcohol in that it can cause bad judgement in people. Of course that's not really a reason to ban it, a good reason is for the public health aspects of the use of substances.

This was discussed a little in my class today. My professor said that we shouldn't decriminalize marihuana because when it becomes legal them there will be an increase in use and we'll have more accidents or more DUIs. Hmm, with alcohol there are DUIs, but we keep that legal. I suppose that standpoint is right if we have to consider decriminalization.

What do you think about this issue?