Word: kaplan
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Bathtub Grass. Though marijuana law enforcement now costs California alone more than $72 million worth of police and court time each year, Kaplan notes that the busts have not decreased use of the drug. The law has little effect on the unstable and heedless users who are most likely to become serious marijuana abusers or go on to hard drugs. By lumping marijuana with hallucinogens, amphetamines, barbiturates and heroin, in fact, the law encourages young people to distrust warnings about those far more perilous substances. Pot prohibition gives sporadic users the stigma of criminal records and makes young people cynical...
What might work better? Twenty-three states have eased the penalties for possession of marijuana, partially to concentrate on those who deal in it. The Nixon Administration is now proposing the same strategy for federal law. Kaplan is dubious. When pushers are caught, he argues, the supply becomes restricted and the price goes up, enticing more pushers into the field and encouraging pot smokers to try more dangerous substitutes or to grow their own. One British manufacturer already turns out a hydroponic unit capable of producing 400 tons of cattle food per year in a space the size...
...Advertising. Kaplan predicts that the U.S. will repeal pot prohibition within ten years. Even so, he opposes the irresponsible strategy of making marijuana as available as candy. He advocates a regulatory scheme roughly similar to -but tougher than-those now used for tobacco and alcohol. Either private manufacturers or a Government monopoly would grow marijuana and package it in uniform grades and strengths. Government-licensed marijuana stores would sell the drug, imposing high taxes to price it out of many young people's reach. Sales to those under 18 would be illegal, as would the driving...
...Kaplan's system could, in fact, discourage marijuana use. Pot manufacturers and sellers would be forbidden to advertise their wares. Consumers could be restricted to buying small quantities, perhaps by a system of rationing coupons. And a share of marijuana tax revenues would be earmarked for the drug-control efforts that hold more promise than law enforcement-drug education, counseling and rehabilitation...
...Kaplan concedes that licensing marijuana would "almost certainly" increase experimentation and use. But he argues that licensing would reduce the "forbidden fruit" appeal that the drug now has and encourage parents to show their children how to use it sanely. As he points out, "Authorities on alcohol report that alcoholism is least likely not among the children of abstainers, but among those who grew up in families where alcohol is used moderately." Kaplan also argues that his scheme would shrink the market for harder drugs by providing a legal and convenient alternative...