Barry Grissom: There’s a new source of state revenue ready for debate

Last week, Kansas state Rep. Steve Alford embarrassed himself by mistakenly repeating racist rhetoric that was originally used by Henry Anslinger, an avowed racist from the late 1920s, when referring to use of marijuana by persons of color.

I do not believe Alford is a racist. I believe, like so many others, he is misinformed when it comes to the facts and issues related to marijuana and the history of marijuana prohibition.

Presently marijuana is considered a Schedule 1 drug under the federal Controlled Substance Act, right next to heroin. I think most of us would agree marijuana is not the equivalent of heroin. Nevertheless, it remains as a classified drug for federal prosecution purposes.

In 2013, the Department of Justice, realizing states through voter initiatives were passing laws that provided for recreational use of marijuana, decided to issue guidelines that would regulate the growing, distribution and sale to responsible adults. These guidelines became known as the Cole Memo after Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole. The Cole Memo held if a state provided the regulatory measures, much like the way states regulate the sale of alcohol, the federal government would not intervene.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has repealed the Cole memo and is now allowing each U.S. attorney to decide how they would like to enforce federal law as it relates to marijuana. U.S. attorneys where regulatory schemes are in place and working, such as Colorado and Oregon, have indicated there will be no change in their enforcement policies.

Eight states and the District of Columbia provide for full recreational use. Another 20 states allow medical marijuana to be used by patients. Oklahoma, in June, will decide through referendum whether to allow medical use, as will Missouri this fall. Soon, with Nebraska considering medical use, Kansas may well be surrounded by states that allow varying degrees of legalization.

The question to consider is whether we will use scarce law enforcement resources to arrest patients who travel out of state and return with marijuana? Don’t we have a wiser and better use of the taxpayer money than arresting a veteran who suffers from PTSD and chooses not to use pharmaceuticals, or the worker who was injured on the job and doesn’t want to take opioids for his pain?

We should look to states that have allowed for different types of marijuana use and see what’s been their experience. In this regard, Colorado is instructive as to what happens when there is full recreational use. In 2016, total marijuana sales in Colorado was $1.3 billion. As a former prosecutor, that tells me $1.3 billion did not go to criminals, but instead went to entrepreneurs who created over 18,000 full-time jobs that paid a living wage with the state taking in tax revenues of over $200 million.

Given our fiscal mess, it would be nice to have an extra $100 million in revenue that didn’t come from income tax increases.

We should we have a vigorous debate as to whether Kansas wants to join the rest of the growing majority of states who have decriminalized marijuana or whether we choose to continue down the path of a failed drug policy of prohibition that continues to waste law enforcement resources.

Either way, let’s have a debate that’s driven by actual facts rather than half-truths, outdated rhetoric and innuendo. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves embarrassed by misinformation, much like Rep. Alford.

This story was originally published January 12, 2018 at 4:04 AM with the headline "Barry Grissom: There’s a new source of state revenue ready for debate."