No qualms vexed John Kaplan eight years ago when, as an assistant U.S.
attorney in San Francisco, he put drug pushers behind bars. A
nonsmoking teetotaler, he had little sympathy for drug users of any
kind. Later he became a law professor at Stanford University, and the
California legislature hired him to help revise the state's drug laws.
Then a surprising thing happened: the legislature fired Kaplan and four
other professors working on the project because, after three years of
exhaustive research, they reluctantly concluded that marijuana should
be legalized. Now Kaplan, 41, has turned his provocative findings into a thoughtful
book, Marijuana—The New Prohibition . After weighing the
medical and sociological aspects of marijuana, Kaplan uses the cold
analysis of a corporate controller to conclude that the financial and
social costs of trying to outlaw marijuana are far greater than the
benefits. As a rough equivalent to alcohol, Kaplan says, marijuana
should be handled in ways that profit from the nation's experience with
Prohibition. 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 about law in general. 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 of a garage; Kaplan claims that a
similar device could be adapted to pot cultivation. Bathtub grass, he
suggests, is as inevitable as bathtub gin. No 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 of a car under
the influence of pot.
