A Laboratory of Democracy

In 1932, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis stated:

"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." New State Ice Co. v. Liebman.

So, with California having Proposition 19 on the ballot, cannot the state experiment with legalizing marijuana? We need the tax revenue. Alcohol prohibition shows that we cannot legislate morality -- all we do is create crime. Marijuana is relatively benign (certainly compared with alcohol) and since we legalized tobacco and alcohol, regulate them and tax them, why not try this with reefer?

Let one state experiment and see what happens. Somewhere, Mr. Justice Brandeis would be smiling.

Norm

www.normangoldman.com