from the morning call mcall.com
State Sen. Daylin Leach, at podium, announces Monday in Harrisburg that he will introduce legislation to legalize marijuana. Behind him (from left) are Dr. David Nathan, Neill Franklin and Les Stark, also advocates for legalization. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / February 14, 2013)
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With Valentine's Day still fresh in our minds, thoughts naturally turn to retired Army Gen. John T. Thompson of Newport, Ky., who helped give America one of its most vivid memories of that holiday.
After serving in two wars, Thompson saw a need for a better portable weapon for soldiers, which he invented in 1919, which also happened to be the same year that a catastrophe was set in motion to create a huge market for his new weapon.
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on Jan. 19, 1919, and it took effect the following Jan. 17, giving America Prohibition I.
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Following a hellish 13 years, 10 months and 18 days, the second worst mistake the nation ever made was repealed, but not before a gigantic establishment of fabulously wealthy organized criminals was created, along with the similarly large establishment of corrupt politicians and law enforcement people.
Rivers of blood flowed during Prohibition I, largely because of the .45-caliber Thompson submachine gun favored by the gangsters who peddled illegal booze.
The most famous episode in the war between rival gangsters came in Chicago on Valentine's Day, 1929. Elements of Al Capone's South Side Italian gang used Tommy guns to mow down seven members of Bugs Moran's North Side Irish gang. A shotgun also was used, but only to blow off the heads of two gangsters felled by the Tommy guns, to make sure they were dead.
In any case, thanks to the Tommy gun, Capone pretty much had the illegal booze business in Chicago and elsewhere all to himself, and that was the pattern all across the nation, where the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons hit unprecedented levels, mostly because of gang wars.
That continued until the nation came to its senses by repealing the 18th.
Alcohol was once again legal, except in some backward Bible-Belt states like Mississippi, and police officers had to struggle to get along on their salaries alone.
The next time they designed such a system, the gangsters and their allies were more clever. With Prohibition II, they skillfully made Americans believe the war on drugs was in the public's interest.
The consequences of Prohibition II, which targets drugs other than alcohol, have been exactly the same as those of Prohibition I, including bloodshed and the widespread corruption of public officials. The main difference is that the cabal has been far more effective in keeping it going.
Nobody uses Tommy guns these days, but almost all of the deadly use of high-powered firearms by civilians now involves the same kind of gang warfare the nation saw in the Roaring '20s.
Now there is panic among the gangsters and their allies. Washington state and Colorado have moved to legalize one drug, marijuana, and there is a growing sense that other areas may come to their senses, as well. This past week, there was dramatic news along those lines in Pennsylvania.
State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery County, formerly a lawyer and educator in the Lehigh Valley, has drafted legislation to make marijuana legal in Pennsylvania.
In 2011, he introduced a bill to provide for the medical use of marijuana (effective in lessening the agony of cancer patients, etc.), and plans a similar bill this year. The medical use of marijuana has been legalized in 14 other states. His dramatic new proposal, however, is for flat legalization.
I'll get into more detail on that issue another time, but Leach's legalization measure begins by stating that the reason to legalize and regulate marijuana is "in the interest of the efficient use of law enforcement resources, enhancing revenue … and individual freedom."
I have doubts about how well any plan to enhance individual freedom will be received in Harrisburg, but it's going to be hard for any politician to argue, with a straight face, that the present system for dealing with marijuana is working well.
"The use of marijuana should be legal for persons 21 years of age or older and taxed," Leach's measure says, and "should be regulated in a manner similar to alcohol."
I have no personal stake in this. I tried marijuana many years ago and did not care for it. As a journalist, however, I have seen the aftermaths of hundreds of horrible traffic accidents and there is no way that marijuana could cause a hundredth as many of them as booze. To make booze legal and marijuana illegal is madness.
Still, under Leach's bill, "driving under the influence of marijuana shall remain illegal." It provides that "legitimate, state-operated stores, and not criminal actors, will conduct sales of marijuana." In other words, you could go to a state store to get pot at the same time you get your Mad Dog.
The measure also provides for the production of industrial hemp, a plant product related to marijuana plants that once served the nation well. George Washington grew it, the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were written on it, and most rope was made of it.
Now that hemp is illegal, it is necessary to clear-cut forests to produce products, such as the paper you are holding in your hand. When and why did Americans get so crazy?
That, unfortunately, is the biggest impediment to a measure like Leach's. It requires sanity and integrity to go anywhere.
paul.carpenter@mcall.com 610-820-6176
Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays
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