US TX: OPED: Let Those Thoughts on Government Soar

Dankdude · #1 08-07-2007, 04:43 PM

Musings at 37,000 feet ( and back on the ground in Rhode Island ):

Lines approaching security clearance were absurdly long at 5 a.m. Thursday. That's the day that the Transportation Security Administration at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport started checking passenger identification, a function previously performed by the airlines.

My wife, Cyndy, and I were in lines for well over an hour, boarding the plane mere minutes before it pushed back from the gate. The lengthy delays, we were told, were largely the result of too many passengers failing to segregate their gels and liquids into transparent plastic bags.

Does any of this make sense? There's simply got to be a better system. Airliners are now safe, at least in terms of their being used as guided missiles, which Sept. 11 made virtually impossible going forward.

If security must be tighter than in pre-9-11 days ( and I doubt that anything more than typical criminal profiling is necessary ), why not use the system employed for those who routinely enter the most secure places on the planet? Let passengers submit to a one-time ( perhaps renewable at specified intervals ) background check, secure an ID badge and use that to quickly access boarding areas.

Those who fail to obtain such identification might be subject to some sort of scrutiny, but removing shoes ( why not undies, too? ) is ridiculous. We are wasting scarce public resources in ways that do virtually nothing to enhance the safety of air travel.

As we ascended out of D/FW, I wondered how many fields of illegal plants have been sown under our flight path. Readers have recently learned that millions of dollars' worth of marijuana has been discovered growing in North Texas.

But why are weeds worth so much money? The annual crop of weeds in my yard is worth no more than several hours of work and many dollars of expense to me. We know the answer: Some people enjoy smoking marijuana leaves but have to pay black-market prices. Why? Again, we know that this particular form of smoking is illegal.

Part of the reason, in turn, is that smoking grass is hazardous to human health. As we learned on Aug. 1, smoking "one joint of marijuana obstructs the flow of air as much as smoking up to five tobacco cigarettes." Yet I hear no calls for banning the sale of five cigarettes, or 20, or 200.

Jacob Sullum, a senior editor of the libertarian magazine Reason, wrote on the same day that Congress continues to refuse lifting its ban even on home-grown marijuana to relieve pain or nausea for cancer or AIDS patients. And Republican members, most of whom claim to be conservative, are the most recalcitrant defenders of this prohibition.

It's long past time for our country to stop its war on weed ( which I wouldn't recognize if it stood up and asked me to vote for Bill Clinton, who didn't inhale ). Government has little rational basis for telling people what they may and may not smoke.

The massive resources employed to suppress the growth and use of marijuana should be put to more productive uses ( such as improving airport security in less intrusive and wasteful ways ). Decriminalizing or legalizing the product would allow us to tax its purchase, put thousands of criminals out of business and free up scarce prison space for offenders who actually inflict harm on their neighbors.

Finally, on Sunday in Newport, I learned that Rosecliff ( the mansion that served as the setting for the film The Great Gatsby ) was built by a super-rich family for more than $2 million at the end of the 19th century. It sold in 1940, toward the end of the Great Depression, for $21,000.

There are lessons to be learned about the fleeting nature of money and the overreaching of some who possess it. But unlike the politicians who waste public resources for airport security and for marijuana suppression, at least the wealthy who built and later lost their extravagantly sumptuous summer houses were not dissipating our limited collective treasury.

[sidebar]

BY THE NUMBERS

12 Number of U.S. states where marijuana is the top cash crop.

- -15 Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs.

+63 Percentage change in the number of adults in their 50s doing so.

Pubdate: Tue, 07 Aug 2007
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2007 Star-Telegram Operating, Ltd.
Contact: letters@star-telegram.com
Website: Star-Telegram.com: Fort Worth/Dallas News, Sports, Weather, Cowboys, Cars and Jobs
Author: Don Erler, Special to the Star-Telegram
Note: Don Erler is president of General Building Maintenance.