Legislature should legalize marijuana or voters will do it for them

Public and political support for legalizing recreational marijuana use has surged. Florida lawmakers need to accept that reality and come up with effective legislation. If not, the public will legalize pot via constitutional amendment. (Photo by strelov/Getty Images)

When it comes to legalizing marijuana in Florida, the question is no longer whether it should be legalized. The question is whether lawmakers want a role in that process.

We think they should. But first, lawmakers have to accept a simple reality.

It’s time to legalize recreational use of marijuana for adults.

There are plenty of reasons, not the least is that resistance has become futile. The political will to legalize pot is strengthening. A growing majority of Americans want it.

And if the state Legislature doesn’t do it, the people of Florida will by passing a constitutional amendment. That should worry legislators, who typically blanch at the thought of the great unwashed having a say in directing policy.

Political leaders have the choice of getting ahead of the inevitable. That would allow them to shape legislation that best mitigates the downside of legalization.

And there is a downside. Marijuana can be addictive for some people, and prolonged use can alter brain circuitry and lead to damaging behavior. The economic and social costs can’t be ignored.

But those perils have to be weighed against the downside of keeping marijuana illegal. Decades of drug laws have created a criminal enterprise that causes more damage than the consumption itself.

The drug war in Mexico has led to some 270,000 murders since 2006. Millions of otherwise law-abiding Americans have been turned into petty criminals with records that follow them for life.

Almost 40% of drug arrests are for marijuana-related offenses, and more than 90% of those are for simple possession, according to FBI data. Black Americans are almost four times more likely to be arrested for possession than whites despite using the drug at a similar rate.

The time and money spent on enforcement could be better spent on treatment and tackling serious crimes. After Colorado and Washington legalized pot, their clearance rates — the frequency of solving crimes increased for violent and property crimes.

Many Florida municipalities no longer bother to pursue convictions. Orlando police issue citations for minor marijuana offenses.

The simple fact is the black market for pot cannot be suppressed. In that sense, criminalizing it is like Prohibition — a lost cause.

Almost 90 years after that failed experiment, people today struggle to answer a simple question: Why do we accept alcohol with all its social costs (95,000 deaths a year linked to excessive drinking), but not marijuana?

The potential upside of legalization also can’t be ignored. A 2015 Duke University study showed Florida could make $120 million a year if it legalized and taxed marijuana, and that number would increase every year.

Then you throw in the fact that two-thirds of Americans favor legalization, according to most polls. Four more states legalized pot in the Nov. 3 election, including conservative states like Arizona, Montana and South Dakota. The U.S. House last week passed a bill that decriminalized pot nationally.

Only five Republicans voted for it, but two — Matt Gaetz and Brian Mast — are from Florida. On the state level, Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg and Rep. Carlos G. Smith (D-Orlando) filed adult-use cannabis bills during the last lawmaking session.

Both bills died in committee, but the Tallahassee Democrat reported both legislators plan to reintroduce them in 2021. When Smith proposed a legalization bill in 2019, one of the co-sponsors was Anthony Sabatini (R-Howey-in-the-Hills).

When an uber-liberal like Smith and a fire-breathing conservative like Sabatini agree on an issue, the implications are impossible to ignore.

Unless you’re Senate President Wilton Simpson.

When asked in November whether pot legalization would get serious consideration in the 2021 legislative session, Simpson one-word answer echoed Nancy Reagan’s drug war slogan from the 1980s.

He just said “No.”

Even if the Legislature passed a legalization bill, Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he would never sign it. But the will of the people won’t dismissed so casually.

As with a $15 minimum wage, medical marijuana, voting rights for former felons and other issues, the remedy to an obstinate government will be a constitutional amendment.

It probably will be bankrolled by the marijuana industry. The one most likely to make the 2022 ballot is backed by two medical cannabis companies.

Though the amendment would regulate the sale and marketing of marijuana, there’s an inherent conflict when private enterprise is involved in drug policy. Business models are built on attracting more customers, not fewer.

State legislation would not have profit as its sole motive. Lawmakers could get ahead of shaping rules that would tightly regulate testing, potency and labeling of products, all of which would lead to fewer long-term customers and better health outcomes.

Like it or not, at some point soon, marijuana legalization is going to get done in Florida. It’s the job of lawmakers to see that it gets done right.

That won’t happen if all they do is just say no.