Some Wisconsin municipalities have banned “fake pot” or K2, which is said to cause users to experience rapidly increased heart rates, loss of consciousness, paranoia and, occasionally, psychotic episodes. Surely I am not the only one to notice is that those side effects don’t have anything in common with real pot.

Obviously, some people have tried using fake pot because real pot is illegal and difficult or dangerous to obtain. If Wausau really wanted to protect its citizens, why didn’t it re-legalize the real stuff?

When the U.S. went off to experiment with alcohol prohibition, it resulted in black markets, crime, corruption, and dangerous hootch, so they ended it. Then, the U.S. went off to experiment with drug prohibition, with predictable, disastrous results.

I suppose if marijuana was really dangerous, a ban might be justified, although libertarians would prefer that decision be made by each adult rather than politicians. However, marijuana (ethnic slang for cannabis or hemp) has been raised for thousands of years, as a useful fiber crop, as a remedy for a wide variety of aliments, and yes, to help people get a euphoric high.

We may discuss the agricultural and medicinal advantages some other time. However, because of drug prohibition laws, those applications are not available to Wisconsin citizens.

Supposedly, marijuana was banned to keep us “safe.” Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control, annual causes of death in the U.S. include tobacco, 435,000; alcohol, 85.000 (including 16.000 traffic deaths); reactions to prescription drugs, 32,000; and all illicit drugs, not including marijuana, 17,000. The annual death rate from marijuana use is zero.

Is the problem that recreational use makes people feel good? H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as, “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

Puritanical laws  may be part of it, but taxpayers get stuck with the bills. Prohibition is a full employment program for drug dealers while diverting public resources to fight victimless crimes at tax payer expense. Almost half of the people in the justice system are suspected of drug “crimes.” Wisconsin’s drug war policy helps account for the Department of Corrections budget being one the top four reasons for the huge state deficit. Wisconsin’s prison population is 250% of Minnesota’s with almost twice the per capita incarceration rate.

Why do we have the insane, failed War on Drugs anyway? Well, part of it is due to the influence of commercial interests. Big tobacco, big pharma, big alcohol, all are big sponsors of drug war propaganda. (See above the leading causes of morbidity.)

Our laws need to be based on logic and reason, not emotion, industrial lobbyists or Washington politicians. Our state government needs to stand up for our independence from Washington and pass our own laws. Our laws should provide for inspection, licensing, permits, and taxation of marijuana distribution, just as we do for other products, including tobacco and alcohol. Why not?