Regulate marijuana like tobacco

AlterNet recently ran a nice editorial from Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project, who notes that marijuana smokers slighly outnumber cigarette smokers amongst 10th graders, due primarily to regulation. He then makes the predictably "so common sense that no one will ever fall for it" suggestion that we regulate marijuana in the same way:

As part of the Master Settlement Agreement with 46 states, cigarette companies agreed to stop outdoor advertising and to banish kid-friendly characters such as Joe Camel. Even more important, we as a nation got serious about reducing tobacco sales to kids.

In 1992, Congress passed the Synar Amendment, requiring states to enact and enforce laws prohibiting sale of tobacco products to youth under the age of 18, and setting up unannounced inspections of retail outlets. The program has worked spectacularly well. In 1997, inspectors found that over 40 percent of retailers were violating the ban on cigarette sales to kids. By 2006, the violation rate had dropped to just 10.9 percent, and it's still dropping.

So what does this have to do with marijuana?

Simply put, we have leverage over tobacco sellers that we don't have with marijuana dealers. Because tobacco retailers and producers are licensed and regulated, we have some control over them. If they want to keep their lucrative businesses, cigarette merchants have a strong incentive to follow the laws -- even laws they don't like.

This is just crazy talk. You mean to say that taking the sale of marijuana out of the hands of dealers will not simply produce a tax bonanza for the government and reduce crime and policing costs by orders of magnitude, but it will also stop kids from smoking it at a time when their precious lungs and brains are still developing? Maybe on Bizarro World that'll happen.