Seven years ago, I approached Bill Simon, who headed our firm at the time, with a proposal for our firm to adopt a junior high through the Los Angeles Unified School District's corporate adoption program.

Bill quickly agreed, and we have adopted this school every year since. On a side note, the morning after Bill beat Richard Riordan in the California gubernatorial primary, Bill's first public appearance was at this school we adopted...I stood next to Bill at his press conference at the school and the media was out *in force.* Bill was riding high that day, but in the general, he lost to Davis, who had the lowest approval rating in the history of approval ratings was later recalled.

But I digress, that is along story for a different day, the topic today is essay contests...(and I would finish last in an essay contest for the foregoing digression!)

The centerpiece of our adoption of the school is our annual essay contest, and I try to stay away from topics like "Careers in Exotic Dancing: Pros and Cons." Instead, we intentionally have more mundane topics (or at least topics where people won't freak out about the topic itself) like how students would reduce terrorism in the world, or how they would improve their school.

So I was very interested to see the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis sponsor an essay contest for high school juniors and seniors. First place gets a paid summer internship at the Minneapolis Fed. Here is their question:

"What economic lessons can be drawn from this picture of an illegal drug deal?" Here are the contest rules and the picture in question.

This of course reminds me of a passionate speech I made to my rhetoric class as an undergraduate, advocating drug legalization, primary based on economic principles.

People were shocked since I often wore a military-style haircut, pressed shorts, button-down Oxfords, and often carried a briefcase-looking thing instead of a backpack...looking every bit the young Republican, but not always thinking that way.

In fact, the people I quoted most in my speech, who had positions close to mine, were Reagan's Secretary of State George Shultz and US Federal Judge Robert Sweet, neither of whom was known for being left-wing hippie radicals who wore Birkenstocks and wanted to "legalize dope, man!"

No sense in rehashing all the old arguments, but my central theme was "look at prohibition." During prohibition, through criminalizing alcohol, the US Government created a market where price vastly exceeded cost, and that artificial gap funded criminal masterminds from Al Capone to Jay Gatsby, with all of the accompanying violence and mayhem. And guess what? Dejavu all over again.

In the speech, I advocated for regulation, taxation, strict rules about driving while intoxicated, and "no underage use," like cigarettes and alcohol. Of course, it's not easy; you wouldn't want to just suddenly and completely legalize heroin, crack, meth, etc.

And if you had to pick one, would you rather face a drunk driver or a stoned driver? Unfortunately speaking from experience, I would face the stoned one all day long.

I have seen very few voices of disagreement in the comments on this blog...perhaps this entry will change all that!