Jim Stillman
Nevar
Drug reform grounded in reality
April 26th 2009 18:34
Several days ago I was engaged in a discussion with my eldest grandson, a young man whose IQ and common-sense intellect are in the stratospheric range, about the effects of non-criminalization of marijuana. I depend on Josh to keep me grounded in reality and on this topic and occasion he is far less radical than I.
Several events in the news and elsewhere triggered the discussion. Last year, in another forum, I wrote extensively about Bernie Ellis, a Tennessee farmer, who was arrested on a federal charge of growing marijuana, something he freely acknowledged and which was well known in the region. Mr. Ellis distributed pot, without charge, to persons afflicted with glaucoma and other painful and debilitating diseases for which the marijuana brought a measure of relief.
See: Really Long Link and Really Long Link
A number of states have passed statutes allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, upon a physician’s order. (A complete listing of state statutes is in the source cited below.) The Federal statute, however, makes the cultivation or distribution of marijuana a serious federal felony. The United States Supreme Court, in Gonzales v Reich (2005) held that a federal prosecution could follow even where the marijuana use was specifically permitted under state law.
The Rhode Island legislature has now addressed the situation wherein some 600 residents of that state have state permission to possess marijuana for specific medical conditions but no legal way to obtain it. A state Senate committee has approved a bill to allow licensed dispensaries or "compassion centers" to grow and sell marijuana to the 600 patients who currently have the state's blessings to use the drug for medicinal purposes. Between state and federal law, there existed an inherent conflict in the two-year-old state law that allows the sick to smoke marijuana to ease their pain, but provides them no legal way to obtain it.
But the times are a-changing.
A few months ago, a California state legislator from San Francisco introduced a bill to tax, regulate and legalize adult use of cannabis. The usual reaction to such a proposal is one of derision; but this time the state tax collector said that the measure would bring in $1.3 billion a year and save another $1 billion on enforcement and incarceration. In a state facing an $18 billion deficit, suddenly nobody was laughing.
A bit later, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, no flaming liberal, said that he, too, thinks we should take another look at marijuana prohibition. "The most effective way to establish a virtual barrier against the criminal activities is to take the profit out of it," he told a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
Then U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a minor policy shift with enormous implications: The federal government would no longer go after groups that supply medical marijuana in the 13 states where it is legal. The Drug Enforcement Administration had been raiding dispensaries routinely, and dozens of patients and growers are behind bars today despite their legal status in California's eyes. Now that threat has vanished for those who comply with state law.
Purely as an economic matter, the continued prosecution of marijuana possession and use makes little sense.
According to a 2008 report from the Pew Foundation, one in every 100 adult Americans is incarcerated and the costs of that incarceration are placing an unreasonable burden on state and federal budgets. Many states, including Florida, are spending vast sums of money on an overburdened prison system, all to the loss of funds for schools and other government services. The Pew report, cited below, provides chapter and verse. Another Report from a respected Washington “think tank”, the JFA Institute notes that 12.7 percent of state prisoners and 12.4 percent of federal inmates are incarcerated for marijuana related offenses.
There are non-economic reasons to re-evaluate the war on drugs, especially marijuana. A thoughtful article by Mike Gray in the Washington Post points out the similarities between the prohibition era and the present day. The onset of prohibition created the gangsters of the 1920’s and early 1930’s.
The result of decriminalization in other countries has not led to chaos. As a general rule, possession of marijuana in small quantities for personal recreational use is accepted or at least tolerated.
I do not go that far.
I believe medical use of marijuana should be permitted upon a physician’s order. I believe that marijuana use should be restricted to adults. I believe that the operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana should be prohibited and strictly enforced. All of these are now the law with respect to alcohol and, if DUI laws can be enforced and underage drinking prohibited, there is no reason why pot use cannot be restricted.
It would be better for there to be no drugs, of course. But they exist and to punish the use in draconian fashion is a waste of resources and attention. There will be a number of individuals who cease to be productive citizens, but are their conduct worthy of criminal prosecution?
I think not.
For addional information:
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
The substance of this article has been published by the author on EXAMINER.COM
Several events in the news and elsewhere triggered the discussion. Last year, in another forum, I wrote extensively about Bernie Ellis, a Tennessee farmer, who was arrested on a federal charge of growing marijuana, something he freely acknowledged and which was well known in the region. Mr. Ellis distributed pot, without charge, to persons afflicted with glaucoma and other painful and debilitating diseases for which the marijuana brought a measure of relief.
See: Really Long Link and Really Long Link
A number of states have passed statutes allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, upon a physician’s order. (A complete listing of state statutes is in the source cited below.) The Federal statute, however, makes the cultivation or distribution of marijuana a serious federal felony. The United States Supreme Court, in Gonzales v Reich (2005) held that a federal prosecution could follow even where the marijuana use was specifically permitted under state law.
The Rhode Island legislature has now addressed the situation wherein some 600 residents of that state have state permission to possess marijuana for specific medical conditions but no legal way to obtain it. A state Senate committee has approved a bill to allow licensed dispensaries or "compassion centers" to grow and sell marijuana to the 600 patients who currently have the state's blessings to use the drug for medicinal purposes. Between state and federal law, there existed an inherent conflict in the two-year-old state law that allows the sick to smoke marijuana to ease their pain, but provides them no legal way to obtain it.
But the times are a-changing.
A few months ago, a California state legislator from San Francisco introduced a bill to tax, regulate and legalize adult use of cannabis. The usual reaction to such a proposal is one of derision; but this time the state tax collector said that the measure would bring in $1.3 billion a year and save another $1 billion on enforcement and incarceration. In a state facing an $18 billion deficit, suddenly nobody was laughing.
A bit later, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, no flaming liberal, said that he, too, thinks we should take another look at marijuana prohibition. "The most effective way to establish a virtual barrier against the criminal activities is to take the profit out of it," he told a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
Then U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a minor policy shift with enormous implications: The federal government would no longer go after groups that supply medical marijuana in the 13 states where it is legal. The Drug Enforcement Administration had been raiding dispensaries routinely, and dozens of patients and growers are behind bars today despite their legal status in California's eyes. Now that threat has vanished for those who comply with state law.
Purely as an economic matter, the continued prosecution of marijuana possession and use makes little sense.
According to a 2008 report from the Pew Foundation, one in every 100 adult Americans is incarcerated and the costs of that incarceration are placing an unreasonable burden on state and federal budgets. Many states, including Florida, are spending vast sums of money on an overburdened prison system, all to the loss of funds for schools and other government services. The Pew report, cited below, provides chapter and verse. Another Report from a respected Washington “think tank”, the JFA Institute notes that 12.7 percent of state prisoners and 12.4 percent of federal inmates are incarcerated for marijuana related offenses.
“According to the US Department of Justice, approximately 30-40 percent of all current prison admissions involve crimes that have no direct or obvious victim other than the perpetrator,” …The drug category constitutes the largest offense category, with 31 percent of all prison admissions resulting from such crimes.
“Currently, more than 1.5 million Americans are serving time in state and federal prisons, up from fewer than 200,000 in 1970. (Another 750,000 Americans are incarcerated in local jails.) Yet, despite this increase in incarceration, the US crime rate today is approximately the same as it was in the early 70s, when the prison boom began.”
“Currently, more than 1.5 million Americans are serving time in state and federal prisons, up from fewer than 200,000 in 1970. (Another 750,000 Americans are incarcerated in local jails.) Yet, despite this increase in incarceration, the US crime rate today is approximately the same as it was in the early 70s, when the prison boom began.”
There are non-economic reasons to re-evaluate the war on drugs, especially marijuana. A thoughtful article by Mike Gray in the Washington Post points out the similarities between the prohibition era and the present day. The onset of prohibition created the gangsters of the 1920’s and early 1930’s.
“Capone and his boys were agents of misguided policy. Ninety years ago, the United States tried to cure the national thirst for alcohol, and it led to an explosion of violence unlike anything we'd ever seen. Today, it's hard to ignore the echoes of Prohibition in the drug-related mayhem along our southern border.
***
“When we erected an artificial barrier between alcohol producers and consumers in 1920, we created a bonanza more lucrative than the Gold Rush. The staggering profits from illegal booze gave mobsters the financial power to take over legitimate businesses and expand into casinos, loan sharking, labor racketeering and extortion. Thus we created the major crime syndicates -- and the U.S. murder rate jumped tenfold.
***
“Today [incarceration rate is] back up where it was at the peak of Prohibition -- 10 per 100,000 -- a jump clearly connected to the war on drugs. And anyone who's watching what's going on south of the border can see that we're headed for an era of mayhem that would make Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello weak in the knees.
***
“Ending prohibition won't solve our drug problem. But it will save us from something far worse. And it will put drug addiction back in the hands of the medical profession, where it was being dealt with successfully -- until we called in the cops.”
***
“When we erected an artificial barrier between alcohol producers and consumers in 1920, we created a bonanza more lucrative than the Gold Rush. The staggering profits from illegal booze gave mobsters the financial power to take over legitimate businesses and expand into casinos, loan sharking, labor racketeering and extortion. Thus we created the major crime syndicates -- and the U.S. murder rate jumped tenfold.
***
“Today [incarceration rate is] back up where it was at the peak of Prohibition -- 10 per 100,000 -- a jump clearly connected to the war on drugs. And anyone who's watching what's going on south of the border can see that we're headed for an era of mayhem that would make Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello weak in the knees.
***
“Ending prohibition won't solve our drug problem. But it will save us from something far worse. And it will put drug addiction back in the hands of the medical profession, where it was being dealt with successfully -- until we called in the cops.”
The result of decriminalization in other countries has not led to chaos. As a general rule, possession of marijuana in small quantities for personal recreational use is accepted or at least tolerated.
I do not go that far.
I believe medical use of marijuana should be permitted upon a physician’s order. I believe that marijuana use should be restricted to adults. I believe that the operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana should be prohibited and strictly enforced. All of these are now the law with respect to alcohol and, if DUI laws can be enforced and underage drinking prohibited, there is no reason why pot use cannot be restricted.
It would be better for there to be no drugs, of course. But they exist and to punish the use in draconian fashion is a waste of resources and attention. There will be a number of individuals who cease to be productive citizens, but are their conduct worthy of criminal prosecution?
I think not.
For addional information:
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
The substance of this article has been published by the author on EXAMINER.COM
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