Criminalization of Marijuana

How many of you went to a school that participated in the D.A.R.E. program? According to a report by the General Accounting Office, the “non-partisan investigative arm of the U.S. Congress”, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program commonly known as D.A.R.E is ineffective and “The six long-term evaluations of the D.A.R.E. elementary school curriculum that we reviewed found no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received D.A.R.E. in the fifth or sixth grade (the intervention group) and students who did not (the control group).” This is just one example of the millions of dollars wasted on the government’s war on drugs. In my opinion, and those of many others, the entire “drug war” is a huge waste of money and valuable human resources. And where marijuana is concerned, there has been no substantial evidence that its prohibition has had any conclusive effect at all. The current drug policy on marijuana is not only ineffective but harmful to not only yourselves, but society as a whole. The criminalization of marijuana is not the solution; it’s part of the problem.

First of all, the current laws prohibiting the use and possession of marijuana do not stop anyone from using or possessing it. It has been found that Marijuana use remains consistent despite a high level of enforcement, and there is no detectable relationship between changes in enforcement and levels of marijuana use over time. In fact studies have shown that marijuana offenders continue to use marijuana after their conviction at rates equal to those prior to their arrest. No relation between the actual or perceived severity of their previous sentence and subsequent use has been found. If marijuana were decriminalized, police would be able to focus their efforts and resources on more important issues. In a Uniform Crime Report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it is stated that “Police arrest more Americans per year on marijuana charges than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.” In 1997 it was found that the annual amount taxpayers spend on arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations is between 7.5 and 10 billion dollars. 90% of these arrests were for marijuana possession only.

A common belief of the average person is that decriminalization of marijuana will lead to more people using it. In the year 2000, the Journal of Public Health Policy said that the rate at which marijuana is consumed under decriminalization laws is less than or comparable to where it is a criminal offense. In actuality the Connecticut Law Review Commission says that “States and regions that have maintained the strictest criminal penalties for marijuana possession have experienced the largest proportionate increase in use.”

Now consider what you know about the harms associated with marijuana use as compared to the price if you are caught. Most people our age wouldn’t really get all bent out of shape and call the police because someone you know smokes weed. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, convicted marijuana offenders are denied federal financial student aid, welfare and food stamps, and may be removed from public housing. Other non-drug violations do not carry such penalties. In many states, convicted marijuana offenders are automatically stripped of their driving privileges, even if the offense is not driving related. In several states, marijuana offenders may receive maximum sentences of life in prison. President Jimmy Carter once said "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use." Furthermore, the harms that are associated with drug use can be avoided by the same forms of regulation that are applied to legal drugs. For instance, think about all those drugs that are prescribed to millions of people on a regular basis. The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine says that "except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications." In a book called Sex, Drugs, Death, And The Law, the author notes that any drug used in sufficiently high dosages or in certain contexts (such as with other drugs) will probably cause severe harm. In other words, of course a drug can cause possibly serious harm to you if you use too much of it. It is the responsibility of such organizations as the Food and Drug Administration to find out about and regulate such drugs so that health concerns are addressed. I mean, they do it with everything else. When looking at the idea, or