Defending the Truth

IT'S BEEN AN 'ALL OUT WAR' ON POT SMOKERS FOR 35 YEARS

by Paul Armentano, (Source:AlterNet)
United States

Thirty-five years ago this month, a congressionally mandated commission on U.S. drug policy did something extraordinary: They told the truth about marijuana.

On March 22, 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana ( sic ) and Drug Abuse -- chaired by former Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond P. Shafer - -- recommended Congress amend federal law so that the use and possession of pot would no longer be a criminal offense. State legislatures, the commission added, should do likewise.

"[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use," concluded the commission, which included several conservative appointees of then-President Richard Nixon. "It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior, which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.

"... Therefore, the commission recommends ... [that the] possession of marihuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration, no longer be an offense."

Nixon, true to his "law-and-order" roots, shelved the report -- announcing instead that when it came to weed, "We need, and I use the word 'all out war' on all fronts." For the last 35 years, that's what we've had.

Consider this: Since the Shafer Commission issued its recommendations:

* Approximately 16.5 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana violations -- more than 80 percent of them on minor possession charges.

* U.S. taxpayers have spent well over $20 billion enforcing criminal marijuana laws, yet marijuana availability and use among the public remains virtually unchanged.

* Nearly one-quarter of a million Americans have been denied federal financial aid for secondary education because of anti-drug provisions to the Higher Education Act. Most of these applicants were convicted of minor marijuana possession offenses.

* Total U.S. marijuana arrests increased 165 percent during the 1990s, from 287,850 in 1991 to well over 700,000 in 2000, before reaching an all-time high of nearly 800,000 in 2005. However, according to the government's own data, this dramatic increase in the number of persons arrested for pot was not associated with any reduction in the number of new users, any reduction in marijuana potency, or any increases in the black market price of marijuana.

* Currently, one in eight inmates incarcerated for drug crimes is behind bars for pot, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1 billion per year.

Perhaps most troubling, the factor most likely to determine whether or not these citizens serve jail time or not isn't the severity of their "crime," but rather where they live. Today there are growing regional disparities in marijuana penalties and marijuana law enforcement -- ranging from no penalty in Alaska to potential life in prison in Oklahoma. In fact, if one were to drive from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., he or she would traverse more than a dozen jurisdictions, all with varying degrees of penalties and/or tolerance toward the possession and use of pot.

Does this sound like a successful national policy?

There is another approach, of course. The Shafer Commission showed the way more than three decades ago.

Marijuana isn't a harmless substance, and those who argue for a change in the drug's legal status do not claim it to be. However, as noted by the commission, pot's relative risks to the user and society are arguably fewer than those of alcohol and tobacco, and they do not warrant the expenses associated with targeting, arresting and prosecuting hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.

According to federal statistics, about 94 million Americans -- that's 40 percent of the U.S. population age 12 or older -- self-identify as having used cannabis at some point in their lives, and relatively few acknowledge having suffered significant deleterious health effects due to their use. America's public policies should reflect this reality, not deny it. It makes no sense to continue to treat nearly half of all Americans as criminals.

Paul Armentano is the senior policy analyst for NORML and the NORML Foundation in Washington, D.C.

NORML.ORG US: Web: It's Been An 'All Out War' On Pot Smokers For 35 Years

Possession of and use of cannabis is a criminal drug offense in this Country at this time. If people wish to take a chance to break the law, then they should not complain and be surprised when they are caught and punished by our criminal system. Why can't people play by the rules and obey our laws against possession of and use of pot? Because our laws are 'unfair' and ridiculous to them?

Tough cookies.

So, if abortions were mandated by law in the US for all women who already have had one child, you wouldn't write about such a law's "unfairness"...which is what this article is doing concerning marijuana?

"Tough cookies" about all those forced abortions, aye Jaaman?

Just because a 'so called law is unfair' to someone does not give that person a right to go out and break the law because it is 'unfair' to them. They in return will face the penalty of their decision if they are caught.

Like Rosa Parks.
I don't get why someone can be so famous for breaking the law

Oh... the irony!

Spare me.

spare you WHAT?
he's absolutely accurate.
There are many laws (and HAVE BEEN many laws) that are wrong, unfair, unjust...and sometimes just plain stupid.
That doesn't mean that they're right - just because they're laws.
The article posted makes it quite clear that these laws are a great waste of time, and MY MONEY. I don't want to waste my money on some high school kids who get caught smoking a joint. Especially when they do NOT go to jail (or even get prosecuted) when they get caught drinking a FIFTH of Jack Daniels.

It was the people who broke what they considered to be unjust laws who formed America...ummmm...Mr. Loyalist.


"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." - Henry David Thoreau

LONDON -- New "landmark" research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, according to a new British study.

In research published Friday in The Lancet magazine, Professor David Nutt of Britain's Bristol University and colleagues proposed a new framework for the classification of harmful substances, based on the actual risks posed to society. Their ranking listed alcohol and tobacco among the top 10 most dangerous substances.

Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use. The researchers asked two groups of experts _ psychiatrists specializing in addiction and legal or police officials with scientific or medical expertise _ to assign scores to 20 different drugs, including heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, amphetamines, and LSD.

Nutt and his colleagues then calculated the drugs' overall rankings. In the end, the experts agreed with each other _ but not with the existing British classification of dangerous substances.

Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth-most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful. Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was Ecstasy.

More....
washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

We could make the same argument about many laws, from speeding to internet gambling

And the "my taxes" argument doesn't hold much water either. They get spent on all kinds of things we may disagree with.

Democracies depend on the rule of law. If you don't like the law there are procedures you can follow to try and change it