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

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.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n360/a07.html
Newshawk: Kirk
Votes: 1
Pubdate: Thu, 22 Mar 2007
Source: AlterNet (US Web)
Copyright: 2007 Independent Media Institute
Contact: letters@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Website: http://www.alternet.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1451
Author: Paul Armentano
Note: Paul Armentano is the senior policy analyst for NORML and the
NORML Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)


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