Still, in some states penalties for minor possession or sale of the substance can land you in jail for a very long time or even get you the death penalty. As many as thirteen percent of drug-related prison inmates are in for minor marijuana possession charges. This costs the American taxpayer over $1 billion a year and the number is growing. In 2007 872,721 people were arrested for marijuana violations, the largest number ever, and 90 percent of those arrests were for possession only.
A commission under then President Nixon issued a report that stated that moderate use of cannabis was not toxic, did not cause physical dependency or psychosis, and did not lead to the use of harder drugs and recommended that use of small amounts be decriminalized. Nixon rejected the report.
Likewise, in Texas, a committee including then state senator Barbara Jordan declared that "the public interest would best be served by making marijuana available through legal channels with carefully controlled quality and heavy taxation and treating it as "simply another recreational drug like alcohol.
However, over the decades, politicians at the national level have steered clear of scaling back the war on drugs to avoid appearing soft on crime which has become a "third rail of sorts during heated political campaigns. Even President Obama chuckled at the idea of legalization during a press conference. Why? Those who disapprove of easing laws on moral grounds see making the behavior legal as de facto approval of the behavior and they see the behavior as immoral. Then there are those who oppose reform because they see it as threatening their livelihood. In either case these groups seem to have much sway on Capitol Hill.
During the Reagan administration the war on drugs was ramped up and the appointment of a national "drug czar spearheaded renewed efforts to purge the nation of illegal drug use even stating that it had become their policy to create a "Drug-Free America by 1995 . We all know how that went.
A British medical journal stated that "Sooner or later politicians will have to stop running scared and address the evidence: cannabis per se is not a hazard to society, but driving it further underground may well be.
Legalization can and does achieve the desired results. World Health Organization studies have shown that marijuana use and overall drug use in the Netherlands, where it is legal, is much lower than in the United States.
Americans seem to have a hard time learning the lessons of experience. We tried prohibition with alcohol and it didn't work; the government lost millions in taxes and organized crime became an established segment of society. After several years of enduring the negative effects of alcohol prohibition it was lifted even though alcohol use is known to cause violent behavior.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
