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Marijuana cultivation in the United States can trace its lineage some 400 years. Cultivation of marijuana for fiber continued in American through the turn of the 20th century.
During this time, exaggerated accounts of violent crimes allegedly committed by immigrants intoxicated by marijuana became popularized by tabloid newspapers and the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Congress approved the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 based almost entirely on this propaganda and misinformation.
Marijuana remains the third most popular recreational drug of choice in the United States despite 60 years of criminal prohibition.
According to government figures, nearly 70 million Americans have smoked marijuana at some time in their lives. Of these, 18 million have smoked marijuana within the last year, and ten million are regular marijuana smokers.The vast majority of these individuals are otherwise law abiding citizens who work hard, raise families, and contribute to their communities. They are not part of the crime problem and should
not be treated as criminals.
The Clinton administration is waging a more intensive war on marijuana smokers than any other presidency in history. Presently, law enforcement arrests a marijuana smoker every 54 seconds in
America at a tremendous cost to society. This represents a 60 percent increase in marijuana arrests since Clinton took office. Over ten million Americans have been arrested on marijuana
charges since the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse issued its recommendation to Congress in 1972 to decriminalize marijuana.Because of harsh federal and state penalties, marijuana offenders today may be sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Even those who avoid incarceration are subject to an array of additional punishments, including loss of driver s license (even where the offense is not driving related), loss of occupational license, loss of child custody, loss of federal benefits, and removal from public housing.
Under state and federal forfeiture laws, many suspected marijuana offenders lose their cars, cash, boats, land, business equipment, and houses. Eighty percent of the individuals whose assets are
seized are never charged with a crime.
Marijuana prohibition disproportionately impacts minorities.
Blacks and Hispanics are over represented both in the numbers of arrests
and in the numbers of marijuana offenders incarcerated. Blacks
and Hispanics make up 20 percent of the marijuana smokers in the
United States, but comprise 58 percent of the marijuana offenders
sentenced under federal law last year.
Nonviolent marijuana offenders often receive longer prison
sentences than those allotted to violent offenders.Most Americans do not want to spend scarce public funds incarcerating nonviolent marijuana offenders, at a cost of $23,000 per year.
Politicians must reconsider our country's priorities and attach more importance to combating violent crime than targeting marijuana smokers.
Marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers at least $7.5 billion annually. This is an enormous waste of scarce federal dollars that should be used to target violent crime.
Marijuana prohibition makes no exception for the medical use of marijuana. The tens of thousands of seriously ill Americans who presently use marijuana as a therapeutic agent to alleviate symptoms of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, or multiple sclerosis risk arrest and jail to obtain and use their medication.Between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws recognizing marijuana's therapeutic value. Most recently, voters in two states Arizona and California passed laws allowing for the medical use of marijuana under a physician s supervision. Yet, states are severely limited in their ability to implement their medical use laws because of the federal prohibition of marijuana.
America tried alcohol prohibition between 1919 and 1931, but discovered that the crime and violence associated with prohibition was more damaging than the evil sought to be prohibited. With tobacco, America has learned over the last decade that education is the most effective way to discourage use. Yet, America fails to apply these lessons to marijuana policy.
By stubbornly defining all marijuana smoking as criminal, including that which involves adults smoking in the privacy of their own homes, we are wasting police and prosecutorial resources, clogging courts, filling costly and scarce jail and prison space, and needlessly wrecking the lives and careers of genuinely good citizens.
