It's Time to Legalize Marijuana for All Americans
Marijuana Law Reform in 2010 (March Update)
With New Jersey recently becoming the 14th medical marijuana state, activists in marijuana law reform have been celebrating. After all, over 82 million Americans now live in states where medical use of marijuana is legal – that’s 27% of the US population! Last election, Massachusetts became the 13th decriminalization state, which means over 107 million Americans live in a state where possession of small personal amounts of marijuana no longer merit an arrest – that’s 35% of the US population.
Population of States with Medical Marijuana Laws
Population of States that have Decriminalized Marijuana
However, after watching fourteen years of marijuana activism focused solely on those who use cannabis for medicine, I must warn activists that medical marijuana is not getting any better and the time for re-legalization of cannabis for all adults – even the healthy ones – is now.
Comparison of five core rights found in existing medical marijuana law
Medical marijuana was a great 20th century strategy to get the sick and dying off the battlefield in the war on drugs. It was the perfect vehicle to enlighten the public, who for so long have been indoctrinated into the reefer madness that classifies cannabis like LSD and heroin. But in the 21st century the idea that marijuana is only a medicine is beginning to take hold and governments and voters are crafting ever-more-restrictive medical marijuana laws. For the vast majority of cannabis consumers this threatens to move us from the category of “illegal drug users” to “possessors of medicine without a prescription” – a step up, perhaps, but still left facing criminal prosecution.
California legalized medical marijuana in 1996. That initiative, Prop-215, established what is clearly the most liberal medical marijuana statute to date:
- A doctor can recommend for any condition;
- You needn’t have a “bona fide” doctor/patient relationship;
- Dispensaries are allowed;
- Self cultivation is allowed;
- Patients are protected from arrest.
Comparison of plant and possession limits and qualifying conditions in medical marijuana law
If we consider these five attributes of the law the baseline, then in the past fourteen years, all thirteen medical marijuana states that have followed have failed to achieve all five. Eight states only offer three or four of those liberties and the rest offer two or only one. Most disturbingly, the right of patients to grow their own medicine (or have a caregiver do it for them), which has been a bedrock principle in medical marijuana law, was taken away from patients in the most recent medical marijuana state, New Jersey. Bills that were considered but vetoed in 2009 in Minnesota and New Hampshire, and those moving forward in New York, Pennsylvania, as well as an initiative in Arizona, all sacrifice this core right.
New Jersey - The (No Medical Marijuana) Garden State
A comparison of plant and possession limits also shows the decline from the original starting point in California, where 12 plants and 8 ounces are allowed. Oregon and Washington passed their laws next and have the highest statutory limits: 24 plants and 24 ounces in Oregon and 15 plants and 24 ounces in Washington. (To be fair, all the West Coast states started with lower limits or more vague limits that were modified by the legislature.) But since then, only one state has allowed more than 3 ounces (New Mexico with 6 ounces) and average number of plants allowed is a little less than ten.
The "Big 8" Conditions for which marijuana is recommended in the states
Another decline in medical marijuana freedom appears when we look at the conditions for which medical marijuana protection is afforded in the various states. There are eight conditions which could be considered the “standard” ones: cancer; HIV/AIDS; seizure disorders, like epilepsy; spastic disorders, like multiple sclerosis; glaucoma; chronic nausea; cachexia; and chronic pain. Most medical marijuana states recognize all eight conditions; a couple (Vermont and Rhode Island) recognize seven of eight.
Other conditions recognized in state medical marijuana laws (not a complete list)
The latest law in New Jersey, however, eliminated chronic pain, chronic nausea, and cachexia, making it the most restrictive list in the nation. The bill proposed but vetoed in New Hampshire required one to try all other remedies for chronic pain before trying medical marijuana. The vetoed Minnesota bill wouldn’t even allow cancer and HIV/AIDS patients to use medical marijuana unless they could show they were terminal (about to die). The lists in the latest proposed bills continue to become more restricted.
Until we do have legalization for all, every medical marijuana law is going to fail to adequately serve all medical users and subject them to increasing restriction and scrutiny. Additionally, medical marijuana laws make patients an attractive target for criminals because prohibition maintains huge profits for stolen medical cannabis, as well as becoming targets for overzealous anti-marijuana cops and prosecutors.
The reason the recent medical marijuana laws are losing ground is not a failure of the medical marijuana strategy, but rather due to its success. Medical marijuana has portrayed the herb as “powerful and effective medicine”. Well, what do we do with powerful and effective medicines? We keep them under lock and key. We require people to visit doctors. We strictly monitor prescription pads. We bust people who have them without proper papers.
Rather than justifying the prohibitionists’ shibboleth of medical marijuana as “the camel’s nose under the tent” for legalization, I’m arguing it’s the opposite: that continuing the medical marijuana strategy further cements the “powerful and effective medicine” frame and takes us farther away from treating cannabis as a personal choice of relaxant. We’ll get to a point where the public accepts “powerful and effective cannabis medicine” and looks upon personal use like we look at someone getting fraudulent scrips for painkillers.
If one of the West Coast states doesn’t pull off legalization soon, the pendulum is going to swing back the other way on marijuana. The economic incentives may fade if the economy recovers and then the tax & regulate argument fizzles. And if we are going to continue working on medical marijuana, the bills and initiatives need to get better, not worse. The way it’s looking now is that the Northeast and upper Midwest are going to institute chronic conditions-only, 2 oz limit, strict registry, only personal doctor, no home grow, state-run dispensary medical marijuana for $15/gram in the next six years. How then do we approach those people and say, “Hey, you know that powerful and effective medical marijuana that you only let a few hundred really sick people use after jumping though a mile of hoops? We think everybody should have it and jump through no hoops!”
Medical marijuana would never have passed in any state if it were not for the votes of non-medical users of marijuana. I do believe it is time for medical marijuana patients in the states that have programs to “repay the favor” and fight as hard for legalization as social tokers fought for medical. Only patients can best make the argument that while prohibition exists, they will always face job discrimination, loss of child custody, high black market prices, housing discrimination, and the sneers of the Bill O’Reillys who think 99% of medical marijuana patients are faking. So long as the prohibition profit exists, there will always be these CBS Undercover investigations casting a pall on all legitimate medical marijuana because of the irresponsible acts of a few.
Maybe I’m just too much of a dreamer. I imagine acres and acres of hemp fields, huge indoor hydroponic cannabis warehouses, thriving cafes and coffeehouses, some folks growing their own in a garage or closet, regular outdoor festivals and special indoor events where cannabis smoking is permitted, buying and selling all varieties of cannabis from ounces at a farmer’s market to bulk bales at CostCo… and none of that is done with “powerful and effective medicines”.
I don’t think that it is reformer’s job to pass medical marijuana in all fifty states first and then worry about legalization in one. I think states that have medical should be moving forward on legalization, states without should focus on better medical laws by calling prohibitionists’ bluff on “marijuana outta control!” in the Western states with liberal medical laws.
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Prohibition is a sickening horror and the ocean of human wreckage it has left in its wake is almost endless.
Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation. By its very nature prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model - the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous, ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved.
Prohibition ideology is based on lies and the 'War on Drugs' is a de facto ' war on people' (some might even successfully argue that it's a de facto race war). Prohibition has decimated generations and criminalized millions for a behavior which is entwined in human existence, and for what other purpose than to uphold the defunct and corrupt thinking of a minority of misguided, self-righteous Neo-Puritans and degenerate demagogues who wish nothing but unadulterated destruction on the rest of us!
As our economy continues to slide into the cesspool,that our legislators and greed has created,the ONDCP is lieing to congress about it's successes in the war on drugs ,and want even more money
too continue their way of life.
WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- Nations are working together to address the worldwide threat posed by activity, U.S. National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday.
The last two decades have seen a strengthening global resolve to address the issue of drug production, trafficking and use, Kerlikowske testified during a hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
Addressing the drug issue requires strong domestic drug control, treatment and prevention programs in the United States, and international collaboration to disrupt the flow of illicit drugs , he said.
"We must also do the same with our non- law enforcement efforts, such as capacity building of democratic institutions, improving justice systems, strengthening community capacity to resist and prevent substance abuse , and providing opportunities to at-risk youth so they do not become involved in either drug abuse or the drug trade," Kerlikowske said.
The nation's drug enforcement czar told the panel progress has been made in several international efforts, including interdiction of drug trafficking between South America and the United States and disruption of drug-trafficking organizations in Colombia.
"As a major drug-consuming nation, it is in our best interest to work collaboratively with our international partners to reduce the global drug trade," Kerlikowske said. "Such efforts not only protect the public health and safety of our citizens, they also fulfill our responsibilities to assist those nations which have been severely impacted by drug use outside their borders."
Strengthening resolve? With several South American countries removing their laws against marijuana ,refusing to allow the DEA into their countries any longer,because of collateral damages too
their farmers legal crops when they sprayed large tracts of farmlands with chemicals ,that killed legal crops as well as the drug plants they were targeting.
Strong drug control? What drug control? The criminals control the drugs . We have handed the ONDCP over a trillion dollars since the war on drugs was declared,and there are more drugs available than ever. and regardless of wht the drug warriors do,the prohibition of drugs has created a black market with so much money going into it that there are 10 people waiting to take any "dealers" place,if they are removed.
Reduce the drug trade? Is that why he allowed the 2009 opium crop to be sold on the black market,instead of buying it and destroying 80% of the worlds opium and heroin production?
Protect the public health? And sell alcohol and tobacco in just about every town in America,two of the deadliest drugs available.
The ONDCP is a frigging joke and a scam.
If you have a chance, please read the vitrol posted on this highschool " news " web page. http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/articleid/341285/newspaperid/411/LEGALIZING_MARIJUANA_Pot_only_leads_to_trouble.aspx
The time for Marijuana Legalization is WAY overdue.
The first step in getting marijuana legalized is to educate people on the current laws . When people find out the penalties for simple possession, even conservatives , they are appalled by the wasted money and effort that is spent prosecuting marijuana consumers, instead of the high level drug dealers that the laws should be going after.
Marijuana use itself is not that bad, it's the marijuana laws that are the problem. If someone chooses to consume marijuana, they should do it responsibly. The first step toward re- education on marijuana is getting people to realize what the current laws even are. Depending on what state you are in, you can get jail time and hefty firnes for just testing positive for marijuana or possessing a used pipe. Want to know what the marijuana laws are in your state? Go to http://www.theweedblog.com to find out. There is lots of interesting stuff on that site.