Cannabis Policy: Getting Past Prohibition

By Brian Grimmer

For those interested in a career in public policy, the past general election was a breaking point in the War on Drugs in America. On November 7, 2012 cannabis users around the world celebrated as voters in the states of Washington and Colorado chose to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal or “recreational” use. On that same day, Massachusetts became the 18th state to adopt compassionate laws allowing the use of cannabis as medicine. Arkansas could have been the 19th state to adopt medical cannabis had their 2012 Medical Marijuana Act not been narrowly defeated at the polls (Arkansas State 2012).

Across the nation, states are looking at their cannabis laws and considering change. Thanks to the economic realities of the modern world, the hemp industry continues to gain support as America’s view towards cannabis changes from fear and revulsion to reluctant acceptance. Even the Federal stance against cannabis is softening somewhat.

In 2005, documents from the United States Department of Agriculture suggested that the United States should cultivate hemp (Congressional Research 2012). Across America, with few exceptions, the social opinion of cannabis is improving as the medical use of the drug becomes an accepted social norm (Murray et al. 2012). Veterans suffering from injuries sustained while serving their country need not feel pressured to risk their benefits over medicinal cannabis use. As of 2010, the Veterans Administration has eased restrictions on cannabis use in states where medicinal-use is legal (Davis 2012).

In the wake of his recent election to serve a second term, and the success of ballot initiatives in Colorado and Washington, President Obama appears to have taken a softer approach towards cannabis. Possibly beginning to succumb to public will regarding the acceptance of cannabis use in America, in an interview with Barbara Walters, President Obama declared that recreational users in Colorado and Washington were a low priority and that the government had “bigger fish to fry” (Dwyer 2012). As per the Eric Holder memo, the President’s position on cannabis is less than comforting for cannabis users and legislators across the nation.

While these victories at the polls and within our social institutions are not the first enjoyed by the cannabis culture, the political fallout resulting from these allowances combined with the passage of cannabis legalization measures in two states has spread around the world. Leaders from across the world, particularly Latin America, are lining up to speak out against America’s failed War on Drugs (Serrano 2013; Padget 2012). Some national leaders are speaking out in favor of the European approach to legalization as they realize the economic drain endured by their countries because of the costs of incarceration and the enforcement of prohibition brought on by the War on Drugs (Serrano 2013). Even in the United States, the winds of change are now blowing with purpose as Congressmen Jared Polis (D-CO) and Earl Blumenhauer (D-OR) introduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013 in early February 2013.

With the eventual end of cannabis prohibition on the horizon, new public policy will need to be developed. The need for policy generation will continue far beyond the mere taxation and regulation of cannabis as a newly legal commodity. Schools, universities, the workplace, the military and other institutions will need to generate new policies as society officially sanctions a third recreational intoxicant. After 75 years of oppression, the cannabis community will certainly be demanding legislation to clear the records and release millions of POWs of the Drug War.

Because of the War on Drugs, the United States has more prisoners than any other country in the world. The United States has a mere 5% of the world’s population, yet houses a whopping 25% of the world’s inmates. The United States even outpaces Russia in rates of incarceration, which holds a distant second (Liptak 2012).

Despite the best efforts of Federal authorities to suppress cannabis use in the United States, statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration show the utter failure in these endeavors. In 2011, cannabis was determined to be the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States with an estimated 18.1 million users. Additionally, cannabis was the drug of choice by 80.5 percent of current illicit drug users in 2011 with approximately 64.3 percent of illicit drug users using nothing more than cannabis in the past month (Substance Abuse 2012).

According to Mumula and Karberg (2007), of the 1,414,846 prisoners in state and Federal prisons across America, nearly 145,000 were incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes. In The Price of Prisons; What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers, Henrichson and Delaney (2012) determine the average cost to house a prisoner for one year is $31,286. Simple math shows that cannabis prohibition has become a trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded money-maker for the American prison industry.

It is commonly accepted that profits drive American ideals. The people are weary of the Drug War, and its drain on the economy is unsustainable (Perez 2012). As cannabis laws change, the prison industry will have to adapt as well. Without an influx of marijuana users and producers, the prison system will empty, easing conditions of overcrowding.

As society continues to reframe its positions on cannabis and drugs in general, there will be a growing need to develop policies that recognize drug-abuse as a public health issue. The legitimization of job skills (growing, processing, and selling of cannabis) that were once taboo creates opportunity where there once was social scorn and great risk involved. With legalization comes the reward of taxation, both of the commodity, and the labor behind its production, distribution, and sale in addition to the revenues generated for service providers. While the trillion-dollar prison industry is certain to take a hit (no pun intended), the money generated from legal cannabis will replace the losses. Hemp, combined with medicinal and recreational cannabis, and their respective industries, could potentially provide enough jobs to rescue the American economy.

Works Cited:

"Arkansas State General Election November 6, 2012." Arkansas Secretary of State. Arkansas Secretary of State, 21 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.

Davis, Alexander C., Moving to Mellow: How the New Medical Marijuana Policy at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Fits into the Growing Effort to Legalize Pot in America (April 9, 2012). Available at SSRN: <http://ssrn.com/abstract=2037479> or <http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2037479>.

Dwyer, Devin. "Marijuana Not High Obama Priority." ABC News. ABC News Network, 14 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.

Henrichson, Christian and Delaney, Ruth. The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers. New York: Vera Institute of Justice, Print. 2012.

Liptak, Adam. "Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’" New York Times 23 Apr. 2008: n. pag. New York Times. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.

Mumola , Christopher J., and Karberg, Jennifer C., "Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004," Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, January 2007) NCJ 213530, p. 4. Print.

Murray, Robin M., Paul D. Morrison, Cécile Henquet, and Marta Di Forti. "Cannabis, the Mind and Society: The Hash Realities." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 8.11 (2007): 885-95. Print.

Padget, Timt. "Uruguay’s Plan to Legalize Marijuana Sales: Should the Rest of the World Follow?" Time World. Time, 26 June 2012. Web. 29 Dec. 2012.

Perez, Fernando M. "Chapter 4: Obama, Progressivism, Harm Reduction, and Drug Policy: From War to Health and Rights." Grading the 44th President: A Report Card on Barack Obama's First Term as a Progressive Leader. By Luigi Esposito and Laura L. Finley. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. 86-94. Print.

Serrano, Alfonso. "U.S. Marijuana Laws Ricochet Through Latin America." Time World. Time, 7 Jan. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings, NSDUH Series H-44, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 12-4713. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Web. 2012.

Congressional Research Service. Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity. By Renée Johnson. Congressional Research Service, 18 Dec. 2012. Web.