Title: A Continuation of the Decriminalization of Marijuana

INTRODUCTION:

Right now, I would like you to take some time out of your day to count to 31 seconds. Did you notice just how quick that was? Every 31 seconds, it is estimated that someone in the United States is being arrested for a drug offense. This estimate was concluded for any kind of drug-related offense, so let’s consider just marijuana alone. Now, take the time to count to 90 seconds. As of 2020, it has been estimated that every 90 seconds someone in the United States is being arrested for a marijuana-related offense. To put this into perspective, as of 2020, 30% of all drug-related offenses involved marijuana possession (Drug Policy Alliance), although there is no way to get an exact number of incarcerated individuals in for marijuana offenses. One factor in this can be pointed toward jurisdictions that fail to report their data to the national database, which in 2021 averaged to be about 40% of local law enforcement agencies (Last Prisoner Project). Due to this, there are more marijuana arrests than on top of what is actually accounted for, meaning that the overall number of incarcerated individuals on such charges is above 30%. There are various systematic issues associated with marijuana-related offenses. Considering that drug offenses equate to why 1 in 5 inmates are currently locked up and marijuana is known to be a top contributor, it is no surprise that these kinds of offenses directly impact the overcrowding problems that are prevalent in almost all correctional facilities today (Prison Police Initiative). There are also strong indications of racial disparities that are related to marijuana offenses, and also drug offenses in general. Despite similar rates of marijuana usage among all races, at a national level African Americans are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for possessing it than Caucasians. This disparity holds true in every state across the county, even in ones where marijuana has already been legalized (ACLU).

When American adults were asked whether they believe that marijuana should be legalized, a Pew Research Center survey conducted in the year of 2022 found that a large majority (about 56%) felt as though it should be legalized for both medical and recreational purposes. If a majority of Americans feel this way, why are we still battling this issue? As much as this is an issue nationally, it is up to individual states to make decisions on the matter within their borders. Of course, some states have made the move toward full legalization, however, there are still many where it can only be accessed medically or where it is still fully illegal. Although it will take a while for this legalization or decriminalization to happen nationally, we can instead focus in on an individual state, in this case Pennsylvania. It is imperative that Pennsylvania state legislators follow in the foot steps of other states in decriminalizing marijuana at the very least as this will help reduce the number of people confined within the state’s correctional facilities and decrease the statewide gap in racial disparities.

OUTLINE:

Give further background on how it is an imperative problem within Pennsylvania (in overcrowding, discrepancies, and maybe even data on how many state citizens want it to be legalized/decriminalized)

Give context on how states who have legalized/decriminalized it have seen positive outcomes in these problem areas

Express how Pennsylvania legislators can help with the problem (for both current and future “offenders”) and see the same improvements that other states have

Conclusion

NOTES:

• move some of intro into the body (too long, make it more broad)
• good thesis
• change intro, too stylistic for policy paper (cut it down)
• save detailed for later, keep the one in 5 (cut/save some)
• deal with scope of overcrowding in intro
• keep Americans wanting it to be legalized
• John Federman (look into him), former lieutenant governor
• eliminating check the box (felony)
• when you talk about problems and harms (add stuff from intro, repurpose some of intro)
• look at other states to see if they have had decreases
• think about tax dollars being pushed to other states that have it legalized
• prison gerrymandering (people in prison need to be counted as con-situates of their home), they were NOT doing that (giving certain areas more population, they ended up fixing it)