Once again, I will be targeting the notion of the United States being the land of the free, but this time from a greener perspective: let’s talk about marijuana.  While I know most of you probably have some knowledge of this substance (after all, it is becoming obscenely more common –– it was just last weekend I was walking downtown with friends only to be met with the strong, all-telling smell and a group of individuals tucked into an alley with a lighter), I’m going to do a bit of background for you.  Also known as weed, pot, herb, the devil’s lettuce (my personal favorite) and more, marijuana sits federally illegal, classified as a Schedule 1 drug –– the most serious category under the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act.  This means that marijuana has been determined by the federal government to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse; both statements, however, have now been proven to be scientifically untrue.  Sitting beside marijuana under the Schedule 1 category is fentanyl, heroin, ecstasy, etc which have all been tied to an upsettingly large number of overdoses, whereas marijuana alone has never been tied a single overdose.  Marijuana has a big support group behind it, with 91% of Americans agree with legalizing it medicinally and 66% supporting full recreational legalization.  The decision seems to be up to the states right now, with 21 states legalizing weed for medical use and 10 states plus DC legalizing it recreationally.  In total, over half of the states (30 plus DC) have loosened marijuana laws to some degree, with many (like PA) decriminalizing the substance.     

Now let’s get on the same page scientifically.  The use of marijuana medicinally has been shown to greatly help pain relief for chronic conditions and heavily decrease the debilitating nature of many symptoms of mental illness (many preferring it to commonly used pharmaceuticals, such as SSRI’s which can come with many side effects).  The vast majority of users highly recommend it.  Marijuana is also significantly less dangerous and damaging to the user than many other drugs, such as one we are all probably familiar with –– alcohol (We Are … a party school after all).  A UK study scored drugs on a scale of 100 to indicate their harm to the user and harm to those around the user.  Overall (including both harm to user and those around), alcohol was clocked at a score of 72, sweeping the competition and taking first place (Maybe take off State Patties Day this year –– 21 and over of course).  It was then followed by heroin (score of 55) and crack cocaine (score of 54) –– who knew alcohol was even comparable, much less more harmful than heroin (just a quick clarification –– I am in no way advocating for drug use and underage alcohol use –– please do not look at these statistics and suddenly think heroin is a good idea, nor weed for that matter, as it is only decriminalized and still illegal here in PA). Marijuana did not even score within the top 10 on the danger scale, rating it as a much safer substance than the already legal alcohol.  With this knowledge, you can understand why some consider marijuana prohibition as undemocratic, with many believing that governmental interference with this substance violates our rights.   

Now, let’s get into the benefits of legalizing marijuana on the criminal justice system.  We already talked about the US’s mass incarceration problem in my last post, as well as what was partially to blame –– The War on Drugs (which is debatable The War on Weed if you look at arrest rates).  A big statistic to mention along these lines is that 1 out of 5 incarcerated individuals are serving their time for a drug offense.  In 2018, there were around 663,000 arrests that were marijuana related, with 608,000 of them being for possession –– not distribution.  This means that marijuana laws are targeting mainly users, not dealers.  It costs around $30,000-$35,000 to house a single inmate per year –– do the math here.  This ginormous sum of money goes to housing individuals who merely recreationally use marijuana, most of which are probably all law-abiding citizens outside of this.  This money could be quickly funded to other realms that needed it –– whether it be back into bettering the prison system or other realms of the economy –– not to mention it would free up space in our overly crowded prisons for other more worthy offenders.  Costs of arrests could be saved as well, with low-ball estimates putting spending at about $1000 per individual arrest.  This means that anywhere from 600 million to 3 billion dollars could be saved by no longer having to arrest recreational marijuana users –– with this money, we could double the funding in place for substance abuse and mental health research (but no, let’s go get those good-for-nothing stoners … right?).  By legalizing marijuana, it also leaves police on the street longer: rather than leaving to make a marijuana possession arrest (typically taking an officer off the streets for an hour or two per arrest), officers could be out patrolling for more worthy offenses or strengthening their ties to the community.  Legalization has also been shown to decrease violent crime as well and would likely take large amounts of power/funding to gangs and cartels.   

If you thought the 3 billion saved from not arresting people was a lot, wait until you get a load of this.  It is estimated that the illegal marijuana industry is worth anywhere from $30 to $40 billion dollars.  So why not let this become an American business industry rather than a gang/cartel industry?   In the states where it is already legalized, the weed industry is worth about 9.7 billion dollars.  Estimates say that if legalized, the industry could generate about $132 billion dollars in tax revenue in an 8-year time frame. With that much money, we could EASILY cure homelessness in the US.  The industry could generate up to a million jobs as well.   

So, let’s get our asses in gear and legalize it.  We would help our criminal justice system and our prisons with one piece of legislation.  We could cure homelessness (because Jeff Bezos doesn’t seem inclined).  Money freed up and generated could go to needed stimulus checks, COVID relief, universal health care, low-income housing, the military (gotta throw one in for the Republicans), veteran support –– literally anything!! If nothing else, legalize it for 420.   

Sources:

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2018/05/01/450201/rethinking-federal-marijuana-policy/ 

https://www.boisestate.edu/bluereview/how-marijuana-legalization-would-benefit-the-criminal-justice-system/ 

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/fulltext