The War on Drugs is a failure. No news there.
In particular, the criminalization of marijuana has been one of the greatest legal outrages of the 20th (and now into the 21st) century.
We have always allowed the use of recreational drugs in North American society: tobacco and (except for a brief period of U.S. insanity) alcohol. Yet both alcohol and tobacco are toxic and addictive – and directly connected to the deaths of millions of people around the world each year.
Cannabis – and the cannabinoids it contains -- is non-toxic and non-addictive. Rather than killing people, these cannabinoids are considered potent (and safe) medicine as well as efficacious health supplements.
They occur naturally in the human body. Mothers pass along cannabinoids in their mother’s milk to promote infant health. We don’t feed infants alcohol or tobacco.
In short, in any rational universe, if there was only one drug legalized for consumption in our society, it would be cannabis. Put another way, there is no rational universe where alcohol and tobacco would be legal for consumption, but cannabis would not.
It is in this context that we can view the recent opinion piece written by Virginia Attorney General, Mark R. Herring.
Herring begins:
Virginia’s policy of criminalizing minor marijuana possession is not working. It is needlessly creating criminals and burdening Virginians with convictions. The human and social costs are enormous, in addition to the millions of dollars it costs Virginia taxpayers. And the negative consequences of the current approach fall disproportionately on African Americans and people of color.
Correct. A totally failed policy. It gets worse.
Overall arrests for marijuana possession have increased by about 115%, from around 13,000 in 2003 to nearly 28,000 in 2017. The number of first-time marijuana convictions in Virginia has also risen dramatically, from 6,500 in 2008 to 10,000 in 2017.
Despicable. Fortunately, there are now signs of enlightenment from the Virginia AG’s office. Herring continues.
That is why Virginia should decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, address past convictions and start moving toward legal and regulated adult use.
Correct.
The highest priority for state lawmakers (as well as Congress) with respect to cannabis laws is legalization. Preventing more damage from very, very, very bad laws.
A distant second in terms of priorities is to fine-tune the administration of legalized cannabis laws within particular jurisdictions.
Getting these priorities straight will allow the cannabis industry to move as quickly as possible in replacing the black market as the primary source for this safe recreational drug and potent medicine. And Colorado has already collected over $1 billion in cannabis taxes and fees.
Let’s put this into context. Current negotiations to legalize cannabis in New York state are on the brink of collapsing because of dithering over whether local communities should be able to veto cannabis commerce and squabbling over the (potential) tax revenues.
Meanwhile, more people continue to be convicted of minor cannabis offenses in New York. No taxes are flowing to the state from adult-use cannabis. The black market and organized crime continue to profit.
If elected officials in the United States (and Canada) would stop pretending that cannabis is (somehow) “a dangerous drug”, it would be much easier for the politicians to:
a) Get their priorities right and make fully legalizing cannabis a top priority
b) Get this done much, much faster (and better)
There was never any legitimate reason to criminalize cannabis. There are numerous, strong reasons to legalize cannabis usage.
One by one, U.S. states are seeing the light. Canada has already acted nationally.
But propaganda-fueled resistance and apprehension toward cannabis remains strong in many pockets. And then there are the dinosaurs in Washington…
Virginia Attorney General: Time to Move to Cannabis Legalization
