Tim to Decriminalize

Lately it seems that drug policy and the war on drugs has been in the headlines quite a lot. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the policies that the United States government takes against illegal drugs are coming into question. The mainstream media is catching on to the message of organizations and individuals who have long been considered liberal "Counter Culture" supporters. The marijuana question seems to be the most prevalent and pressed of the drugs and issues that are currently being addressed. The messages of these organizations and individuals include everything from legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, to full-unrestricted legalization of the drug. Of course, the status quo of vote seeking politicians and conservative policy makers has put up a strong resistance to this "new" reform lobby. The reasons for the resistance to the changes in drug policies are multiple and complex. The issues of marijuana's possible negative effects, its use as a medical remedy, the criminality of distribution and usage, and the disparity in the enforcement of current drug laws have all been brought to a head and must be addressed in the near future. It is apparent that it would be irresponsible and wrong for the government to not evaluate it's current general drug policies and perhaps most important, their marijuana policy. With the facts of racial disparity in punishment, detrimental effects, fiscal strain and most importantly, the history of the drug, the government most certainly must come to the conclusion that they must, at the very least, decriminalize marijuana use and quite probably fully legalize it.

The history of marijuana in North America is integral in understanding the reasons it is now illegal and how today's policies have evolved. It is important to look to the past and see factors leading to the outlawing and criminalization of marijuana-especially the stages of misinformation, silence, and the imposition of zero tolerance or severe penalties for such victimless crimes -before looking at the effectiveness and future of these policies. While marijuana was not actually outlawed until the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 it was a part of the country and society since before the arrival of its current transplanted inhabitants. Hemp is the name of a species of Cannabis that has been used throughout history for many things including rope, clothing, medicine, oils and other such novelties. Marijuana and hemp are both of the species Cannabis Sativa and occur naturally along with a score of other variations of the plant. Marijuana is simply a form of hemp that is higher in delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana's naturally occurring psychoactive chemical. Today we hear many nicknames for marijuana including: weed, pot, budda, grass, and bud to name a few. Marijuana has long been used by the indigenous peoples of North and South America for many things, from medical to religious purposes. Of course a select few Europeans exploited narcotics and different types of marijuana. However, in Europe it was not a widespread phenomenon, and neither was it from the time of colonization or even industrialization in America. It was not until the era of the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution, known as prohibition, that marijuana became a widely used substance in the U.S..

A large part of the original fear and misrepresentation of marijuana was due to ethnic and racial concerns, especially in the southeastern United States. Immigrant populations moving from Mexico into the U.S. and some other groups such as Jamaicans and other West Indian transplants from the slave trade were introducing the weed into the population of the U.S. as a recreational drug much like Alcohol or Tobacco. It was a xenophobic reaction to this seemingly alien population and their customs and actions that spawned an early backlash against the drug. In 1937 the federal government created the Marijuana Tax Act, effectively making the sale and possession of the plant illegal. During this early period of a prohibitive stance on marihuana no research was conducted into the effect of the weed and any possible detrimental effects that it could have. Yet due to the government and society wide ignorance of pot and its true characteristics-largely due to an ethnocentric refusal to accept the views of the native and traditional cultures of the continent-weed was assumed by the government and media and consequently society to be a narcotic that caused psychological dependence and led to violent crime and insanity. The first of three general strategies or trends used to fight marijuana in U.S. society was silence and denial. As a consequence of this, discussion of the subject was prohibited in public schools during the 1930's. The Motion Picture Association of America stopped the images of narcotic use from being shown on film. This unofficial and unannounced policy lasted from around 1934 until 1956.

When it became apparent that this approach was ineffective, an approach of gross exaggeration and distortion was launched. The objective of the new policy was to scare people who may use marijuana into abstention. Publications such as medical journals and newspapers printed stories that told of the power of the drug to drive people to heinous inhuman crimes (perhaps such as those which had earlier been committed by the U.S. government on the native population). Such films as Reefer Madness (1936) were framed as "documentaries." Reefer Madness is the most famous of these films and is narrated by a high school principal imparting his wisdom and experiences with the "demon weed". The bulk of the film focuses on almost slapstick scenes of high school kids smoking pot and quickly going insane, playing "evil" jazz music, being committed as insane, and going on murder sprees.

Penalties for marijuana use have historically fluctuated with the public's perception of the level of danger, which the drug posed. In other words, during decades in which the public perceived the drug to be seriously detrimental, the penalties were stiff, and in times when it was seen as less of an issue, the penalties were not as harsh (we are seeing an exception to this pattern at the moment). One of the first mandatory prison sentences for selling marijuana was introduced in the 1950's: a ten year minimum prison sentence for marijuana possession and a mandatory death sentence for selling marijuana to a minor. In the following two decades penalties decreased as usage increased with eleven states eventually decriminalizing personal use. In the 1980's, while usage declined, the so-called