Tony Newman And Stephen Gutwillig Attack The Myths Championed By Prohibitionists

Tony Newman And Stephen Gutwillig have written an article for The Huffington Post, titled "Dismantling the Talking Points of Marijuana Prohibitionists," in which they focus on a couple of prohibitionist spins on the war on drugs. Here are their take on the matter:

Opposition to this reform has crystallized within the drug war establishment, and so has their spin. Here are their top five talking points and the truth beyond them:

Drug Warrior Spin #1: Why would we authorize another harmful substance in our society?
The reality is that marijuana is already widely available in our society. Like it or not, it's a mainstream recreational drug consumed by millions, including one in ten Californians last year, according to federal data. The California ballot initiative simply acknowledges that marijuana is here and that it's more sensible to regulate this massive market, like we do with even more harmful drugs like cigarettes and alcohol. Prohibition of highly popular substances never works and brings terrible collateral damage. Alcohol prohibition didn't keep people from drinking, but it did give us Al Capone and gun battles in the streets. No one dies over sales of Budweiser today.

Drug Warrior Spin #2: Regulation will cause marijuana consumption to skyrocket with addiction rates to match.
The truth is rates of marijuana consumption aren't determined by penalties against it. If they were, the U.S. - which arrests an astounding 750,000 people for marijuana possession every year - wouldn't have double the consumption rate of The Netherlands, where marijuana sales have been tolerated for decades. That principle holds true across this country as some states that lowered penalties against marijuana possession years ago have among the lowest rates of use while some states that retained harsh marijuana laws have among the highest. As for addiction, the risk of becoming dependent on marijuana is mild compared to most other drugs including alcohol and tobacco. In fact, most people who enter treatment for marijuana addiction in this country today are referred by the criminal justice system, but 65% don't even meet the standard criteria for dependence.

Drug Warrior Spin #3: Regulating marijuana will aid drug cartels.
It is practically Orwellian to claim that state regulation of marijuana would benefit criminal cartels. More than 20,000 Mexicans have died in the last three years thanks to prohibition. There is nothing inherent about the plant that has caused these brutal murders. Banning marijuana makes it worth more than gold, so valuable that people are willing to kill each other over the right to sell it. By regulating marijuana and beginning to bring its production and distribution under the rule of law, we would eliminate the cartels' existing monopoly and dramatically siphon their profits. They would be the biggest losers in this reform.

Drug Warrior Spin #4: Regulating marijuana would cost society more than the taxes it generates.
Taxing marijuana like alcohol statewide would generate $1. 4 billion in California alone, according to the state Board of Equalization. Californians will also save hundreds of millions in scarce law enforcement dollars currently devoted to enforcing these futile laws. Yet opponents say that drugged driving, increased health care costs, and lost productivity will end up costing much more than taxes would generate. By that logic, alcohol, which causes nearly 100,000 American deaths annually, should be illegal and warrant life without parole. The bottom line is that marijuana is California's largest agricultural commodity, freely consumed by millions with no regulations or protections, and with no financial benefit to the state. In this economic climate, this is a reality we literally can't afford to ignore any longer.

Drug Warrior Spin #5: What kind of message does regulating marijuana send to kids?
The irony is that failed marijuana prohibition does nothing to protect kids. Despite 30 years of "Just Say No," half of high-school seniors admit to trying marijuana. Students are more likely to smoke marijuana than cigarettes and say it's easier to buy marijuana than alcohol because drug dealers don't ask for ID. Even more chilling, of the 78,000 Californians arrested for marijuana offenses in 2008, one in five was a child under 18 and half were under 30. Out of control access and mass arrests are prohibition's true impact on our youth. State regulation will reduce that access, separate marijuana from harder drugs, and allow us to focus on effective youth drug education programs.

Tony Newman is the Media Director and Stephen Gutwillig is the California Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org), the nation's leading organization promoting alternatives to the failed war on drugs.

California Ballot Measure For Legalization Of Marijuana

By Kevin Kelley

After the collection of 694,248 signatures by proponents of the measure, and with those signatures verified by random sampling, California voters will have the opportunity to vote on whether or not to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana, as well as allowing individuals to grow a certain amount in their home for personal use.

While opponents view this as the first step in defeating the measure, the fact that it is going to be on the ballot is a tremendous success in it's own right, due to the percentage of people who support legalization and the quantity of signatures gathered. Support for the ballot measure has also come from across the board, from traditionally pro-legalization groups to fiscal hawks who see taxation as a way to dig the state out of financial ruin, but whatever the reason may be, the hard part comes in mobilizing voters to the polls.