The following information comes from a newly-released report by the National Research Council, Committee for Data and Research for Policy on Illegal Drugs, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The study was supported by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (a.k.a. the Drug Czar’s Office):
Informing America’s Policy on Illegal Drugs: What We Don’t Know Keeps Hurting Us
The issue most extensively studied has been the impact of decriminalization on the prevalence of marijuana use among youths and adults. Penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use were significantly reduced in 11 states in the 1970s (Bonnie, 1981b). All of these laws preclude incarceration for consumption-related marijuana offenses, making the offense punishable only by a fine, and most also classify the offense in a category (typically a civil infraction) that does not carry the stigmatizing consequence of having been convicted of a crime— hence the term “decriminalization.”Most cross-state comparisons in the United States (as well as in Australia; see McGeorge and Aitken, 1997) have found no significant differences in the prevalence of marijuana use in decriminalized and nondecriminalized states (e.g., Johnston et al., 1981; Single, 1989; DiNardo and Lemieux, 1992; Thies and Register, 1993).
In summary, existing research seems to indicate that there is little apparent relationship between severity of sanctions prescribed for drug use and prevalence or frequency of use, and that perceived legal risk explains very little in the variance of individual drug use.
[Hat tip to Bruce at MPP Blog for catching this. Emphasis mine.]
I’ve been saying for a while now that everybody who wants to smoke pot is smoking pot. When I lived in Idaho, pot was absolutely illegal and very reviled in the culture. So I smoked pot. Then I moved to Oregon where pot is medically legal, socially decriminalized, and generally accepted in the culture. And I still smoke pot.
Who are the people who aren’t smoking pot now, but suddenly will if it is decriminalized? Are there really a bunch of people who really want to smoke pot, but think that a jail term and a criminal fine are too much of a risk, but if it’s just a civil fine, then that’s a risk they can take?
If pot were outright legalized, with consumer sales in regulated stores like liquor, then I think you’d see more people smoke pot, but only in the first couple of years. After the newness of it died down, I’m betting there would be actually less pot smoking, like in Amsterdam, where half as many people smoke pot as do in the United States.
