Against expectations, the New Hampshire House passed a bill that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. This shocking development brought out the following editorial from the state’s largest newspaper, the Union-Leader. It’s almost funny that the editorial is some boilerplate reefer madness that we’ve read a thousand times before:
UnionLeader.com – New Hampshire news – Promoting pot: House wanders into the weeds – Thursday, Mar. 20, 2008
THE STATE House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would reduce the penalties on possession of small amounts of marijuana. What were they smoking?
Start with the ad hominem attack that equates any rational change in drug policy to the crazed ravings of the intoxicated. “What were they smoking?” I don’t know, what are the editors of the Union-Leader drinking?
The idea was to keep kids who harmlessly toke up from being sent to jail. But kids don’t harmlessly toke up.Contrary to propaganda spread by pro-pot groups, marijuana is addictive.
Yes, indeed. According to the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, marijuana just about as addictive as caffeine.
Partly because of this, it is a gateway drug to more seriously dangerous narcotics. Tolerance to the effects of marijuana smoking can build up quickly, and kids who no longer get the high they once got often will do more pot or upgrade to stronger drugs.
Except that the Institutes of Medicine told us back in 1999 that the gateway theory was bogus. And also the statistics that show very few marijuana smokers go on to use other illicit drugs.
Gov. John Lynch is right that the bill sends entirely the wrong signal to New Hampshire’s youth, and he is right to threaten a veto.
Supporters of the bill say young people shouldn’t go to prison for simply possessing a joint or two. But police say that doesn’t happen. Those kids get fined, and the bigger fish get locked up.
Categorically not true. First of all, there are plenty of people in prison for the possession of marijuana. The ONDCP likes to say that very few are there for possession alone, that there are usually trafficking charges or other charges involved. But that’s because it is so easy to add other charges like conspiracy, trafficking, or manufacture to a marijuana case to boost the sentence.
Furthermore, it’s not the incarceration that’s necessarily the problem. Young people don’t have to be locked up for a marijuana “crime” in order to lose their financial aid, student housing and benefits, or certain jobs.
This bill would likely lead to more drug use, and more drug dealing, and the Senate should kill it at the first opportunity.
Except that we find no difference in drug use or dealing in states that have decriminalized marijuana compared to those that haven’t.
