Report by U.W. Researchers Finds Marijuana Prohibition Is Not Achieving Its Aims

Have you heard this before?

The report concludes that arresting, prosecuting, incarcerating, and seizing the property of people who commit marijuana-related offenses doesn’t reduce use. And lessening or removing penalties doesn’t increase it.

Ever wondered what happened to all that drug control money?

The domestic law enforcement component of the federal drug control budget more than doubled from 1991 to 2002, to $9.5 billion, and marijuana arrests accounted for nearly all of the increase in drug arrests during that time.

Surprise, that $4.75 billion went to shove you and the ones you love in jail.

Furthermore, 28,000 people are serving time in federal or state prison for marijuana offenses; the researchers estimate that their incarceration costs over $600 million a year, a figure that does not include the costs of detaining marijuana offenders in county jails or supervising them after release.

And what about those states that decriminalized or that have medical marijuana laws?

States and localities that have decriminalized marijuana possession, passed medical marijuana laws, or adopted measures making marijuana use the lowest law enforcement priority have been able to redirect law enforcement resources to other public safety issues without experiencing any corresponding increase in marijuana use.

We all know the rest; potency is up, price is down, and availability is up EVEN in times of tougher enforcement. But the neo-prohibitionists won’t let go of their last talking points despite every research paper, report or medical study.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 1:20 pm and is filed under 4:20 NewsHour, Legalization, Police. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.