THIS QUOTE by Newt Gingrich is A HOAX: “See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral. Now, it is illegal AND immoral. The law didn't change, only the morality… That's why you get to go to jail and I don't.”... even if it accurately sums up his beliefs!

(Huffington Post) During a town hall-style appearance in Concord, the former House Speaker said he had no interest in exploring drug decriminalization, arguing that such efforts haven’t worked in Europe.

The Netherlands = 30 years of soft drug tolerance.  Adult and youth use rates of hard and soft drugs are half that in the United States.  Portugal = 10 years of decriminalization of all drugs.  Adult hard drug addiction has fallen in half.  Drug use statistics in Portugal are generally “below the European average and much lower than its only European neighbour, Spain,” according to the European drug agency that studied the decriminalization.

Pushed a bit later on the incarceration rate related to petty drug crimes, Gingrich responded, “I think the best thing is to get young people not to do drugs and then you won’t be dealing with criminals that you just described.”

Remember, Mr. Gingrich, you were just one drug bust away from being “Newt the Drug Criminal” yourself.  Remember this 8/8/1996 Wall Street Journal interview?*

Mr. Gingrich initially answered the drug question in 1987, saying that 19 years earlier, in 1968, he smoked marijuana at a party and “never went back and revisited it.”

“That’s not true,” says Larry Bowie, a friend during Mr. Gingrich’s days as a West Georgia College professor. “I know for a fact that he sat and smoked with me” in about 1973. “He didn’t like the way it made him feel.”

Mr. Gingrich’s spokesman, Tony Blankley, says the speaker denies Mr. Bowie’s allegation. But the more important point, Mr. Blankley adds, is that Mr. Gingrich “has said publicly many times that he tried marijuana when he was in college. He thinks it’s wrong for people to have done so and wants to make it clear that he thinks it’s a mistake.”

Gee, Newt, do you think you should have been imprisoned, fined, arrested, or even harassed by the government for your youthful marijuana use?

A third resident of the “live free or die” state argued that the founding fathers had been far more lenient about marijuana than the current political class. “I think Jefferson or George Washington would have rather strongly discouraged you from growing marijuana and their techniques with dealing with it would have been rather more violent than our current government,” Gingrich replied.

Newt Gingrich, as Speaker of the House introduced a bill called the “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996“.  It would have enacted a death penalty for anyone caught smuggling two or more ounces of marijuana into the United States.  Yes, two ounces, not the 67 tons you currently need to qualify for the death penalty**.  So, what, does he figure the Founders would have executed pot smokers on sight?

The fact is that George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and many other Founding Fathers and their contemporaries were hemp farmers.  Far from discouraging its cultivation, the early presidents demanded its cultivation:

“Make the most of the Indian Hemp Seed and sow it everywhere!” – George Washington

“We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption.” – John Adams

“Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.” – Thomas Jefferson

Now I’m sure Gingrich would complain that they were growing an industrial crop of hemp, not a drug crop of marijuana.  However, it isn’t as if the Founders were strangers to intoxication.  John Adams famously had a pint of strong beer every morning.  Many colonists enjoyed beer and rum and cider to excess.  Benjamin Franklin wrote at length about drunkards.  And based on the Federalist Papers and The Bill of Rights, it would be hard to believe that the Founders would have thought the proper exercise of state power was to prevent citizens from getting wasted.

Though “smoking pot” is a 20th century thing and “medicinal cannabis” was well-known and much-used in the 19th century, there isn’t much record on 18th century American use of cannabis as a recreational substance.  We do have these quotes, however:

“The artificial preparation of hemp, from Silesia, is really a curiosity.” – George Washington (referring to hashish, used only as a drug)

“…began to separate the male from the female (hemp) plants,” – George Washington’s farm diary (one reason to separate males from females to get more potent buds)

By the 19th century, presidents James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and Franklin Pierce were either known to have smoked hashish (Monroe) or smoked cannabis with their troops in wartime (Pierce wrote that smoking marijuana in the Mexican-American War was ”about the only good thing” about that war.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

* By the way, the WSJ Hilary Stout interview of Newt Gingrich is cited all over the web for this quote: “See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral. Now, it is illegal AND immoral. The law didn’t change, only the morality… That’s why you get to go to jail and I don’t.”  It’s a hoax.  There are enough true Newt marijuana quotes without killing our credibility repeating this one.  See also Abraham Lincoln’s “Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica.” (Hohner didn’t open for business until two years after the alleged quote.)  And Lincoln’s “Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.” was a fake posted by a Georgia “wet” leader to win the “negro” vote.)  And Jefferson’s “Some of my finest hours have been spent sitting on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see.” is also unable to be attributed to any of Jefferson’s writings or speeches.

** You did know that the United States is one of the eight countries that has execution for marijuana importers and sellers, right?  We’re in league with those bastions of freedom Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Singapore, and China.  Sure, we haven’t done it yet and it is probably unconstitutional, but it is on the books and at least one California dispensary owner claims he’s eligible for three death sentences.

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When one of your cities has more Drug War murders than California, it refocuses your attention on ending the Drug War

The marijuana internets are abuzz with the latest headline about world leaders declaring the War on Drugs to be a failure and calling for the legalization of marijuana. Here are a few:

World Leaders: Time to End Marijuana Prohibition

Who’s Who of World Leaders Call Global Drug War a “Failure”

World Leaders Recommend Ending The ‘Failed’ Drug War

These headlines cover the report released by the Global Commission on Drug Policy yesterday.  However, I think the preceding headlines fail to make an important distinction, one that was not lost on the editors at NPR (emphasis mine):

‘Global War On Drugs Has Failed,’ Former World Leaders Say

MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL COMMISSION ON DRUG POLICY

– Asma Jahangir; human rights activist, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions; Pakistan.
– Carlos Fuentes; writer; Mexico.
– Cesar Gaviria; former president of Colombia.
– Ernesto Zedillo; former president of Mexico.
– Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former president of Brazil.
– George Papandreou; Prime Minister of Greece. [The exception that proves the rule? --"R"R]
– George Shultz; former secretary of state.
– Javier Solana; former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy; Spain.
– John Whitehead; banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial; United States.
– Kofi Annan; former secretary general of the United Nations.
– Louise Arbour; former U.N. high commissioner for human rights; Canada.
– Maria Cattaui; member of the board, Petroplus Holdings; former secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce; Switzerland.
– Marion Caspers-Merk; former state secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Health, Germany.
– Mario Vargas Llosa; writer; Peru.
– Michel Kazatchkine; executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; France.
– Paul Volcker; former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
– Richard Branson; entrepreneur; founder of the Virgin Group; U.K.
– Ruth Dreifuss- former president of Switzerland.
– Thorvald Stoltenberg; former minister of foreign affairs and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; Norway.

It’s rarely current world leaders expressing these sentiments.  They seem to only speak out after they are out of office and lacking the power to help end that “failure”.  I’ve been reporting on the “former leaders” who call for an end to the Drug War since 2008:

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox calls for debate on marijuana legalization

Latin American ex-presidents urge US to decriminalize marijuana, rethink drug war

Former UK Drug Warrior: “What harms society is the illegality of drugs…”

Fortunately a few brave leaders speak out while they are still in office:

Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use

Jamaica lawmaker calls for legalizing small amounts of marijuana for private use

And when they succeed in decriminalization of drug use, they get amazing results:

United Nations backs drug decriminalization

The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal

The report itself makes many of the same recommendations NORML has been touting for four decades now.  The former world leaders recommend that we stop ”the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others.”  They point out that “models of legal regulation of drugs” should be instituted by governments to reduce the power of organized crime and protect the health of citizens and that this “applies especially to cannabis.”  They explain that a realistic government drug policy would avoid “simplistic ‘just say no’ messages and ‘zero tolerance’ policies in favor of educational efforts”.  It’s nice to finally have world leaders, even former ones, recognizing we were and are right.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

Unfortunately, it’s the current ones – the ones who have the power to make these changes – we have to convince… and they’re not budging from their “Schedule I dangerous drug what about the children?!?” rhetoric:

(Los Angeles Times) ”Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe,” said Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

More available?  Almost 1 in 4  high school kids can get a bag of weed within an hour and say it’s easier to buy than beer and prescription drugs.  Twenty-five million American adults are using cannabis annually and fifteen million use monthly.  Marijuana is already quite available, it’s just a question of who controls and profits from the market – regulated businesses or violent criminals.

“Legalizing dangerous drugs would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences,” drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said this year.

Administration officials dispute the idea that nothing can be done to reduce the demand for drugs in the United States. A spokesman for the White House drug agency said U.S. consumption peaked in 1979, when surveys showed that 14% of respondents had used illegal drugs in the previous month. Now that figure has dropped to 7%.

Remember that when Gateway Gil says “drugs”, he means “marijuana”.  Among 12th graders, monthly use of marijuana peaked in 1978, but amphetamines peaked in 1981, cocaine use peaked in 1985, ecstasy use peaked in 2000, hallucinogen use peaked in 1975, heroin use peaked in 2000, and sedative use peaked in 1975.  Since marijuana is far more popular (15 million annual users) than all other drugs combined (6 million annual users), any movement of the marijuana numbers moves the “drugs” numbers.

And since he brought it up, I’d remind Gateway Gil that his claim of that monthly drug use dropped in half since 1979 came as sixteen states passed medical marijuana laws and two states decriminalized marijuana possession.  Your predecessors warned us that if we legalized marijuana, even in those very specific and limited ways, it would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences.  It’s understandable, since you and your predecessors are bound by law to oppose any move toward legalization, so you can understand when we completely ignore your Chicken Little warnings about legalization.

Dr. Marlowe, Mr. Huddleston;

As a writer for NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), I have been following the research by Drug Policy Alliance and Justice Policy Institute that criticizes the claimed successes of drug courts in America. Your response to their criticisms caught my attention today: http://www.nadcp.org/sites/default/files/nadcp/NADCP%20Response%20to%20DPA%20and%20JPI%20Media%20Attacks%20on%20Drug%20Courts.pdf

To a drug court and a rehab social worker, this looks like a field full of criminal addicts and lots of overtime pay. (photo courtesy of Steve Bloom / Celebstoner.com)

I just have to tell you that I really can’t take seriously studies on claiming success or failure of drug courts when so many people sentenced to rehab by these courts are simply marijuana users who got caught. Sure, you can claim great success in rehabilitating pot smokers when you force them to pee in a cup for a couple of years, because you’re curing people who are neither addicted nor criminal. Until you can provide some heroin-meth-cocaine-alcohol-only statistics, your numbers are all suspect; they’re padded with pot smokers.

According to the 2008 TEDS, 17.2% of treatment admission were for marijuana/hashish and 57% of them were forced into rehab by criminal justice simply because they were caught with marijuana/hashish. Over a third (37%) hadn’t used marijuana the month before admission and another 16% had used 1-3 times. Surely these people do not have addiction problems, they have police problems. If drug courts were forcing weekend beer drinkers into rehab solely for being caught with beer, you’d get great data on rehabbing all those “alcoholics”, too. When 88% of marijuana arrests are for possession alone of usually small user amounts, what we have is a system that criminalizes and stigmatizes mostly young and minority people to feed a growing drug court / rehab industrial complex (forgive me, Ike).

I’ll leave it to others to argue the merit of using the threat of cages and Scarlet Letters to force people into rehab who are truly physiologically addicted to hard drugs like alcohol, heroin, cocaine, and meth. I fundamentally believe that no man has the right to punish another man for what he does to himself; the results of his actions should be consequence enough. We punish the drunk driver, but the drunk is not a criminal. Likewise, punish the addicted who commit crime, but the addict himself is not a criminal. The data from Portugal you dismiss offhandedly as damning indication of DPA’s motivations are some very compelling arguments for treating addiction as a medical, not a criminal problem.

(New Scientist) IF THERE is one thing that politicians can and should do to limit the damage caused by illegal drugs, it is to take careful note of the evidence and develop a rational drug policy. Some politicians find it easier to ignore the evidence, and pander to public prejudice instead.

I can trace the beginning of the end of my role as chairman of the UK’s official advisory body on drugs to the moment I quoted a New Scientist editorial (14 February, p 5). Entitled, fittingly enough, “Drugs drive politicians out of their minds”, the editorial asked the reader to imagine being seated at a table with two bowls, one containing peanuts, the other the illegal drug MDMA (ecstasy). Which is safer to give to a stranger? Why, the ecstasy of course.

I quoted these words in the Eve Saville lecture at King’s College London in July. This example plus other comments I have made – such as horse riding is more harmful than ecstasy – prompted Alan Johnson, the home secretary, to say that I had crossed the line from science to policy. This, he said, is why I had to go.

But simple, accurate and understandable statements of scientific fact are precisely what the advisory council is supposed to provide. Why would any scientist take up some future offer of a government advisory post when their advice can be treated with such disdain?

The results of a government inventing its own reality and acting on it can be seen in the appalling consequences the George W. Bush presidency had for world peace, the environment and human rights. The message for the British government is a simple one: don’t exclude rational argument in order to exploit a visceral public response. Politicians have to win the hearts and minds of their electorate. If your policy is informed by an underlying moral imperative, be open about what that is, and don’t try to disguise it with a veneer of pseudo-science. We ignore scientific evidence at our peril.

David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, was chairman of the UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs until he was dismissed last week by the UK home secretary

It’s a message President Obama needs to hear as well.  He promised to return us from the George W. Bush presidency’s disdain for rational thought and scientific evidence.  Obama promised to base our policies on sound science with respect to global climate change and other issues.  But stubbornly, this administration’s drug czar is still out parroting the completely unscientific falsehood that “the raw cannabis plant is certainly not medicine”.  Obama himself is laughing off the notion of marijuana legalization as having any economic benefit to cash-strapped states, despite the rational analysis by many prominent economists.  And despite the evidence of reduced social farms in the Netherlands, Portugal, and other countries that have experimented with drug decriminalization and tolerance, Obama continues to push a federal policy that relies heavily on interdiction and incarceration.

For over a century now, every time hard scientists, social scientists, economists, and policy experts gather to take a rational and scientific look at marijuana policy, they recommend decriminalization and tolerance or they recognize medical usage of cannabis, from the 1894 British East India survey to the 1942 Laguardia Commission to the 1972 Shaffer Commission to the 1999 Institute of Medicine study.  Cannabis can no longer be the exception to the “we believe in science” rule!

The remarks from our Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy on the release of the UN 2009 World Drug Report, which endorsed drug decriminalization in a reversal of previous policy. Guess which 17-letter D-word never gets mentioned once in our “drug czar’s” 781-word statement?

Statement of R. Gil Kerlikowske
Director, National Drug Control Policy
Remarks at Release of the 2009 World Drug Report
June 24, 2009

It is a great pleasure for me to be here with UNODC Executive Director Antonio Costa for the release of the 2009 World Drug Report. I am also pleased that we can be joined today by Michele Leonhart, Acting Administrator of DEA, and William McGlynn, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). Congratulations to Antonio and his team in Vienna for putting together this very comprehensive document. As the report shows, every nation is affected by the drug problem.

As we approach June 26th, International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking, it is a good time to reflect on what we can do better. In the United States, we are moving away from divisive “drug war” rhetoric and focusing on employing all the tools at our disposal to get help to those who need it. We recognize that addiction is a disease and are seeking public health solutions. My top priority is to intensify efforts to reduce the demand for drugs which fuels crime and violence around the world.

As a long time police chief, I have seen up-close the terrible impact drugs have on individuals, families, and communities. The earlier we can intervene to get people help, the better – that’s why prevention through schools and the media, and screening for substance abuse problems in a wide variety of health care settings is so vital. We will be expanding these existing efforts and working to ensure drug abuse treatment services are incorporated into our national health care reform process. These efforts will include expanded work to address the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs, a problem of increasing concern within the United States.

Further, we will make sure those caught up in our criminal justice system due to their involvement in drugs get the help they need. Many of those with the underlying disease of addiction commit crimes and thus, frequently come into contact with the criminal justice system. We can no longer afford to simply incarcerate them, while leaving their addiction untreated and their problems unaddressed. We must seize the opportunity to provide evidence-based treatment – either out of jail through diversionary programs like drug courts, or while in jail – to set them on a path to recovery. The Obama Administration is focused on providing treatment for Americans in need so they can permanently break the cycle of addiction and crime.

Our new Fiscal Year 2010 Budget proposes doubling funding for adult, juvenile, and family drug court, tripling Federal support for treatment in state prisons, almost tripling prisoner re-entry funding, as well as $30 million to fund the recently enacted Second Chance Act to address drug-abuse related recidivism.

Internationally, the United States also recognizes its responsibilities. We will continue to provide assistance to partners in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan and elsewhere to reduce the flow of drugs and to bring violent drug traffickers to justice. The United States will work with our partners around the world to stop the flow of weapons associated with drug trafficking, the corrupting impact of the large illicit profits, and to curb the flow of precursor chemicals used to produce drugs.

We will also dedicate ourselves to assisting countries and regions, especially in the developing world, grappling with the terrible impact of the drug trade. West Africa is an example. UNODC has been instrumental in calling international attention to the dramatic rise in narco-trafficking through West African nations. Already, this increased trafficking has been harmful to stability and good governance. Though domestic consumption in West African nations is not significant yet, we know from experience elsewhere that transit states develop domestic markets. There are signs this is beginning to happen in West Africa. I am gratified that the EU has been taking steps to assist African nations. Let me make it very clear that the Obama Administration will be a strong partner in this effort. In fact, we are increasing our counternarcotics assistance to West Africa. The President’s FY 2010 Budget Request includes $6.7 million for counternarcotics efforts in West Africa.

We are eager to collaborate with the UNODC and to share with treatment providers from around the world the latest information on effective treatment and prevention modalities. Our National Institute of Drug Abuse sponsors over $1 billion in research each year, both in the United States and abroad, and we have a responsibility to get those findings out to the field, where it can be put to use.

There is much to be done, but I believe we are on the right track with current and new initiatives to make the drug problem smaller for the United States and the world. Thank you very much.

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. The UN notes that decriminalization in Portugal “keep[s] drugs out of the hands of those who would avoid them under a system of full prohibition, while encouraging treatment, rather than incarceration, for users” and “It also appears that a number of drug-related problems have decreased.”

Our drug czar’s response is that we’re going to double funding for courts that sentence non-addicted non-problematic marijuana users to addiction treatment, when his own numbers show that 37% of pot smokers sentenced to treatment haven’t even used in the past thirty days and only 15% of those who seek marijuana addiction treatment do so voluntarily, and even that’s an overestimate since many of those 15% are coerced by reduced sentencing or emplyer pressure.

Our drug czar’s response is that we’re going to continue to pour money into “Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan and elsewhere” enacting the same strategies of interdiction and eradication that haven’t worked in 70 years.

Our drug czar’s response is that we’re going to pump another $1 billion into NIDA to fund only research that shows purports to find harms from marijuana and none that prove its medical efficacy and relative social harmlessness.

Some of that is good to hear when you’re talking about heroin, cocaine, and meth. People are terribly physically addicted and getting rehab and help to stay clean will help reduce crime and decrease recidivism.

But when we’re talking about cannabis, the underlying premise that its responsible use by adults is somehow a social ill that must be cured is mistaken. Marijuana prohibition is a solution in search of a non-existent problem.

I hear you speak lately about Portugal and their cannabis decriminalization

But Portugal it’s not better than Spain in this aspect, as Spain, they still charge fines for cannabis possesion.

In fact, we are far more advance that Portugal on this, in Spain the cannabis consumption it’s also decriminalize since a long time ago, even home cultivation of cannabis (to a certain plants quantity limits of course)

I quote the wikipedia entries about this:

Portugal:
Personal consumption limit is 2.5 gram per day of marijuana[citation needed] and 0.5 gram per day[citation needed] of hashish. One may possess not more than 10 daily doses, otherwise it may be categorized as trafficking. Consumption still has a penalty that may be a fine or other penalty. Cultivation, even if for personal use, is still totally illegal and cultivation of even one plant is assumed to indicate involvement with trafficking. Possession of seeds is also illegal and despite there being several “head shops” or “grow shops” in Portugal, they are not allowed to sell seeds. It is also true that the number of grow shops has increased over the past few years, which seems to indicate that cultivation for personal use (in Portuguese: auto-cultivo) is becoming a more common practice. There is also a forum, named hortadacouve, formed by people who cultivate for personal use.

It is very common in Portugal to see young people smoking in concerts and other party areas. There has also been, in the last decade, an increase of cafés where it is possible to smoke, although it is never an “open” experience, because there is still a lot of intolerance to public consumption of cannabis as a day to day practice.

The 2006 Global Marijuana March (Portuguese: Marcha Global da Marijuana) was celebrated for the first time in Lisbon and in 2007 both Lisbon and Porto celebrated it.

Spain:
Personal consumption and home cultivation of cannabis have been decriminalized. Buying or selling remains a criminal offense, as well consumption or possession in public areas. Therapeutic use is allowed and is regulated by hospital prescription.

Please do not forget about Spain efforts in favor of legalization.

Greetings from a spanish fan of your great and informative Daily Audio Stash, wich I listen almost every program.

Pedro Gonzalez Mesto

¡Gracias, Pedro!

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-04-28.mp3)

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First, let me explain the Portugal model and put it into perspective. As we all know, with the exception of thirteen states that have medical Marijuana laws, the sale and cultivation of marijuana is illegal in the United States under both state laws and federal laws. The laws may vary from state to state, but typical first time possession varies from a civil fine to a year of incarceration.

Contrary to what one might hear in the news, in The Netherlands marijuana is also a crime. The difference in The Netherlands is the Dutch have decided not to enforce those laws because it’s in contrast what the people desire. However, when the Dutch decide to go after a particular grow operation or cannabis shop, they have full charge of the law behind them to do as they please.

The Portugal model is the only one of it’s kind in Europe because they were the first European country to remove all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs including marijuana. And they have been completely legal since 2001!

Portugal

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal’s drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%.

The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%.

According to the Time article, a CATO study concludes that Portugal’s legalization program is a resounding success having reduced overall drug use, HIV cases, and cutting addiction rates by half across the board with all hard (addictive) drugs.

This is an extremely unique report because Portugal, unlike other countries, didn’t just “dabble” in decriminalization for a select group or demographic, they simply LEGALIZED EVERYTHING.

Currently in Portugal,

If an individual is caught in possession of a modest quantity of drugs (below ten daily doses), and police have no further suspicions or evidence that more serious offenses such as sale or traffic are involved, the drug will be seized and the case transmitted to a local Commission composed of 3 members (a lawyer, and two from a range of doctors, social assistants, and psychologists), supported by a technical team. The Commission meets the person in order to evaluate his/her situation and with the aim of eventually diverting the person from prosecution or sending them to treatment. If the user presents evidence that use is occasional or regular, but not habitual (addicted), the proceedings are dropped”.

By embracing the idea that a nation’s drug problem is a health and human services issue, not a law enforcement problem, Portugal helped to reallocate financial resources from law enforcement to address the underlying issues of the health effects of addiction. By doing so, Portugal removed the criminal element behind their illicit drug industry.

In contrast, The Netherlands still experiences a measurable amount of crime related to the illicit cannabis (Europeans refer to marijuana as cannabis) market because they still have laws against the manufacture and sale of cannabis. California also isn’t exempt, the state still sees crime as a result of marijuana being an illegal substance (federally and state without proper authorization). As long as the United States has a Prohibition in place, we will continue to battle cartels and crime on all fronts.

Although Portugal is a smaller country, initiatives like those Portugal put into place could also be put into place in this country within our communities.

Like removing a pot of boiling water from the stove; if you remove crime from Marijuana, you wouldn’t have any crime to fight.

Could Portugal’s solution serve as a model to the United States?

Recently, Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter proposed that Congress create a national commission, not unlike Portugal’s, to deal with prison reform and overhaul drug-sentencing policy. As Webb noted, the U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of it’s prisoners”.

Let me simplify Senator Jim Webb’s proposal:

It asks for a National Commission to discuss and propose policy for prison reform.

It’s that simple.

I think it’s finally time to have this conversation. Don’t you? Contact your representative and affirm your support for Senator Webb’s proposal today.

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