Law Professors Say Control and Tax
Cannabis
October 14, 2010 - Reason.com
The Yes on Proposition 19
campaign today welcomed a petition by
more than 65 law professors–including six who blog at the
Volokh Conspiracy, and other notables such as David Friedman,
Erwin Chemerinsky, and Nadine Strossen–urging a "wholesale
rethinking of marijuana policy in this country," and a yes vote for
the popular and much-maligned proposition. Excerpt from the open
letter:
For decades, our country has pursued a wasteful and ineffective
policy of marijuana prohibition. As with alcohol prohibition, this
approach has failed to control marijuana, and left its trade in the
hands of an unregulated and increasingly violent black market. At
the same time, marijuana prohibition has clogged California's
courts alone with tens of thousands of non-violent marijuana
offenders each year. Yet marijuana remains as available as ever,
with teens reporting that it is easier for them to buy than alcohol
across the country.
Proposition 19 would remove criminal penalties for private use
and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana by adults and allow
California localities to adopt—if they choose—measures to regulate
commerce in marijuana. Passage of Proposition 19 would be an
important next step toward adopting an approach more grounded in
reason, for California and beyond.
Our communities would be better served if the criminal justice
resources we currently spend to investigate, arrest, and prosecute
people for marijuana offenses each year were redirected toward
addressing unsolved violent crimes. In short, the present policy is
causing more harm than good, and is eroding respect for the
law.
Moreover, we are deeply troubled by the consistent and dramatic
reports of disproportionate enforcement of marijuana laws against
young people of color. Marijuana laws were forged in racism, and
have been demonstrated to be inconsistently and unfairly applied
since their inception. These are independent reasons for their
repeal.
Especially in the current economic climate, we must evaluate the
efficacy of expensive government programs and make responsible
decisions about the use of state resources. We find the present
policies toward marijuana to be bankrupt, and urge their
rethinking.
This country has an example of a path from prohibition. Alcohol
is subject to a regulatory framework that is far safer in every
respect than the days of Al Capone. Just like the State of New York
did when it rolled back Prohibition 10 years before the nation as a
whole, California should show leadership and restore respect for
the law by enacting the Tax and Control Cannabis 2010 initiative
this November.
Amen to that. At the Volokh Conspiracy, signatory Ilya Somin
adds
this wisdom:
[P]assage of Prop 19 would be a major political setback for drug
prohibition. A victorious Prop 19 would likely be imitated in other
states with referendum initiative processes. That in turn would put
the federal War on Drugs under increasing stress. If several large
states withdraw state resources from marijuana enforcement, the
feds would either have to massively increase their own enforcement
efforts or consider giving up the fight.
Meanwhile, California's second-largest daily, the San Jose
Mercury News, has joined the
newspaper
consensus against, as have the Daily
Breeze, the
Stockton Record,
Santa Maria Times, and
Christian Science Monitor. The Economist is
in
favor, though.