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OfflineKidgardFromSRQ
Strange

Registered: 05/30/05
Posts: 1,501
Last seen: 9 years, 11 months
Re: War On Drugs Letter [Re: Dfekt]
    #5486579 - 04/06/06 01:54 PM (17 years, 9 months ago)

if you havent already written it, thought this would be helpful.

Marijuana Prohibition Facts - 2006


Very few Americans had even heard about marijuana when
it was first federally prohibited in 1937. Today, between 95 and 100 million
Americans admit to having tried it, and about 14.5 million say they use
it at least monthly. 1,2


According to government-funded researchers, high school
seniors consistently report that marijuana is easily available, despite
decades of a nationwide drug war. With little variation, every year about
85% consider marijuana fairly easy or very easy to
obtain. 3 Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention show that more U.S. high school students currently smoke marijuana,
which is completely unregulated, than smoke cigarettes, which are sold
by regulated businesses. 4

There have been over seven million marijuana arrests
in the United States since 1995, including 771,984 arrests in 2004more
than for all violent crimes combined, and an all-time record. One person
is arrested for marijuana every 41 seconds. About 89% of all marijuana
arrests are for possessionnot manufacture or distribution. 5


Every comprehensive, objective government commission
that has examined the marijuana phenomenon throughout the past 100 years
has recommended that adults should not be criminalized for using marijuana. 6

Cultivation of even one marijuana plant is a federal
felony.

Lengthy mandatory minimum sentences apply to myriad
offenses. For example, a person must serve a five-year mandatory minimum
sentence if federally convicted of cultivating 100 marijuana plantsincluding
seedlings or bug-infested, sickly plants. This is longer than the average
sentences for auto theft and manslaughter! 7

A one-year minimum prison sentence is mandated for
distributing or manufacturing controlled substances
within 1,000 feet of any school, university, or playground. Most areas
in a city fall within these drug-free zones. An adult who
lives three blocks from a university is subject to a one-year mandatory
minimum sentence for selling an ounce of marijuana to another adultor
even growing one marijuana plant in his or her basement. 8


While exact figures are unavailable, conservative estimates
indicate that between 32,500 and 40,000 Americans are in prison or jail
on marijuana charges right nowmore than the entire prison populations
of eight individual European Union countries combined. 9

A recent study of prisons in four Midwestern states
found that approximately one in ten male inmates reported that they had
been raped while in prison. 10 Rates of rape and sexual assault
against women prisoners, who are most likely to be abused by male staff
members, have been reported to be as high as 27 percent in some institutions. 11

Civil forfeiture laws allow police to seize the money
and property of suspected marijuana offenderscharges need not even
be filed. The claim is against the property, not the defendant. The owner
must then prove that the property is innocent.
Enforcement abuses stemming from forfeiture laws abound. 12


According to estimates by Harvard University economist
Jeffrey Miron, replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation
and regulation would save between $10 billion and $14 billion per year
in reduced government spending and increased tax revenues. 13

Many patients and their doctors find marijuana a useful
medicine as part of the treatment for AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple
sclerosis, and other ailments. Yet the federal government allows only seven
patients in the United States to use marijuana as a medicine, through a
program now closed to new applicants. Federal laws treat all other patients
currently using medical marijuana as criminals. Doctors are presently allowed
to prescribe cocaine and morphinebut not marijuana. 14,15

Organizations that have endorsed medical access to marijuana
include: the AIDS Action Council, American Academy of Family Physicians,
American Public Health Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine, American
Nurses Association, Lymphoma Foundation of America, National Association
of People With AIDS, the state medical associations of New York, California,
and Rhode Island, and many others.

A few of the many editorial boards that have endorsed
medical access to marijuana include: Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Miami
Herald, New York Times, Orange County Register, USA Today, Baltimores
Sun, and The Los Angeles Times.

Since 1996, a majority of voters in Alaska, Arizona,
California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maine, Montana, Nevada,
Oregon, and Washington state have voted in favor of ballot initiatives
to remove criminal penalties for seriously ill people who grow or possess
medical marijuana.


Fifty-five percent of Americans believe possession of
small amounts of marijuana should not be treated as a criminal offense.
Seventy-eight percent support making marijuana legally available
for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering. 16

Decriminalization involves the removal
of criminal penalties for possession of marijuana for personal use. Small
fines may be issued (somewhat similarly to traffic tickets), but there
is typically no arrest, incarceration, or criminal record. Marijuana is
presently decriminalized in 11 statesCalifornia, Colorado, Maine,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
and Oregon. In these states, cultivation and distribution remain criminal
offenses.

Decriminalization saves a tremendous amount in enforcement
costs. California saves $100 million per year. 17

A 2001 National Research Council study sponsored by
the U.S. government found little apparent relationship between the
severity of sanctions prescribed for drug use and prevalence or frequency
of use, and ... perceived legal risk explains very little in the variance
of individual drug use. The primary evidence cited came from comparisons
between states that have and have not decriminalized marijuana. 18


In the Netherlands, where adult possession and purchase
of small amounts of marijuana are allowed under a regulated system, the
rate of marijuana use by teenagers is far lower than in the U.S. 3,19 Under
a regulated system, licensed merchants have an incentive to check ID and
avoid selling to minors. Such a system also separates marijuana from the
trade in hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Zero tolerance policies against drugged
driving can result in DUI convictions of drivers who
are not intoxicated at all. Trace amounts of THC metabolitesdetected
by commonly used testscan linger in blood and urine for weeks after
any psychoactive effects have worn off. This is equivalent to convicting
someone of drunk driving weeks after he or she drank one
beer. 20


The arbitrary criminalization of tens of millions of
Americans who consume marijuana results in a large-scale lack of respect
for the law and the entire criminal justice system. Marijuana prohibition
subjects users to added health hazards:






Adulterants, contaminants, and impuritiesMarijuana
purchased through criminal markets is not subject to the same quality
control standards as are legal consumer goods. Illicit marijuana may
be adulterated with much more damaging substances; contaminated with
pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers; and/or infected with molds,
fungi, or bacteria.

Inhalation of hot smokeOne well-established
hazard of marijuana consumption is the fact that smoke from burning
plant material is bad for the respiratory system. Laws that prohibit
the sale or possession of paraphernalia make it difficult to obtain
and use devices such as vaporizers, which can reduce these risks. 21





Because vigorous enforcement of the marijuana laws forces
the toughest, most dangerous criminals to take over marijuana trafficking,
prohibition links marijuana sales to violence, predatory crime, and terrorism.

Prohibition invites corruption within the criminal justice
system by giving officials easy, tempting opportunities to accept bribes,
steal and sell marijuana, and plant evidence on innocent people.

Because marijuana is typically used in private, trampling
the Bill of Rights is a routine part of marijuana law enforcemente.g.,
use of drug dogs, urine tests, phone taps, government informants, curbside
garbage searches, military helicopters, and infrared heat detectors.



NOTES






Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, National Survey on Drug Use and Health,
2004, Table H.1.

Time/CNN poll of adults, Time, Nov. 4, 2002. Forty-seven percent said
they had tried marijuana at least once.

Johnston, L. D., OMalley, P. M., Bachman, J. G. & Schulenberg,
J. E. (December 19, 2005). Teen drug use down but progress halts
among youngest teens (2005 Monitoring the Future survey results).
University of Michigan News and Information Services: Ann Arbor, MI.


Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior
Surveillance -- United States, 2003, May 21, 2004, MMWR 2004:3(No.
SS-2), tables 20 and 28.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime
in the United States, annually.

For example, Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission,
1894; The Panama Canal Zone Military Investigations, 1925;
The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York (LaGuardia Committee
Report), 1944; Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding (Nixon-Shafer
Report), 1972; An Analysis of Marijuana Policy (National Academy
of Sciences), 1982; Cannabis, Our Position for a Canadian Public
Policy (Report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs),
2002, and others.


21USC841(b)(1)(B); 1996 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Guidelines,
U.S. Sentencing Commission, 1997; p. 24.

21USC860(a); report from Congressional Research Service, June 22, 1995.

Zeidenberg, Jason and Colburn, Jason. Efficacy & Impact: The
Criminal Justice Response to Marijuana Policy in the U.S., Justice
Policy Institute, August 25, 2005


Struckman-Johnson, Cindy, and Struckman-Johnson, David, Sexual
Coercion Rates in Seven Midwestern Prisons for Men, The Prison
Journal, December 2000, pp. 379-90.

Struckman-Johnson, Cindy, and Struckman-Johnson, David, Summary
of Sexual Coercion Data, for the conference Not Part of the
Penalty: Ending Prisoner Rape, Oct. 19, 2001.

U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (RIL), Forfeiting Our Property Rights:
Is Your Property Safe From Seizure? Cato Institute, 1995.


Miron, Jeffrey L., The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition,
June 2005.

Grinspoon, Lester, M.D., and Bakalar B., J.D., Marijuana as Medicine:
A Plea for Reconsideration, Journal of the American Medical
Association, June 21, 1995.

Marijuana Policy Project, Medical Marijuana Briefing Paper,
2006.


National Gallup poll, Nov. 1, 2005.

Aldrich, Michael, Ph.D., and Mikuriya, Tod, M.D., Savings in California
Marijuana Law Enforcement Costs Attributable to the Moscone Act of 1976A
Summary, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Vol. 20(1),
Jan.March 1988; pp. 75-81.

National Research Council, Informing Americas Policy on
Illegal Drugs: What We Dont Know Keeps Hurting Us, National
Academy Press, 2001; pp. 192-93.


Nationale Drug Monitor, Annual Report NDM 2004, Trimbos
Institute, 2005.

Swann, P., The Real Risk of Being Killed When Driving Whilst
Impaired by Cannabis, Australian Studies of Cannabis and Accident
Risk, 2000.

Mirken, Bruce, Vaporizers for Medical Marijuana, AIDS
Treatment News, Issue ..327, September 17, 1999.


--------------------
Be nice to people in general. Even if you don't like them.


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Invisiblebadchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,372
Re: War On Drugs Letter [Re: KidgardFromSRQ]
    #5486616 - 04/06/06 02:08 PM (17 years, 9 months ago)

If you have access to it, this paper pretty much sums it up:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...l=pubmed_docsum

A nicely written analysis on the matters of legalization. It is peer-reviewed and professionally written by someone with all the credentials.


--------------------
...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge.  It is an indellible experience; it is forever known.  I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did.

Smith, P.  Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27.

...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely.

Osmond, H.  Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436


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OfflineKidgardFromSRQ
Strange

Registered: 05/30/05
Posts: 1,501
Last seen: 9 years, 11 months
Re: War On Drugs Letter [Re: badchad]
    #5486623 - 04/06/06 02:12 PM (17 years, 9 months ago)

i think that its no longer a question of whats right and wrong, its more a question of social control. america is on the way to being a socialist nation. It's already semi-socialist the way I see it. As far as I'm concerned, the fcc, dea, fda... (the list goes on) they can eat shit. ive had enough personal regulations. once i get the money im going a-wall.


--------------------
Be nice to people in general. Even if you don't like them.


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Offlinemushiemountain
i am the sacredone
Registered: 06/24/04
Posts: 1,616
Last seen: 15 years, 5 months
Re: War On Drugs Letter [Re: KidgardFromSRQ]
    #5487305 - 04/06/06 06:43 PM (17 years, 9 months ago)

thank you again.


--------------------
I Ain't No Fool. Mama Didn't Raise No Fool.
----------primussucks


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OfflineTheDudeAbides
Livin Off FrostyBarley Pops andPork Soda
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/23/01
Posts: 3,571
Last seen: 2 years, 5 months
Re: War On Drugs Letter [Re: mushiemountain]
    #5487327 - 04/06/06 06:51 PM (17 years, 9 months ago)

Not ALL drugs should be legalized...

Just pot.


--------------------
outputrotation said:
x-com and unsolved mysteries are the only things that have ever made me truly scared


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Offlinesublime40oz
Traveler
Registered: 09/24/04
Posts: 1,755
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
Re: War On Drugs Letter [Re: TheDudeAbides]
    #5487457 - 04/06/06 07:24 PM (17 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

The_Dude_420 said:
Not ALL drugs should be legalized...

Just pot.




That kind of comment takes away from the only true way that we will ever see any drug legalized. It needs to be an issue of our personal right to put whatever subtance we so choose into our bodies. As opposed to well this drug is ok but not these other ones. Every drug should be legal. I would say the morons who want to use drugs such as heroin are already doing it; it being legal isnt going to make any intelligent person OD or get addicted to these substances.


--------------------
Beyond the gray sky


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