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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0314.078 1996-1998 May 28, 1997 Dear Council person: We are sending you the attached April, 1997, Atlantic Monthly article, "How Marijuana Causes Insanity." The author Eric Schlosser won the 1995 National Magazine Award for reporting. We urge you ro read this fascinating and well written article before your council makes its decision on the bills affecting the Federal funding of Cannabis Eradication in Hawaii. Thank you RECEIVED '1 Oate_~__----b~ .9Z._ _ Goonry Coundl ~i~'"r~ tf" ~ r a.~ Y4 3 78 m. nm. G ~t'asented F ~ ter. uac~ J(!N 3 1~ More Reefer Madness by ERIC SCHLOSSER Marijuana gives rise to insanity-not in its users but in the policies directed against it. A nation that sentences the possessor of a single joint to life imprisonment without parole but sets a murderer free after perhaps six years is, the author writes, "in the grip of a deep psychosis" IGHT years ago Douglas Lamar Gray bought a offenses. In Montana a life sentence can be im- pound of marijuana in a room at the Econo Lodge posed for growing a single marijuana plant in Decatur, Alabama. He planned to keep a few or selling a single joint. Under federal ounces for himself and sell the rest to some friends. law the death penalty can be im- Gray was a Vietnam veteran with an artificial leg. Asa posed for growing or selling a young man, he'd been convicted of a number of petty crimes, large amount of marijuana, none serious enough to warrant a prison sentence. He had even if it is a first offense. stayed out of [rouble for a good thirteen years. He now The rise in marijuana owned a business called Gray's Roofing and Remodeling use among American Service. He had a home, a wife, and atwo-year teenagers became old son. The man who sold him the drug, Jimmy Wilcox, was a felon just released ~ from prison, with more than thirty con- e', victions on his record. Wilcox was also i an informer employed by the Morgan County Drug Task Force. The pound of marijuana had been supplied by the local ~ a prominent sheriff's department, as part of a sting. Af- ` x. issue during last year's ter paying Wilcox $900 for [he pot, which - presidential campaign, fueled seemed like a real bargain, Douglas Lamar by Republican accusations that President Gray was arrested and charged with "trafficking in Bill Clinton was "soft on drugs." Teenage mari- cannabis." He was tried, convicted, fined $25,000, sentenced Juana use has indeed grown considerably since 1992; by one to life in prison without parole, and sent to the maximum- measure it has doubled. But that increase cannot be attributed security penitentiary in Springville, Alabama-an aging, to any slackening in the enforcement of the nation's marijuana I overcrowded prison filled with murderers and other violent laws. In fact, the number of Americans arrested each year for inmates. He remains there to this day. Under the stress of his marijuana offenses has increased by 43 percent since Clinton i imprisonment Gray's wife attempted suicide with a pistol, took office. There were roughly 600,000 marijuana-related ar- survived the gunshot, and then filed for divorce. Jimmy rests nationwide in 1995-an all-time record. More Ameri- i Wilcox, the informer, was paid $100 by the county for his cans were atrested for marijuana offenses during the first three services in the case. years of Clinton's presidency than during any other three-year Gray's punishment, although severe, is by no means un- period in the nation's history. More Americans are in prison usual in the United States. The laws of az least fifteen states today for marijuana offenses than at any other time in our his- now require life sentences for cettain nonviolent marijuana tory. And yet teenage marijuana use continues to grow. !111 ~~~u,~rauou. by 5cnn .b7cnchin u•ni1 rn'~" The war on drugs, launched by President Ronald Reagan propetty by the government without trial-legal weapons in 1982, began as an assault on marijuana. Its effects are now reminiscent of those used in the former Soviet-bloc nations. felt throughout Amerca's criminal justice system. [n 1980 The long prison sentences given to growers and dealers have there were almost twice as many violent offenders in federal pushed marijuana prices skyward, creating a domestic in- I prison as drug offenders. Today there are far more people in dustry whose annual revenues now rival [hose of cotton. ii federal prison for marijuana crimes than for violent crimes. soybeans, or corn. U. S. public officials, like their countzr- More people are now incarcerated in the nation's prisons for parts in Mexico, Colombia, and Bolivia, are being corrupted ' marijuana than for manslaughter or rape. with drug money. Millions of ordinary Americans have been ~ In an era when the fear of violence pervades the United arrested for marijuana offenses in the past decade, and hun- States, small-time pot dealers are being given life sentences dreds of thousands have been imprisoned, yet marijuana use while violent offenders are being released early, only to is increasing and has regained its status as a symbol of commit more crimes. The federal prison system and thirty- youthful rebellion. Instead of debating the wisdom of our eight state prison systems are now operating above their current policies, members of Congress and of the Adminis- rated capacity. Attempts to reduce dangerous prison over- [ration are competing to see who can appear toughest un crowding have been hampered by the nation's drug laws. drugs. For years the war on drugs has been driven by politi- Prison cells across the country are filled with nonviolent cal concerns, without regard to its consequences. But at the drug offenders whose mandatory-minimum sentences do not state and local levels, where the costs of that war are most allow for parole. At the same time, violent offenders are rou- keenly felt and unlikely alliances have begun to form, there finely being granted early release. A recent study by the Jus- are signs that madness may give way to common sense. rice Department found that in 1992 violent offenders on average were released after serving less than half of their The Legacy of Len Bias sentences. A person convicted of murder in the United States could expect a punishment of less than six years in prison. HE 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act marked a profound i A person convicted of kidnapping could expect about four shift no[ only in America's dmg-control policy but also 1 years. Another Justice Department study revealed that al- in the workings of its criminal-justice system. The bill most a third of all violent offenders who are released from greatly increased the penalties for federal drug offenses. Mort prison will be arrested for another violent crime within three important, it established mandatory-minimum sentences, years. No one knows how many violent crimes these re- transferring power from federal judges to prosecutors. The leased inmates commit without ever being caught. In 1992 mandatory minimums were based not on an individual's role the overage punishment for a violent offender in the United in a crime but on the quantity of drugs involved. Judges in States was forty-three months in prison. The average pun- such cases could no longer reduce a prison term out of mercy ishment, under federal law, for a marijuana offender that or compassion. Prosecutors were given the authority to de- same year was about fifty months in prison. tide whether amandatory-minimum sentence applied. 'i Even legislation aimed at reducing violent crime has been This new law did not represent the culmination of a care- subverted by the legal underpinnings of the drug war. Ac- fuI deliberative process. Nor did it reflect the thinking of the cording to a report by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal nation's best legal minds. The mandatory-minimum provi- Justice. California's much-heralded "three strikes, you're lions were written and enacted in a matter of weeks without out" law has imprisoned twice as many people for marijuana a single public hearing. The most important drug legislation offenses as for murder, rape, and kidnapping combined. in a generation-the enforcement of which would more than The vehemence of marijuana's opponents and the harsh triple the size of the federal-prison population and whose punishments routinely administered to marijuana offenders sentencing philosophy would influence state drug laws cannot be explained by a simple concern for public health. across the country-was prompted by the death of a popular Paraplegics, cancer patients, epileptics, people with AtD5, basketball player shortly before a congressional election. and people suffering from multiple sclerosis have in recent Len Bias was a local hero in Washington, D.C., clean-cu[ years been imprisoned for using marijuana as medicine. The and all-American, a University of Maryland basketball star attack on marijuana, since its origins early in this century, who had been drafted by the Boston Celtics at the age of has in reality been a cultural war-a moral crusade in de- twenty-two. On June 17, 1986, Bias attended a ceremony in fence of traditional American values. The laws used to fi ht Boston to si n a contra g g et with the Celtics. Two days later he marijuana are now causing far more harm to those values died of heart failure, allegedly caused by crack cocaine. than the drug itself. In order to eliminate marijuana use. state When Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill returned to Boston and federal legislators hove sanctioned an enormous increase for the Fourth of July congressional recess, everyone seemed in prosecutorial power, the emergence of a class of profes- to be talking about the death of the Celtics' first-round draft sional informers, and the widespread confiscation of private pick. As fears of crack cocaine swept the nation, O'Neill !I2 ~rnu ~nnc ` grew worried that the Lcmocratic Party might be labeled involvement in anti-military, anti-nuclear power. anti-big soft on drugs. He returned to Washington in mid-July deter- business, anti-authority demonstrations." Apublic-health mined to pass an omnibus drug-control bill before the up- approach to drug control was replaced by an emphasis on coming election. The legislation had to be drafted within a law enforcement. Drug abuse was no longer considered u month. Eric E. Sterling, who was then the assistant counsel form of illness; all drug use was deemed immoral, and pun- for the House Subcommittee on Crime, recently told me that fishing drug offenders was thought to be more important staff members scrambled to assemble a bill. The process of than getting them off drugs. The drug war soon became a selecting drug quantities to trigger the mandatory-mini- bipartisan effort, supported by liberals and conservatives mum sentences was far from scientific, according to Ster- alike. Nothing was [o be gained politically by defending ling: "Numbers were being picked out of thin air." drug abusers from excessive punishment. The drug-control bill left the subcommittee in mid- Drug-control legislation was proposed, almost like clock- August, while many academics and government officials work, during every con- were away on vacation. There had gressional-election vear in been little time to study the poten- the 1980x. Election years tial costs of the legislation or its have continued to inspire ~ ramifications for the criminal-jus- f bold new drug-control tice system. In the absence of pub- schemes. On September 25 lic hearings there had been no in- t of last year Speaker of the put from federal judges, prison House Newt Gingrich intro- authorities, or drug-abuse experts. duced legislation demand- President and Mrs. Reagan were ~ ing either a life sentence or calling for tough new drug-control ~ the death penalty for anyone k measures, and House Democrats caught bringing more than I rushed to provide them. Only six- ! two ounces of marijuana into ~ teen congressmen voted against the the United States. Gingrich's bill, which passed in the Senate by a bill attracted twenty-six co- voice vote. Reagan signed the final sponsors, though i[ failed to version of the bill on October 27, reach the House floor. A few just a week before Election Day. months earlier Senator Phil In Smoke and Mirrors, which was / Gramm had proposed deny- published last year, Dan Baum, a ing federal welfare benefits, former Wu[1 Street Journal re- including food stamps, to porter, gives a definitive account anyone convicted of a drug of the politics surrounding Rea- crime, even a rnisdemean- gan's war on drugs. Conserva- or. Gramm's proposal [five parents' groups opposed was endorsed by a wide to marijuana had helped to variety of senators-in- ignite the Reagan Revolu- chiding liberals such [ion. Marijuana symbol- as Barbara Boxer. Tom ized the weakness and Harkin, Patrick Leahy, permissiveness of a lib- and Paul Wellstone. A eralsociety;itwasheld revised version of the responsible for the ~ amendment, limiting slovenly appearance the punishment to peo- of teenagers and their ple convicted of a dtvg r lack of motivation. ~ ~ felony, was incorpomt- Carlton Turner. Rea- - ~ ed into the welfare bill gan's first drug czar, signed by President believed [hat mar- Clinton during the pres- ijuana use was in- F,'~• idential campaign. Pos- extricably linked to sessing a few ounces of "[he present young- marijuana is a felony in adult generation's most states, us is grow- 9d ~rnn i•rn; c ing a single marijuana plant. As a result,.~merieuns convict- professor at Yale Law Sa.-~I, in come cases a house can he ed of a marijuana felony, even if they are disabled, may no seized if it contains books on marijuana cultivation. The U. S. longer receive federal welfare or food stamps. Convicted Supreme Coun ruled last year that the govemment can seize murderers, rapists, and child molesters, however, will con- property even when its owner had n', involvement in, or time to receive these benefits. knowledge of, the crime that was committed. When propeny is seized, its legal title passes instantly to the govemment. The Forfeitures 8"d I n fo rm e is burden of proving its "innocence" falls upon the original owner In 1994 assets worth roughly $1.5 billion were forfeit- 8D E RA L prosecutors now have an extraordinary ed under state and federal laws. In perhaps 80 percent of those amount of power in drug cases. A U.S. attorney can de- cases the owner was never charged with a crime. The forfeit- termine the eventual punishment for a drug offense by ore statutes hove deepened [he injustice of the war on drngs deciding what quantity of drugs to list in the indictment, by enabling wealthy defendants to surrender propeny in re- whether amandatory-minimum sentence should apply, and turn for shorter sentences; plea-bargain negotiations often whether to press charges at all. Drug offenses differ from turn into haggling sessions worthy of a Middle Eastern souk. most crimes in being subject to federal, state, and local laws. The proceeds from an asset forfeiture are divided among The federal government could prosecute any and every marl- the law-enforcement agencies involved in [he case, a policy juana offender in the United States if it so desired, but in a that invites the abuse of power. Former Justice Department ~~ical yeaz it charges fewer than one percent of those arrest- officials have admitted in newspaper interviews that many ii ed. By choosing to enter a particulaz case, u federal prosecutor forfeitures are driven by the need to meet budget projections. can greatly affect the penalty for a marijuana crime. In 1985 The guilt or innocence of a defendant has at times been less Donald Clark, a Florida watermelon farmer, was arrested for important than the availability of his or her assets. In Cali- growing marijuana, convicted under state law. and sentenced fornia thirty-one state and federal drug agents raided Donald to probation. Five yeazs later the local U. S. attorney decided P. Scott's 200-acre Malibu ranch on the pretext that marijua- to prosecute Donald Clark under federal law for exactly the na was growing there. Scott was inadvertently killed dur- ing the raid. No evidence of POLITICIANS ARE REFUSING TO ADMIT ais~o°e°ed;n~`~da~'~~bses quest investigation by the THE TRUE COST OF THE NATION'S DRUG LAWS. "WE'RE NOT BEING Ventura county District At- NONEST TO THE PUBLIC OR TO OURSELVES "SAYS STEWART 1. torney's office found that r the drug agents had been GREENLEAF~ A PENNSYLVANIA STATE SENATOR WHO WROTE A TOUGH motivated party by a desire to seize the SS million ranch. DRUG-SENTENCES LAW THAT HAS FLOODED HIS STATE'S PRISONS They had obtained an ap- praisal of the property weeks WITH LOW-LEVEL OFFENDERS WNO CANNOT BE PAROLED. "THESE before the raid. In New Jer- LAWS JUST HAVEN'T WORKED AS WE PLANNED." ley, Nicholas L. Bi,Seu ,r. a local prosecutor known as the Forfeiture King, helped same crime. Clark was found guilty and sentenced to life in an associate to buy land seized in a marijuana case for a prison without parole. A Justice Department spokesman yuot- small fraction of its market value. In Connecticut. Leslie C. ed in Smoke and Mirrors later defended [he policy of trying Ohta, a federal prosecutor known as the Queen of Forfeit- drug offenders twice for the same crime: "The intent is to ores, seized the house of Paul and Ruth Derbacher when get the bad guys off the scree[ with apologies to none." their twenty-two-year-old grandson was arrested for keeping Under civil forfeiture statutes passed by Congress in the marijuana there. Although the Derbachers were in their 1980s, the federal govemment now has the right to seize real eighties, had owned the house for almost forty years, and estate, vehicles, cash, securities, jewelry, and any other prop- had no idea that their grandson kept pot in his room, Ohtu in- eny connected to a marijuana offense. The government need silted upon forfeiture of the house. People should know, she not prove that the propeny was bought with [he proceeds of argued, what goes on in their own home. Not long after, illegal drug sales, only that i[ was used-or was intended to Oh[a's eighteen-year-old son was arrested for selling LSD be used-in a crime. A yacht can be seized if a single joint is from her Chevrolet Blazer. Allegedly, he had also sold mari- discovered on it. A farts can be seized if a single marijuana juana from her house in Glastonbury. Ohm was quickly plant is found growing there. According to Steven B. Duke, a transferred out of the U.S. attorney"s torfeiture unit-bm P neither her car nor her 6..se was seized by the government. priced attorneys. Allen St. Pierre, the deputy director of the The only way a defendant can be sure of avoiding a National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. hug mandatory-minimum sentence under federal law is to plead spoken to literally thousands of people who have been ar- guilty and give "substantial assistance" in the prosecution of rested for pot-related offenses. He receives about a hundred someone else. The willingness to turn informer has become phone calls each week from people who are losing theirjohn- more important to a drug offender's fate than his or her role losing their houses, feeling desperate for advice. They tend tr in a crime. The U. S. attorney, not the judge, decides whether be working people: house painters, clerks, carpenters, and me- I the defendant's cooperation is sufficient to warrant a reduc- chanics. Their cases tend to be handled, or mishandled, b~ lion of the sentence. Although this system helps to avoid ex- family attorneys with little knowledge of the marijuana laws. pensive trials and provides evidence for future indictments, America's prisons aze full of poor and working-class marijuu- ' it also leads to longer prison terms for the minor participants na offenders. in a dmg case. Kingpins have a great deal of information [o Children of the upper middle class are rarely sent to prison provide, whereas drug couriers often have none. for marijuana offenses today. Their parents usually enroll A little-known provision of the forfeiture laws rewards con- them in private drug-treatment programs before trial and hire fidential informers with up to 25 percent of the assets seized as attorneys who specialize in drug cases. Privileged young men a result of [heir testimony. During the I980s the United States and women are usually vested more leniently in court. The developed a wealthy and industrious class of professional in- daughter of Judge Rudolph Slate, the man who sentenced formers. In 1985 the federal govemment spent $25 million Douglas Lamar Gray to life for buying a pound of marijuana. ~ on informers. Last year it spent more than $100 million. was later arrested for selling the dmg. She was granted youth- Informimg on others has become not just a way to avoid ful-offender status. The records in her case have been sealed: punishment but a way of life. In major drug cases an in- most likely she received probation. The son of Indiana Con- former can earn a million dollars or more. A recent investi- gressman Dan Burton, an outspoken proponent of life sen- gation by the National Law Journal found that the propor- fences for some marijuana-related crimes, was arrested for lion of federal search warrants relying exclusively on transporting nearly eight pounds of pot from Louisiana to In- i unidentified informers nearly tripled from 1980 to 1993, in- diana in the trunk of his car. Six months later Danny L. Burton t creasing from 24 percent to 71 percent. The growing reliance II was arested again, this time a[ his Indianapolis apartment. ~ on informers has given an unprecedented degree of influence where police found thirty marijuana plants and a shotgun with to criminals who have a direct financial interest in gaining six shells. Federal prosecutors declined to press charges convictions. Informers have been caught framing innocent against Burton's son; Indiana prosecutors gained dismissal of people. Law-enforcement agents have been caught using the charges against him: and a Louisianajudge sentenced him nonexistent informers to justify search warrants. to community service, probation, and house arest. As chair- "Criminals are likely to say and do almost anything [o get man of the House Govemment Reform and Oversight Com- what they want," Stephen S. Trot[, a federaljudge who was mi«ee, Burton is now leading the investigation of ethical the chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division dur- lapses in the Clinton Administration. He will not comment ICI ing the Reagan years, says in the National Law Journal. on his son's case. "This willingness to do anything includes not only truthful- The harshest punishments are given to people who won't ly spilling the beans on friends and relatives but also lying, cooperate with the government. The pressure to inform on committing perjury, manufacturing evidence, soliciting oth- others is immense-as is the cos[ of resisting it. [n 1993 ers to coroborate their lies with more lies, and double-cross- Jodie Israel was arrested for marijuana possession and balk- ing anyone with whom they come into contact, including- ed at testifying against her husband, a Rastafarian marijuana and especially-the prosecutor." trafficker. Federal prosecutors in Montana threatened her The legal and monetary rewards for informing on others with a long prison sentence. Although Israel possessed only have even spawned a whole new business: the buying and eight ounces of marijuana at the time of her arrest. under the selling of drug leads. Defendants who hope to avoid a broad federal conspiracy laws she could be held liable for lengthy mandatory-minimum sentence but who have no many of her husband's crimes. Israel was thirty-one years valuable information to give prosecutors can now secretly old, the mother of four young children. She had never before buy information from vendors on the black market. Accord- been charged with any crime. Judge Jack Shanstrom waned ing to Tom Dawson, a prominent Kansas defense attomey, her in court that without a promise of cooperation "you are some professional informers now offer their services to de- not going to see your children for ten plus years." Neverthe- fendants in drug cases for fees of up to $250,000. less, Israel refused to testify against her husband. She was Most of the people being imprisoned for marijuana offens- sentenced to eleven years in federal prison without parole. es are ordinary Americans without important information to Her husband was sentenced to twenty-nine years without pa- provide, large assets to trade, or the income to pay for high- role. Her children were scattered among various relatives. yfi u~un i~nr i ":1 ~)1UlleP OI P[BCllcallly" whom we incarcerate," Greenleaf says-, "and not waste [ux- pavers' money." N L988 State Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf wrote the bill The trend toward alternative sentences for drug offenders I that made tough mandatory-minimum drug sentences has lately gained support in some unexpected quarers. Ari- ~ port of Pennsylvania law. Greenleaf, a Republican from zona's recently passed Proposition 300 not only allows the rural Montgomery County, is now the chairman of the Sen- medicinal use of marijuana but also has reformed the state's ate Judiciary Committee in Pennsylvania-and an outspo- approach to drug control. Since the early 1980s Arizona had ~ ken critic of mandatory-minimum sentences. "These laws aggressively pursued a drug strategy of "zero tolerance." ad- just haven't worked as we planned;' he now admits. Polio- ministering harsh punishments for illegal drug use. not just clans ore refusing to acknowledge the true cost of the na- for drug trafficking and possession. Failing a urine test was [ion's drug laws. "We're not being honest "Greenleaf says, grounds for prosecution in Arizona: a perwn could face "to the public or to ourselves." criminal charges in Phoenix for a joint smoked in Philadel- In adopting mandatory-minimum sentences, Pennsylvania phia days or even weeks before. Arizona's prisons grew had simply followed the federal government's lead, aiming overcrowded, and ten[ cities rose in the desert to house in- to give long prison terms to major drug dealers. Instead the mates. Proposition 200 declared that "drug abuse is a public state's prisons have been flooded with low-level drug of- health problem"' and vowed to "medicalize" the state's drums tenders who cannot be paroled. Over the past decade the control policy. In order to free up prison cells for violent of- state's prison population has doubled. Its prison system is fenders, the initiative called for the immediate release of all now operating at 54 percent above capacity. In order to keep nonviolent prisoners who had been convicted of drug pos- pacewith the current rate of incarceration, Pennsylvania will session or use. It called for drug treatment, drug education. have to open a new prison every ninety days. Each new pris- and community service instead of prison terms for nonvio- on cell costs about $110,000 to build and about $25,000 a lent minor drug offenders. And it called for the creation of a ~ year to maintain. At the moment nearly 70 percent of the in- state Drug Treatment and Education Fund through an in- mates in Pennsylvania's prisons are nonviolent offenders. creased tax on alcohol and tobacco. Proposition 200 was en- ~ Convicted murderers grant- ed early release have gone PST DEALERS ARE BEING GIVEN LIFE on a number of well-publi- cized killing sprees. "Ex- pensive prison space must SENTENCES WHILE VIOLENT OFFENDERS ARE BEING RELEASED EARLY. be held for those who are IN 1980 THERE WERE ALMOST TWICE AS MANY VIOLENT OFFENDERS truly violent or career crimi- nals:'Greenleaf has come to IN FEDERAL PRISON AS DRUG OFFENDERS. TODAY THERE ARE FAR believe. "This problem has transcended party lines and MORE PEOPLE IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR MARIJUANA CRIMES THAN °cral rde°'ogres; rs a mat- FOR VIOLENT CRIMES. MORE PEOPLE ARE NOW INCARCERATED FOR ter of practicality and fiscal resp°nsibiuty.° MARIJUANA THAN FOR MANSLAUGHTER OR RAPE. As prisons become more and more overcrowded, state legislators across the country are exploring a wide range of dorsed by aging hippies, former members of the Reagan Ad- alternative sentences. At least half a dozen states now allow ministration, [he retired Democratic senator Denni, low-level drug offenders to avoid prison terms by entering DeConcini, and the retired Republican senator Barry Gold- drug-treatment programs. In Pennsylvania, where perhaps water. among others. On Election Day, Arizona vo[er~ 80 percent of all crimes are being committed by either alco- backed the initiative by a margin of two to one. But the Clin- hol or drug abusers, the state District Attorneys Association ton Administration attacked Proposition 200 as though it and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberies Union were a dangerous heresy, threatening to block its tmplemen- i ~ both advocate emphasizing substance-abuse treatment Cation and [o prosecute any physicians who recommend mar- rather than imprisonment. Greenleaf favors treatment pro- ijuana to their patients. Clinton's drug czar, Barry McCaf- gtnms, intensive probation, and ninety-day "shock incarcer- frey, called the Arizona initiative a subterfuge, port of "a anon" in jail or boot camps for most drug offenders-alter- national strategy to legalize drugs." natives that are far less expensive than sending people to While the Administration escalates the war on marijuana prison. Although he worries about the political fallout from law-enforcement officers on the front lines are beginning u~ his sconce, he will no[ budge. "We have to be smart about question some of its tactics. Sleve White served with the u~nn rna !Ni Drug Enforcement Administration and its predecessor. the demand, and production costs but also by the legal risks of Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, for twenty-eight selling it. As the risks increase, so does the profit. This theo- years before his retirement, last year. Twenty-three of those ry has been supported by the huge rise in marijuana prices years were spent working undercover in Indiana, mainly since [he latest war on drugs began. In 198? the stree_ tracking down marijuana growers. Under White's leadership price for an ounce (adjusted for inflation) was about [he Cannabis Eradication Program arrested more pot 575. By 1992 it had reached about 532. Although the growers every year in Indiana than were arrested costs of cultivating marijuana rose somewhat during that in just about any other state. White strongly period, most of the 333 percent price increase represented condemns marijuana use and gives anti-drug sheer profit-the reward for evading punishment. The le- lectures at high schools. But he opposes the gal risks of cultivation have encouraged growers to pco- long prison terms that first-time marijuana duce much more potent strains of the drug. which bring growers now receive. "I'm a big advocate of a higher price and require a lower volume of sales. alternative sentencing;' he says. "For most Growers have also found another means of reducing pot growers, prison isn't the answer. These their risk: bribery. Throughout the nation's rural aren't violent people. They usually have heartland local sheriffs are being paid to look the jobs, and homes, and children. Why other way during the marijuana harvest. Even lo- make their families a burden to the cal prosecutors andjudgesare being corrupted by community'?" White has learned over drug money. The large profit margins trans the years that marijuana growers formed U. S. marijuana cultivation in the come from all Botts of backgrounds • 1980s from a fringe economic activi- and possess a variety of skills. "Put ~ , ty into amultibillion-dollar indus- them to work, make them do com- try-despite the fact that marijuana munity service," he suggests. ; use was falling at the time. In Indi- "Prison terms only strengthen aria the value of the annual marijua- ' their anti-establishment views." ~ na crop now rivals that of corn. In Most commercial marijuana Alabama it rivals that of cotton. growers will quit the business The threat of long prison sentences after being caught once or twice. has succeeded in making some White feels little sympathy, marijuana growers rich, but it has however, for the unrepentant hardly affected the availability of growers who are motivated by pot. In 1982, when President Rea- big money and the thrill of gan declared his war on drugs, breaking the law, After a third 88.5 percent of America's high conviction for large-scale marl- school seniors said that it was "fair- juana cultivation, he thinks, al- ly easy" or "very easy" for them to ternative sentences should no obtain marijuana. In 1994 the longer apply. "Make prison a proportion of seniors who real pleasant place;' White says, said they could easily "and keep those guys in there obtain i[ was 85.5 forever." percent. The long prison sentences now given to marijuana offend- . ers have turned mazijuana-a hazdy weed that grows wild in all fifty states-into a precious commodity. Some marijuana is currently worth more per ounce than gold. A decade ago the policy analysts Peter Reuter and Mark A. R. Klei- man observed that the price of un illegal drug is deter- mined not only by its supply, rur. ~ir~sn~ ~wsr~n.t r ~ . ThC BCnC~lls of porary America." it sand- "marijuana does not. m our con- Decriminalization sideredjudgment,rankveryhigh." President Nixon felt betrayed by the commission and re- ARRY J. Anslinger headed the Federal Bureau of jetted its findings. A decade later the National Academy of ~ Narcotics during the I930s and supervised the cam- Sciences studied the health effects of marijuana and con- paign to make marijuana illegal under state and fed- cluded that it should be decriminalized, a finding that Presi- eral laws. In ' :Marijuana: Assassin of Youth" and similar az- dent Reagan rejected. Nevertheless, ten states have largely titles Anslinger led readers to believe that the drug rendered decriminalized marijuana possession, thereby saving billions its users homicidal, suicidal, and insane. Amid the anxieties of dollars in court and prison costs-without experiencing of the Great Depression, marijuana use was linked to poor an increase in marijuana use. Ohio currently has the most Mexicans and blacks, "inferior" races whose alleged sexual liberal marijuana laws in the nation: possession of up to promiscuity and violence stemmed partly from smoking pot. three ounces is a misdemeanor punishable by a 100 fine. In "The dominant race and most enlightened countries aze alto- July of last year, with little fanfare, Ohio decriminalized the holic," one opponent of marijuana use claimed, expressing a cultivation of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. ~i widely held belief, "whilst the races and nations addicted to The change in the laws was backed by the state's conserva- ~ hemp ...have deteriorated both mentally and physically." live Republican governor, George V. Voinovich. Marijuana was the "killer weed," a foreign influence on There seems to be little correlation between the severiro American life that was capable of transforming healthy teen- of a nation's marijuana laws and the rate of use among its agers into sex-crazed maniacs. Anslinger later admitted to teenagers. In the United Kingdom, where drug penalties are the historian David F. Musto that the FBN had somewhat ex- harshly enforced, the rate of marijuana use among fifteen- aggerated the dangers of marijuana. Anslinger had hoped to and sixteen-year-olds is the highest in Western Europe~ne make marijuana seem so awful and so terrifying that young and a half times the rate in Spain and the Netherlands, where people would be afraid to try it even once. the drug has been decriminalized. The UK rate is six times 1 Marijuana's "un-American" reputation has made it im- as high as the rate in Sweden, a nation that has single-mind- mensely appealing to rebellious, disaffected youth. Lurid pro- wily pursued apublic-health approach to drug control. Swe- ~ 1 paganda films like Reefer Madness, Devil's Harvest, and den now has the lowest rate of marijuana use in Westem Eu- Marijunnn: Weed With Roots in Hell, which promised a rope. Under Swedish law the maximum punishment for most glimpse of not only the horrors but also the "weird orgies" marijuana traffickers is a prison term of three years. caused by the drug, no doubt encouraged more than one brave Cultural factors exert far more influence on a country's soul to take a puff. The huge difference between the alleged rate of marijuana use than any changes in the law. The Neth- and the actual effects of marijuana has long provided young erlands decriminalized marijuana in 1976-and yet teenage people with grounds for distrusting authority. Praised by use there declined by as much as 40 percent over the next rebels and artists as diverse as Cab Calloway, Jack Kerouac, decade. The rate of use among American teenagers peaked Arlo Guthrie, and Snoop Doggie Dog, marijuana has attained in 1979 and had already fallen by 40 percent when Congress a lofty symbolic impottance. A distinct culture has evolved passed the An[i-Drug Abuse Act, in 1986. As young Ameri- around marijuana, one championed by proud outcasts. The cans became more health conscious, their use of alcohol and laws aimed at that culture have only perpetuated it, enshrining tobacco also declined. Since 1979 the rate of alcohol use the cannabis leaf as a symbol of adolescent protest. among American teenagers has fallen by 52 percent-with- In 1970 President Richard Nixon appointed acommis- out any life sentences for selling beer. lion to study the health effects, legal status, and social im- The conclusions of the National Commission on Marijuana pact of marijuana use. After more than a year of research the and Drug Abuse are as valid today as they were twenty-five National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse con- years ago: the United States should decriminalize marijuana cluded that marijuana should be decriminalized under state for persotal use; possessing small amounts of it should no and federal laws. The commission unanimously agreed that longer be a crime; growing or selling it commercially, using it the possession of small amounts of marijuana in the home in public, distributing it to young people, and driving under its should no longer be a crime. "Recognizing the extensive de- influence should remain sMctly forbidden. The decriminaliza- gree of misinformation about marijuana as ? drug, we have lion of mazijuana-including, as in the Ohio model, the culti- tried to demrr/m/ngize it."' the commission explained. vation of small amounts~ould be the firs[ step toward a ra- "Viewing the use of marijuana in its wider social context, tional and sensible drug-control policy. The benefits would be we have tried [o des_eniboliee it." The commission argued felt immediately. Law-enforcement resources would be di- that society should strongly discourage marijuana use while vented from the apprehension and imprisonment of marijuana devoting more resources to preventing and treating heavy offenders to the prevention of much more serious crimes. The use. "Considering the range of social concerns in contem- roughly $2.4 billion the United States spends annually just to 11111 \1'1111 I'rOl - I process its marijuana arrests would be available to fund more- ductive and immune systems, young people could be at great- useful endeavors, such as treatment for drug education and est risk. Lying to teenagers about marijuana's effects, howev- substance abuse. Thousands of prison cells would become er. only encourages them to doubt official warnings about available to house violent criminals. The profits from growing much more dangerous drugs, such as heroin, cocaine. and and selling marijuana commercially would fall as would the amphetamines. The drug culture of the 1960s arose in the incentive to bribe public officials. But the decriminalization of midst of tough anti-drug laws and simplistic anti-drug propa- marijuana is only a partial solution to the havoc caused by the Banda. In a nation where both major political parties accept war on drugs. Mandatory-minimum sentences for drug of- millions of dollars from alcohol and tobacco lobbyists. de- fenders should be repealed, allowing judges to regain their moods for "zero tolerance" and moral condemnations of maz- ~ time-honored powers and ensuring that an individual's pun- ijuana have a hollow ring. According to Michael D. New- ishment fits the crime. The asset-forfeiture laws should be comb, asubstance-abuse expert at the University of Southern amended so that criminal investigations are not motivated by California, "Tobacco and alcohol aze the most widely used. greed-so that assets can be forfeited only after a conviction, abused, and deadly drugs ingested by teenagers." Eighth- ' in amounts proportionate to the illegal activity. The use of pro- graders in America today drink alcohol three times as often m fessional informers should be limited and carefully monitored. they use marijuana. Drug-education programs should respect The message sent to the nation's teenagers by these steps the intelligence of young people by promoting drug-free lives would be that our society will no longer pursue a failed policy without scare tactics, lies, and hypocrisy. And drug abuse and needlessly ruin lives in order to appear tough. should be treated like alcoholism or nicotine addiction. These Decriminalizing marijuana would also help to resolve the are health problems suffered by Americans of every race, current dispute over its medicinal use. Seriously ill patients creed, and political affiliation, not grounds for imprisonment would no longer risk criminal prosecution while trying to ob- or the denial of property rights. rain their medicine. Although heavy marijuana use may exac- At the Alabama penitentiary where Douglas Lamar Gray erbxte underlying psychological problems and may harm the is imprisoned, perhaps half a dozen inmates are serving life I respiratory system through the inhalation of smoke, marijua- without parole for marijuana offenses. One was given a life t na is one of [he least toxic therapeatieallya"`ves°b- THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE NATIONAL stances known No fatal dose of the drug has been estab- lished, despite more than COMMISSION ON MARUUANA AND DRUG ABUSE ARE AS VALID TODAY s.txlo year' of recorded nse. AS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO: THE UNITED STATES SHOULD DECRIMI- Marijuana is less toxic than many c°mm°° foods. Deny- NALIZE MARIJUANA FOR PERSONAL USE AND THE POSSESSION OF ing cancer patients, AIDS pa- tients, and paraplegics access SMALL AMOUNTS OF IT; GROWING OR SELLING IT COMMERCIALLY. to x potentially useful medi- cinethatissafertnanmostle_ USING IT IN PUBLIC, DISTRIBUTING IT TO YOUNG PEOPLE, AND DRIV~ golly prescribed drugs is in- ING UNDER ITS INFLUENCE SHOULD REMAIN STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. I humane. Some of the claims made in the I970s and 1980s about the effects of marijuana-that it causes brain damage, sentence for loading his pickup truck with ditchweed, a form chromosome damage, sterility, infertility, and even homosex- of wild marijuana that is not psychoactive. Another was giv- uality-have never been proved. Marijuana use may pose don- en a life sentence for possessing a single joint. Hundreds of gers that are still unknown. And yet the British medicaljoumal inmates may be serving life sentences for marijuana-relateu The Lancet, in a recent editorial calling for the decriminaliza- offenses in prisons across the United States. The pointless tion of marijuana, felt confident enough to declare, `"phe smok- misery extends from these inmates to their families and to ing of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health." the victims of every crime committed by violent offenders Although marijuana does not turn teenagers into serial who might otherwise occupy those prison cells. A soviet} killers or irreversibly destroy their brains, i[ should not be that punishes marijuana crimes more severely than violem smoked by young people. Marijuana is a powerful intoxicant, crimes is caught in the grip of a deep psychosis. For too Ion, and its use can diminish academic and athletic performance. the laws regarding marijuana have been based on raci:r. Adolescents experience enough social and emotional confu- prejudice, irrational fears, metaphors, symbolism. and pour lion without the added handicap of being stoned. If marijua- ical expediency. The time has come for a marijuana polio na use does indeed exert subtly harmful effects on the repro- calmly based on the facts. ~ IIIY