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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
Marijuana Use Increases While Arrests Approach Record Levels, Reports Show
Marijuana Now Accounts for Half of All U.S. Drug Arrests, But Enforcement Efforts Have Done Nothing to Reduce Use
CONTACT: Mike Meno, MPP director of communications …………… 202-905-2030 or 443-927-6400
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Marijuana arrests accounted for more than half of all U.S. drug arrests in 2009, while its use among Americans increased by 8 percent, according to two reports released this week by government officials.
According to the FBI’s 2009 Uniform Crime Report released yesterday, U.S. law enforcement made 858,408 arrests on marijuana charges — 88 percent of which were for possession, not sale or manufacture. Marijuana arrests peaked in 2007 at more than 872,000, and witnessed a slight dip in 2008 at 847,863.
In 2009, an American was arrested on marijuana charges every 37 seconds.
Meanwhile, an annual report released today by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that 16.7 million Americans had used marijuana in the past month.
“It’s now more obvious than ever that decades of law enforcement efforts have absolutely failed to reduce marijuana’s use or availability, and that it’s simply an exercise in futility to continue arresting hundreds of thousands of Americans for using something that’s safer than alcohol,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “Rather than criminalize millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens and waste billions of dollars that could be better spent combating violent crime and other real threats to public safety, it’s time we embrace sensible marijuana policies that would regulate marijuana the same way we do alcohol or tobacco.”
With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
Alcohol Lobby Teams with Law Enforcement to Fund Anti-Marijuana Campaign
California Beer and Beverage Distributors Give $10K to “No On Proposition 19” Campaign in Attempt to Kill the Competition
CONTACT: Mike Meno, MPP director of communications …………… 202-905-2030 or 443-927-6400
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On September 7, a major new front opened up in the campaign for Proposition 19, the ballot measure to tax and regulate marijuana in California. On that day, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors made a $10,000 contribution to a committee opposing Proposition 19. Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project and co-author of Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?, had the following reaction to the news:
“Unless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances, the motivation behind this contribution is clear,” Fox said. “Plain and simple, the alcohol industry is trying to kill the competition. They know that marijuana is less addictive, less toxic and less likely to be associated with violent behavior than alcohol. So they don’t want adults to have the option of using marijuana legally instead of alcohol. Their mission is to drive people to drink.”
The alcohol industry is now working hand-in-hand with the law enforcement community to keep marijuana illegal. For example, the California Police Chiefs Association has given at least $30,000 to the “No on Proposition 19” campaign, while the California Narcotics Officers’ Association has chipped in $20,500 of its own. This partnership underscores the hypocrisy among law enforcement officials opposed to Prop. 19.
“Members of law enforcement have argued against Proposition 19 by asserting, ‘We have enough problems with alcohol, we don’t need to add another intoxicating substance to the mix,’ implying that marijuana is just as bad as alcohol,” Fox continued. “But the truth is that a legal marijuana market would not add another dangerous intoxicant to the mix; rather it would provide adults with a less harmful legal alternative to alcohol.”
“In their campaign to defeat Proposition 19, members of law enforcement and the alcohol industry have joined together under an umbrella group calling themselves ‘Public Safety First.’ Sadly, by fighting to keep marijuana illegal and steering adults toward alcohol instead, they are putting public safety last,” said Fox.
With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
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Marijuana prohibition has once again been proven to be a failure by our own government with the release of two reports this week. While the FBI's Uniform Crime Report showed marijuana arrests rising to 858,408 in 2009, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicated an eight percent rise in marijuana use among Americans. Given this kind of clear evidence that marijuana prohibition is not stopping marijuana use, why does our government want to continue to enforce policies aimed at arresting marijuana users? 
In what some may argue is a telling sign of their fear, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors made a $10,000 contribution to a committee opposing California's Prop. 19, a ballot initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in California. The alcohol lobby joins a large part of the state's law enforcement in opposing the bill, which could bring in more than $1 billion in revenue for the state. It would seem that having a safe alternative to alcohol and preventing the arrests of thousands of Californians each year just doesn't seem to be a priority for these groups. 
Kenneth Wells, a 57-year-old St. Charles man with no criminal record who was facing 5-15 years in prison for felony marijuana cultivation charges, has had the charges against him dropped. Mr. Wells suffers from chronic seizures and had been using marijuana to treat his symptoms with his doctor's recommendation. Although it was ruled that his doctor could not testify on his behalf, the charges were dropped when the prosecution determined it would be difficult to keep the details of his condition from the jury. 
In what can only be described as a step back for patients in Rhode Island, the health department there announced that it had rejected all 15 applications to open the state's first medical marijuana compassion centers. Among reasons cited for the rejections were that some applications had exceeded the allowable page limit. Setting and following guidelines can certainly be important in a process such as this, but should Rhode Island really be disqualifying applicants for being thorough? 
Marijuana Policy Project executive director Rob Kampia recently wrote a piece featured in the Huffington Post looking at how we frame the issue of medical marijuana policy reform in America. Rob points out that we have been successful not by promoting marijuana's safety or efficacy as medicine to many people, but rather because we've focused on what this issue is really about: compassion for people. 
In January 2003, 19-year-old Webster Alexander of Alabama received a 26-year prison sentence for selling $350 of marijuana within three miles of a school.