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MSNBC Notices Popular Support for Marijuana Reform

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow gave a nod to the smashing success of marijuana reform initiatives in Tuesday’s election, observing on her show tonight that "smoking weed is getting more respect from our citizens." As images of shiny nugs sprawled across the screen, Maddow acknowledged the passage of 9 out of 10 marijuana reform initiatives this year.

So while I didn’t particularly care for her delivery, this is really the exact impression we need to make on the mainstream media. The antiquated notion that marijuana reform is politically suicidal cannot possibly be permanently sustained amidst the constant accumulation of evidence to the contrary.

Reading me blog about the evolution of drug war politics is one thing, hearing Rachel Maddow snark about it on MSNBC is quite another. Our mission remains the same, but the landscape is changing all the time.

Smoking Pot Won’t Make You Stupid, But Stupid People Do Smoke Pot

Despite major ballot initiatives pending in Massachusetts and Michigan, these are the two most-reported marijuana stories of the month:

1. Some guy who tried to trade pot for a meal at McDonalds.

2. Miss Teen Louisiana losing her crown after ditching the bill at a restaurant and leaving behind her purse, which contained her ID and some marijuana.

No matter what happens, the media will always be primarily interested in the most trivial, embarrassing marijuana-related news that can possibly be drudged up. Nothing we say or do is ever going to change that. And for what it’s worth, I must admit that stories like this are just priceless and deserve every click.

But as long as this kind of inconsequential fluff continues to dominate marijuana-related press coverage, the worst stereotypes will endure and the effort to stimulate serious discussion of our marijuana laws will remain a steep uphill battle.

Study: Decriminalizing Marijuana Doesn’t Increase Use

Bruce Mirken at the Marijuana Policy Project Blog points to some revealing data from the National Research Council:
The issue most extensively studied has been the impact of decriminalization on the prevalence of marijuana use among youths and adults. Penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use were significantly reduced in 11 states in the 1970s (Bonnie, 1981b). All of these laws preclude incarceration for consumption-related marijuana offenses, making the offense punishable only by a fine, and most also classify the offense in a category (typically a civil infraction) that does not carry the stigmatizing consequence of having been convicted of a crime— hence the term ‘decriminalization.’
Most cross-state comparisons in the United States (as well as in Australia; see McGeorge and Aitken, 1997) have found no significant differences in the prevalence of marijuana use in decriminalized and nondecriminalized states (e.g., Johnston et al., 1981; Single, 1989; DiNardo and Lemieux, 1992; Thies and Register, 1993). Even in the few studies that find an effect on prevalence, it is a weak one. …

In summary, existing research seems to indicate that there is little apparent relationship between severity of sanctions prescribed for drug use and prevalence or frequency of use, and that perceived legal risk explains very little in the variance of individual drug use. [NAP]
We’ve been placing marijuana users in handcuffs and taking them to jail. We’ve been stigmatizing them with criminal records and interfering with their job opportunities. We’ve been taking their children away. We’ve been revoking their financial aid for college. We’ve been taking away their hope for living a normal life and then claiming we’re trying to help them be normal.

Our marijuana laws are designed to hurt people. To inflict injury. And it’s all based on the idea that less people will use marijuana if we do these horrible things to them. But if that isn’t true, then we’re ruining lives for no reason. There remains no excuse for continuing this.

Drug Czar Embarrassed By Marijuana Arrest Rates

New FBI data showing that 872,721 Americans were arrested for marijuana last year must have a come as a major shock to Drug Czar John Walters. Watch him just a week ago claiming that we don’t arrest that many people for marijuana:


Of course, the Drug Czar gets caught lying all the time, so no surprises there. But since when does he go around downplaying the results of the drug war? He typically bends over backwards and beyond to tell everyone how well he thinks his programs are working, so why is he so shy about these marijuana arrests? Amazingly, the Drug Czar is actually ashamed. After all, even he could never summon proud words to describe this. The drug war is, first and foremost, a massive campaign against peaceful people who smoke pot for fun. There’s no glory for the soldiers in that fight.

There is just nothing more revealing in the drug war debate than the moment when the people in charge start insisting that the whole thing is really quite civilized and reasonable. Of course, we don’t put people in jail for smoking pot because that would be cruel. Trust us, the people we do put in jail are major assholes, every last one of them. And if you hold this chart at a 45 degree angle and squint, you’ll see that we’re producing exciting results this year.

Meanwhile, the same people who insist that they don’t want to put pot smokers in jail will go raving nuts if you try to pass a law that reduces the number of pot smokers who go to jail.

A New Record for U.S. Marijuana Arrests

Every year, more Americans are arrested for the pettiest crime on earth:

Until that day when the burden of our brutal war on marijuana becomes too great to deny, when the costs can’t be written off anymore and even the proud drug soldiers begin to lose interest in this disgraceful crusade…until that day, make damn sure you know what to do when they come for you:

Excellent Video: The Human Cost of Marijuana Prohibition

The Marijuana Policy Project has put together an absolute must-see video telling the stories of real people who were unfairly targeted by the war on drugs.

Part 1:

Part 2:


There is simply no counterpoint to this. No one will come forward to defend these atrocities. They cannot. Instead, the drug czar and his soldiers will continue to celebrate their war, while pretending these people don't exist.

The duty falls on us, therefore, to give a voice to the drug war's countless victims. These stories puncture the false narrative that the war on drugs protects life and liberty. These are the inevitable, intolerable consequences of the terrible war we've declared on our own neighbors and friends, on the sick and dying, on children and grandparents. To know these stories is to know the truth: the drug war has brought us the opposite of every good outcome we were told to expect.

So today I call upon the silent drug warriors lurking around the site (I know you're out there) to come forward and tell us why the nice people in these videos were worth sacrificing. Speak now, lest we assume you have no answer for this.

If the Drug War Works, Why Did Teen Access to Marijuana Increase This Year?

Today, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) released a new study that perfectly demolishes one of the central myths underlying the war on drugs. The National Survey on American Attitudes on Substance Abuse shows that youth access to marijuana has increased significantly in the past year:

According to the report, half of the 16- and 17-year-olds surveyed said their peers use marijuana more than tobacco. More teens say it’s easier to acquire marijuana than beer. And there’s a 35% increase from last year in the number of teens who say they can buy marijuana within an hour and a 14% increase in the number of teens who say they can find it in a day. [MPP]

It almost speaks for itself. Nothing could more directly obliterate the false notion that the war on marijuana is reducing youth access. Just days ago, the drug czar stood on a California mountaintop proudly pronouncing the importance of marijuana eradication. He's bent over backwards to explain that reductions in youth marijuana use provide proof that the war on marijuana is working.

What then can be said about marijuana's ever-increasing availability to young people? Rather obviously, recent declines in youth marijuana use owe nothing to the brutal and controversial tactics the drug czar is duty-bound to defend. After another year of dead dogs, dead informants and dead cops, marijuana is more available to our children than ever before. If fewer of them are using, then that is because they don't feel like it, not because they don't know where to get any.

Of course, the drug war supporters at CASA must have realized how badly their data reflects on marijuana prohibition, so they cooked up one the most embarrassingly backwards statistics possible:

Teens who can obtain marijuana readily are more likely to use it. Forty-five percent of teens who say they can get marijuana in an hour or less have used the drug, compared to 10 percent of those teens who say it would take them a day to get it and less than one percent of teens who say they would be unable to get it.

Oh, mercy. Is it really necessary to explain that teens who smoke marijuana are more likely to know where to buy it? This is just a crime against the scientific method, a pathetic face-saving ruse to defend marijuana prohibition within a report that unintentionally – yet transparently -- humiliates the drug war status quo.

Today, the drug war's failure to keep drugs out of the hands of our young people has been revealed in stark, unambiguous terms. No, the debate won't end here, but it is moments like this that cause one drug warrior after another, after another to jump ship and admit that the whole thing is just a monumental travesty.

TV Networks Refuse to Allow Discussion of Marijuana Laws

One of the few remaining tactics for effectively defending our marijuana laws is to prevent them from even being discussed:

The TV program is titled "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation," but it's unlikely many viewers of network stations will be talking about it.

Of the three local network stations, only one agreed to run the show, produced by the American Civil Liberties Union and hosted by travel writer Rick Steves. [Seattle Times]

Ack, we mustn't expose anyone to the crazy ideas of Rick Steves! Wait, isn't he that really nice Lutheran guy who hosts a popular travel show on public television? So then why should we be terrified of him?

Jim Clayton, vice president and general manager at KOMO, the ABC affiliate, refused to sell time. The show, he said, promoted marijuana use.

"The last I checked, it's illegal," Clayton said. "We don't use our public airways to promote illegal things."

Um, pardon me sir, but we're actually trying to massively reduce illegal activity. I wouldn’t have thought this to be intellectually challenging, but if we were to change our marijuana laws, then it wouldn't be illegal. See? This doesn’t promote illegal activity. Marijuana laws create illegal activity and we'd like to discuss that.

Of course, marijuana reformers are constantly accused of childishness. We are dismissed as self-interested hippies waiving the banner of personal freedom whenever it suits us, while refusing to engage in serious conversations about empirical data and sound public policy. Yet, what can be said about those who serve as gatekeepers in the marketplace of ideas and abuse their authority by arbitrarily blocking discussion of ideas they find objectionable?

In truth, it is often opponents of the reform argument who act childishly, feigning irrational concerns that simply permitting debate will somehow aggravate the drug problem. Such behavior must be recognized for what it is: a great insult to the intelligence of the public.

An Excellent Column on Marijuana Prohibition From Reuters

Fairness requires that I call attention to Reuters columnist Bernd Debusmann's excellent piece, America's never-ending prohibition. I've been critical of marijuana coverage at Reuters in the past, so I was pleased to see this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's alcohol prohibition lasted 13 years, filled the country's prisons, inspired contempt for the law among millions, bred corruption and produced Al Capone. What it did not do was keep Americans from drinking.

America's marijuana prohibition drew into its 72nd year this month. It has created a huge underground industry catering to users, helped the U.S. prison population balloon into the world's largest, and diverted the resources of American law enforcement. What it has not done is keep Americans from using marijuana.

On the contrary. Since 1937, the year marijuana was outlawed, its use in the United States has gone up by 4,000 percent, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based lobby group which advocates regulating the drug similar to alcohol. A recent World Health Organization study of marijuana use in 17 countries placed Americans at the top of the list.

Indeed. Rather than measuring the drug war's success by comparing today's rates of drug use to their highest point in history, the drug czar should be comparing today's usage rates to what they were before we started this mindless crusade.

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