Although I am a long time marijuana user and proponent of legalization, honesty compels me to look at the statistics. Here is the view from the other side;

From;
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/whos_in_prison_for_marij/whos_in_prison_for_marij.pdf

"Out of the total number of state inmates doing time for any drug offense, 83 percent had a prior criminal history. In other words, the large majority were not first time offenders. They were people who had committed crimes in the past, and nearly two thirds of them (62 percent) had multiple prior convictions. Marijuana accounted for just 13 percent of all state drug offenders.
Looking at it from the broader perspective of the entire prison population, BJS noted that in 1997 marijuana was involved in the conviction of only 2.7 percent of all state inmates. About 1.6 percent of the state prison population were held for offenses involving just marijuana, while just 0.7 percent were incarcerated with marijuana possession as the only charge.
Further narrowing the field, by excluding those prisoners with criminal histories, BJS found that only 0.3 percent of all state inmates were first time
marijuana possession offenders (see Figure 1). And this statistic, it’s worth noting, refers to possession of any amount—even as much as a hundred pounds or more—not just “personal use” quantities.
Recent BJS estimates based on prisoner surveys show that at midyear 2002, approximately 8,400 state prison inmates were serving time for marijuana possession (any amount), and fewer than half of them were first time offenders. The point here is inescapable: Of the more than 1.2 million people serving time in state prisons across America, only 3,600 individuals were sentenced on a first offense for possession of marijuana. Again, this figure includes possession of any amount.

FIGURE 1 Inmates in state prison for marijuana offenses (1997)34
Drug possession offenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5.6% of all state inmates
First time drug offenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3.6% of all state inmates
Offenses involving marijuana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.7% of all state inmates
Prisoners held for marijuana only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.6% of all state inmates
Prisoners held for marijuana possession only . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.7% of all state inmates
First time offenders held only for marijuana possession
(any amount) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.3% of all state inmates"

My sympathy for traffickers is limited. My sympathy for those who grow their own and never sell it is unbounded.
Now an question and an observation. Is marijuana a gateway drug? Yes, and the government keeps it that way.
Back in the late 60's and early 70's we heard all kinds of horror stories about drugs. Then we tried marijuana and it turns out that a lot of what the government said was bs.
The problem was that we were children (late teens, very early twenties, and if you don't think those are still children, then you have not yet reached your 30's). Children do not see the world in shades of gray, they see the world in black and white, good and evil. When they realized that adults have lied to them, their reaction is to ask, "What else are they lying about?"
This is why it is so important to tell kids the truth. Once we knew that we had been lied to about marijuana, we began to wonder if we were being lied to about other drugs. So we tried other drugs to find out.
And the answer was yes and no. We were being lied to in some ways (peyote, mescaline), and in other ways we were not even being warned enough (LSD, angel dust).
In addition, as we got older it became clear that alcohol is just as much of a drug as it is a beverage.
Marijuana is addictive, and because of that it is hard on the lungs and will sooner or later cause anxiety attacks. After four decades, I know. But in the end, if we are going to keep alcohol legal, then criminalizing marijuana is a losing proposition.
Every generation is going to grow up and realized the same thing that we did.
Source(s):
been there, done that


Permalink | Report