Why Election Day Marks the Beginning of the End of Marijuana Prohibition

[RainDog]

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/why-election-day-marks-beginning-end-marijuana-prohibition

In Colorado, voters will decide on Amendment 64. In Washington, voters will decide on I-502.

In Both States, Majorities in the Polls Indicate Support for Passage of Re-legalization Legislation.

The passage of one or both of these statewide measures this Tuesday will be both historic and game-changing. Here’s why.

While a minority of marijuana law reform activists has griped that these measures do not go far enough, the reality is that their passage will provide cannabis consumers with unprecedented legal protections. Presently, no state legally defines cannabis as a legal commodity. Some state laws do provide for a legal exception that allows for certain qualified patients to possess specific amounts of cannabis as needed. But none of these states define cannabis itself as a legal product that may be lawfully possessed and consumed by adults.

The difference is hardly one of semantics. Consider this: Even in California, the state that is considered by many to possess the most liberal medical marijuana laws, police (and state law) define cannabis, even when present in only minor amounts, as contraband. This means that the presumption of law enforcement and prosecutors is that a person possesses or cultivates cannabis unlawfully. The burden, therefore, is on the would-be defendant to establish that they are legally exempt under the law as a qualified patient. In some cases, this might mean showing proper paperwork to a police officer. (The arresting officer may or may not choose to accept this paperwork as legitimate.) In other case, it may entail having to prove one’s case in a court of law. Either way, the mindset of the state is clear: cannabis is illegal – unless it can be established otherwise.

Passage of either Amendment 64 or I-502 completely changes this dynamic. Rather than presuming cannabis to be illicit, and that those who possess it are engaged in illegal activity, passage of these measures will mandate law enforcement and prosecutors to presume that cannabis is in fact legal, and that those who possess it in personal use quantities are engaged in legal activity, unless the state can show that there are extenuating circumstances proving otherwise (e.g., a person possessed a greater quantity of cannabis than is allowed under state law).

...more at the link

[Mnemosyne]

1. Please let it be so. nt

[DaniDubois]

2. This is huge!

The voters in Washington and Colorado have the chance to vote for liberty or tyranny. Liberty being the freedom to make their own personal choices or tyranny being their hard earned tax money continues to pay for jail and prison time for a person who has possession of an HERB.

[RainDog]

3. It is one of the biggest potential outcomes of this election cycle

and, honestly, the way to end bad federal law.

[Lucinda]

4. ...

[RainDog]

21. when I see your name

I always start singing something like this...

[TeamPooka]

5. Prohibition is a failed public polcy...again nt

[eppur_se_muova]

6. RE-LEGALIZATION: very smart choice of words ! nt

[RainDog]

7. trying to incorporate that into my vocab!

[Matariki]

8. And the polls show the WA law passing!

Here's hoping. I'm turning in my WA State ballot today.

[RainDog]

10. At this point, it looks like WA and CO will make historic votes!

I'm very proud of people in both states.

It's one of those walls of discrimination that can crumble by the will of voters.

[Renew Deal]

9. We'll see if it passes

There was a lot of hope that it would pass in CA and it didn't. I know that there were issues with the CA referendum, but it still failed.

[RainDog]

11. CA polls didn't have the numbers that CO and WA both have

ever.

But, yes, we'll have to see. It depends on people getting out and voting.

A vote for legalization and a vote for Obama could mean great things for CO as a swing state.

[Ohio Joe]

12. I am voting to legalize here in CO

This foolish drug war has got to end.

[RainDog]

15. thank you from the rest of us!

I think it's also interesting that the court hasn't ruled, afaik - and I've looked for it - on the Americans For Safe Access appeal that the DEA has not considered evidence in their refusal to reschedule.

If states, as it looks like they are doing, vote to legalize, the court could tell the DEA to hold hearings on scheduling to remove the criminal sanctions, or at least reduce them, at a federal level.

Or, even better, Congress can decriminalize and remove cannabis from the schedules (something less likely to happen, imo.)

[Matariki]

16. Yay! I'm voting to legalize it in WA

and I don't even like the stuff personally.

[tavernier]

13. Because as soon as they call the race a win for Obama

I will be lighting up?

[RainDog]

14. 2011: 50% of all drug arrests were for marijuana. 87% of those were for possession

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/29/americas-2011-drug-war-tally-one-marijuana-arrest-every-42-seconds/

New numbers released Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting Program show that nearly half of all drug arrests in 2011 were marijuana-related, and of those arrests almost 90 percent were for possession alone.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a drug reform advocacy group, said that the latest numbers show that marijuana users were arrested last year at a rate of one every 42 seconds. Accounting for all illegal drug users, they added that arrest rate jumps to one every 21 seconds.

In all, the FBI said that law enforcement agencies made 1,531,251 drug-related arrests last year. Approximately 49.5 percent of those arrests — roughly 757,969 — were for marijuana. Of those marijuana arrests, the vast majority, about 87 percent, were for simple possession.

“Even excluding the costs involved for later trying and then imprisoning these people, taxpayers are spending between one and a half to three billion dollars a year just on the police and court time involved in making these arrests,” Neill Franklin, director of LEAP and a former Baltimore police officer, said in a prepared statement. “That’s a lot of money to spend for a practice that four decades of unsuccessful policies have proved does nothing to reduce the consumption of drugs.”

I can think of better ways to spend federal dollars.

[RainDog]

17. FBI Study Shows Marijuana Arrests Do Not Deter Use

http://blog.mpp.org/prohibition/fbi-study-shows-marijuana-arrests-do-not-deter-use/10302012/

In 2011, one American was arrested for marijuana possession every 42 seconds.

Despite intensive law enforcement resources being used to arrest and punish marijuana users, rates of marijuana use continue to rise. The “National Survey on Drug Use and Health” — commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and released in late September — showed that marijuana use had slightly increased nationally between 2010 and 2011. According to the report, more than 29.7 million people aged 12 and older used marijuana at least once in the past year.

“It’s obvious that decades of law enforcement efforts have failed to reduce the availability or use of marijuana. Arresting one American for marijuana possession every 42 seconds is an exercise in futility, especially when one considers that marijuana is safer than alcohol,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. “A business that continues to employ bad policies will eventually fail, but taxpayers are being forced to continually bail out the fiscally irresponsible and morally bankrupt institution of marijuana prohibition. A majority of Americans are tired of this nightmare. It’s time for politicians to regulate marijuana like alcohol.”

A Rasmussen poll in May showed that 56% of voters supported removing criminal penalties for adult marijuana use and instead taxing and regulating the substance in a manner similar to alcohol. In November, voters in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon will have the opportunity to end marijuana prohibition in their states.

[NYC Liberal]

18. K&R. Once one or two states do this, it will start happening in others.

Just as marriage equality is slowly but surely spreading, marijuana will slowly but surely be re-legalized.

[riderinthestorm]

19. End the Drug War! Big K&R and great post Raindog nt

[RainDog]

20. thanks!

[War Horse]

22. From your keyboard

To the deity of your choice's (or not) ears

[RainDog]

23. you mean... From the voting booths

and, probably the next week the feds will push back... but they're not gonna win this one.

it's over, now... or sooner rather than later.

(as in, the govt. cannot continue the policy that's been in place for too long.)