The Benefits of Marijuana Legalization and Regulation

1 Berkeley Journal of Criminal LawVolume 23 Issue 1 Symposium: Criminal Justice at a CrossroadsArticle 62018 The Benefits of Marijuana Legalization andRegulationTamar ToddDrug Policy AllianceLink to publisher version (DOI) Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals and Related Materials at Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law by an authorized administrator of Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository. For moreinformation, please CitationTamar Todd,The Benefits of Marijuana Legalization and Regulation , 23 BerkeleyJ. Crim. L. (2018).ISSUE 23:1 SPRING 2018 The Benefits of Marijuana Legalization and Regulation Tamar Todd* There is increasing support for Marijuana law reform than ever before, and the Legalization of Marijuana has many serious public policy implications.

2 This paper highlights the problems with criminalizing Marijuana use and its disparate impact on people of color. The criminalization of Marijuana has also failed to meet its goals and has negative impact on individual and public health. Finally, criminalization impacts the workplace, environment, and public resources. In the end, data suggests that the Legalization of Marijuana reduces the harms of criminalization and is good for public policy. Introduction .. 100 People Who Use Marijuana Undermines the Legitimacy of the Law.. 100 Criminalization of Marijuana Use was Born from Racial Animus and Enforcement of the Laws has Disproportionately Affected Black and Brown People.. 104 Prohibition has been a Complete Failure Even by Its Own Stated Goals.. 106 a Person is More Harmful to that Person than Marijuana .

3 107 of Marijuana is Bad for Public Health.. 109 Makes Control Impossible.. 111 is Dangerous for Workers.. 113 is Terrible for the Environment.. 113 Marijuana is an Immense Waste of Public Resources, While Marijuana Taxation Brings in Much Needed Revenue.. 114 from States that have Legalized Marijuana Show that DOI: Copyright 2018 Regents of University of California * Director of Legal Affairs, Drug Policy Alliance; , Georgetown University Law Center, 2000. 1 Todd: The Benefits of Marijuana Legalization and RegulationPublished by Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository, 2018 TODD SPRING 2018 100 BERKELEY JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW Vol. 23:1 Legalization is Good Public Policy.. 115 INTRODUCTION There is something that makes people giggle when discussing Marijuana even if they are not smoking.

4 People tend to treat the issue as a joke. But one thing Kevin Sabet and I agree on is that the debate over Marijuana policy has serious public policy consequences. He believes that Marijuana is bad. And I believe that the criminalization of Marijuana is worse. Criminalization has disproportionally punished black and brown people, wasted billions of dollars, enriched the illicit market, damaged public health, devastated the environment, failed to reduce youth Marijuana use and undermined people s faith in the government. I appreciate that the Heritage Foundation and Berkeley Law together have invited us to debate whether Marijuana should be legalized or remain criminalized. Whether one cares about mass incarceration, or the environment, or public health, or tax revenue, or medical research, or labor, or children, or the honesty of our government, Marijuana policy has serious implications on all of these issues.

5 This article focuses on what I believe are the top ten reasons that Marijuana should be legalized for adults and controlled through Regulation and taxation rather than criminalization. I. CRIMINALIZING PEOPLE WHO USE Marijuana UNDERMINES THE LEGITIMACY OF THE LAW. Marijuana has been used for thousands of years for its medicinal and social effects, and it is the most commonly used illegal drug in the Approximately one out of every seven American adults ( ) has used Marijuana in the past Over half of all American adults ( ) have used Marijuana during their All of these people have committed a federal drug crime. 1 ROBERT DEITCH, HEMP: AMERICAN HISTORY REVISITED: THE PLANT WITH A DIVIDED HISTORY (2003); ALISON MACK & JANET JOY, Marijuana AS MEDICINE? THE SCIENCE BEYOND THE CONTROVERSY (2000); MARTIN BOOTH, CANNABIS: A HISTORY (2005).

6 2 SUBSTANCE ABUSE & MENTAL HEALTH SERVS. ADMIN., CTR. FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH STATISTICS & QUALITY, RESULTS FROM THE 2016 NATIONAL SURVEY ON DRUG USE AND HEALTH: DETAILED TABLES, Table (2016), #. 3 Id. 2 Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, Vol. 23, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 6 : 23:1 SPRING 2018 2018 Benefits OF Marijuana Legalization AND Regulation 101 Existing law makes tens of millions of hardworking and productive Americans illicit drug users by definition. The child in Colorado who is using Marijuana to control severe epilepsy is committing a federal drug crime. The veteran who is using Marijuana to manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder is committing a federal drug crime. The cancer patient who uses Marijuana to alleviate pain or to lessen reliance on opioid pain medication is committing a federal drug crime.

7 The adult who chooses to consume Marijuana with friends in the privacy of his or her own home is committing a federal drug crime. What is the purpose of our federal criminal laws? To make criminals out of half of all adults? Based on the most recent Gallup poll in October 2017, sixty-four percent of Americans two-thirds of people believe that Marijuana use should be A majority of Republicans think Marijuana use should be The vast majority (seventy-five percent) of United States voters across all demographics and party affiliations oppose federal government enforcement of federal Marijuana laws in states that have legalized Marijuana for medical or adult And ninety-four percent of Americans think medical Marijuana which is still completely illegal under federal law should be legal.

8 Is there any other issue in America today about which this high a percentage of Americans agree?7 Currently Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled The federal government placed Marijuana in Schedule I in 1971, despite the findings of the Schafer Commission a government commission appointed by Nixon to examine the scheduling of Marijuana which concluded that Marijuana should be de-scheduled and 4 Justin McCarthy, Record-High Support for Legalizing Marijuana Use in , GALLUP NEWS (Oct. 25, 2017), 5 Id. 6 Voters Say 68 27% Let Transgender People Serve, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Voters Disapprove 5-1 of GOP Handling of Health Care, QUINNIPIAC U. POLL (Aug. 3, 2017), 7 Id. 8 21 812 (2012). 9 See v. Cannabis Cultivators Club, 5 F.

9 Supp. 2d 1086, 1105 ( Cal. 1998); Gabriel Nahas & Albert Greenwood, The First Report of The National Commission on Marihuana (1972): Signal of Misunderstanding or Exercise in Ambiguity, 50 BULL. ACAD. MED. 55 (1974). 3 Todd: The Benefits of Marijuana Legalization and RegulationPublished by Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository, 2018 TODD SPRING 2018 102 BERKELEY JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW Vol. 23:1 Schedule I drugs are those that the government considers most serious, most Schedule I drugs have no accepted medical use and a high potential for Heroin is a Schedule I Methamphetamine is Schedule The federal government s scheduling of Marijuana ignores the evidence that Marijuana does have medical uses and does not have a high potential for Many people know that Marijuana has medicinal value, regardless of the government s insistence otherwise, because many 10 21 812.

10 11 Id. 12 Id. 13 Id. 14 See, , Marijuana AND MEDICINE: ASSESSING THE SCIENCE BASE (Janet E. Joy et al. eds., 1999); Vincent Vinciguerra et al., Inhalation Marijuana as an Antiemetic for Cancer chemotherapy , STATE J. MED. (Oct. 1988); Abrams et al., Vaporization as a Smokeless Cannabis Delivery System: A Pilot Study, 282 CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS 572 (2007); Donald Abrams et al., Short-Term Effects of Cannabinoids on Patients With HIV-1 Infection: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial, 139 ANNALS OF INTERNAL MED. 258 (2003); Gregory T. Carter & Bill S. Rosen, Marijuana in the Management of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, 18 AM. J. OF HOSPICE & PALLIATIVE CARE 264 (2001); Marta Duran et al., Preliminary Efficacy and Safety of an Oromucosal Standardized Cannabis Extract in chemotherapy - induced nausea and Vomiting, 70 J.