On December 4, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives in a 228-164 vote passed a landmark bill decriminalizing marijuana and expunging nonviolent marijuana-related convictions, but many think it will likely stall in the senate. Still this is a big step.
Following the 2020 elections fifteen states now have legalized recreational cannabis, and the number of states where medical marijuana is legal is now 35. Even the conservative states of South Dakota, Montana and Arizona legalized recreational and medical cannabis.
In Oregon, ballot measure 110 passed by overwhelming numbers. It decriminalized the personal, noncommercial use of all drugs, such as cocaine, meth and heroin, across the state. The measure will also fund a much-needed network of treatment, recovery and harm reduction services using taxes generated from cannabis sales. Moreover, funds that otherwise would have been spent on policing and incarceration will be directed toward expanding drug treatment options. Decriminalization means that penalties are no longer criminal. If you are apprehended with personal use amounts of these drugs you will receive a $100 citation and go on your way, a misdemeanor ticket. Then If you agree to a free addiction assessment the fine could be waived.
Coincidently, on December 2, 2020, the United Nations issued a reclassification of cannabis out of the most dangerous category of drugs opening the way for more research on the medical benefits of the plant. And for many years, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership has advocated for adult drug abuse be treated as a public health problem and not a law enforcement matter.
This legislation follows years of research on the abject failure of the War on Drugs. A Nov 2016 British Medical Journal article by Dr Fiona Goodlee, called the war of drugs an “epic fail” with billions of dollars wasted, resulting in increased incarceration rates, prison overcrowding, wasted police resources, reduced trust in law enforcement and barriers to research on pain management and opioid addiction.
So how did cannabis(marijuana) become illegal?
Did you know in the 1700s in the United States that farmers were legally required to grow cannabis (hemp) as a staple crop? Human agriculture started about 10,000 years ago, and the archaeological evidence indicates that hemp was one of the first agricultural crops. The first settlers brought it to Jamestown. Additionally, throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries cannabis tinctures and products were prescribed by physicians.
Then in the 1930s following the Mexican revolution and migration of Mexicans into the southern states there was a demonization of the Mexican immigrants and the customs and culture they brought with them including smoking of marijuana. During hearings on marijuana law in the 1930s, claims were made about marijuana’s ability to cause men of color to become violent and solicit sex from white women. This imagery fueled the efforts to ban Marijuana and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed which effectively banned its use and sales. What people did not realize at the time was it also banned the cannabis tinctures their doctors prescribed as well.
Quotes from Henry Anslinger Head of Federal Narcotics Bureau: “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men. There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”
Even though the Act was ruled unconstitutional years later, it was replaced with the Controlled Substances Act in the 1970s which established Schedules for ranking substances according to their dangerousness and potential for addiction. Cannabis was placed in the most restrictive category, Schedule I, along with LSD, Ecstasy, Peyote and Heroin as drugs with no supposed medical benefit.
In 1971 Richard Nixon constituted the Schafer Commission, to research the issue of cannabis legalization and it found that marijuana should not be in the Schedule I category. They stated that there was no public health reasons for its designation as an illicit substance. However, for political reasons Nixon discounted the recommendations of the commission, and marijuana remains a Schedule I substance.
In the Nixon tapes and H. R. Haldeman writing in his diary stated that rejecting the Shafer Commission was political “…you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks, the homosexuals and the Jews. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.”
Clearly it is time for the United States to abandon the Drug Wars in favor of medical research, an increase in public health funding and expansion of evidence based treatment approaches.
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