Why Marijuana Law Reform Should Matter to You (3/2/1998)
Before January of this year, no one except his most devoted friends and followers had ever heard of Ross Rebagliati. But this 20-something Canadian snow boarder became an international figure after his hard-won Olympic gold medal was temporarily snatched away from him when a post-event drug screen revealed traces of marijuana metabolites in his urine. After a suspense-filled 48 hours, the Court of Arbitration of Sports decided to return the medal to its rightful owner. The conclusion to this episode was a surprise to those who have become accustomed to defeat in the arena of marijuana law reform. Along with the passage of a medical marijuana voters' initiative in California and a more broadly worded drug reform initiative in Arizona in November 1996, it is a signal of real progress in an area that has for so long defied reform. The marijuana issue is not new to the ACLU or its members. We have officially opposed marijuana prohibition since 1968. Since then, some things have changed, but too much has remained the same. In the past 30 years, 10 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses in the U.S., the vast majority of them for possession and use. Indeed, in 1996, the most recent year for which figures are available, there were 641,600 marijuana arrests in this country, 85% of them for possession #173; more than in any previous year! The hopeful news is that after being bombarded for decades with inflammatory and often false drug war rhetoric, the American public seems more receptive to marijuana law reform today than it has in many years. A strong majority has supported the legal availability of medical marijuana at least since 1995, when a poll commissioned by the ACLU revealed that 79% of the public said they thought it "would be a good idea to legalize marijuana to relieve pain and for other medical uses if prescribed by a doctor."
In 1996, there were 641, 600 Marijuana arrests in the U.S.--more than in any previous year.
|
It's time for the ACLU to move the issue of marijuana reform front and center. During the worst excesses of the war on drugs, the silence of civil libertarians only emboldened our opponents to push through more and more draconian measures and helped create an atmosphere in which politicians were afraid to talk rationally about the marijuana issue. Recent successes have already brought about the predictable backlash, including the Clinton Administration's threat to punish California physicians who recommended marijuana to their patients. The ACLU can and should play a major role in fending off the government's efforts to undermine marijuana law reform. Why should the ACLU and its members care about this issue? First and foremost, because it is wrong in principle for the government to criminalize such personalbehavior. A government that cannot make it a crime for an individual to drink a martinishould for the same reasons not be permitted to make it a crime to smoke marijauna. John Stuart Mill said it perfectly back in 1857 in his famous essay, On Liberty: "Over himself," he wrote, "over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." And Americans certainly behave as if they believe that: marijuana is the third most popular drug in America after alcohol and nicotine (approximately 18 million adults used it in 1997, and ten million are regular smokers). The criminal prohibition of marijuana thus represents an extraordinary degree of government intrusion into the private, personal lives of those adults who choose to use it. Moreover, marijuana users are not the only victims of such a policy because a government that crosses easily over into this zone of personal behavior will cross over into others. The right to personal autonomy what Mill called individual sovereignty in matters of religion, political opinion, sexuality, reproductive decisions, and other private, consensual activities is at risk so long as the state thinks it can legitimately punish people for choosing a marijuana joint over a martini. Second, marijuana prohibition is the cause of a host of other very serious civil liberties violations. Millions of employees in both the public and private sectors are now subject to urinalysis drug testing programs, whether or not they are suspected of using drugs. Marijuana is the most common drug turned up by these "body fluid searches" since it is used by many more people than the other illicit drugs, and is detectable for days or weeks after ingestion (long after it has ceased to have any psychoactive effects). A positive marijuana drug test can lead to suspension, termination and coerced drug treatment, even though it does not measure intoxication or impairment. It is as if you were tested and fired from your job for a drink you had at a party last Saturday night. The government's seizure and civil forfeiture of people's homes, cars and other assets on the grounds they were "used in the commission of " a marijuana offense is another egregious example. The so-called zero tolerance policy has caused outlandishly disproportionate penalties, like the seizure, without trial, of an automobile because a single marijuana joint was found in the glove compartment. People's homes and other possessions have been seized and sold, all without a trial. Forfeiture can take place even when no criminal charges are brought, and it is then the individual's burden to petition a court for the return of his or her property. Often the police quickly sell the seized asset and pocket the money for general departmental use. Ever since 1937, when it adopted the "Marihuana Tax Act," the government has justified the criminalization of marijuana use on the grounds that it is a dangerous drug. But this claim looks more and more ludicrous with each passing year. Every independent commission appointed to look into this claim has found that marijuana is relatively benign. For example, President Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded in 1972 that, "There is little proven danger of physical or psychological harm from the experimental or intermittent use of natural preparations of cannibis," and recommended that marijuana for personal use be decriminalized. Ten years later, the National Academy of Sciences issued its finding that, "Over the past forty years, marijuana has been accused of causing an array of anti-social effects including ... provoking crime and violence ... leading to heroin addiction ... and destroying the American work ethic in young people. [These] beliefs... have not been substantiated by scientific evidence." Now here we are in 1998 and the government, along with anti-marijuana organizations like the Partnership for a Drug Free America, still persist in distorting the evidence, claiming, for example, that marijuana "kills brain cells" and that it is a "gateway" to hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. These fear tactics are a linchpin in the government's effort to maintain prohibition and the civil liberties violations that flow from it. With the continued support of our members, the ACLU will play an active role in bringing about genuine marijuana law reform. Our litigation efforts to end suspicionless drug testing of workers and students, to challenge civil forfeiture laws and to defend the First Amendment right of doctors to recommend marijuana to their patients will all continue, and we hope to establish a special project in the national office to bring legal challenges against other civil liberties violations brought about by prohibition. Our lobbyists at both the state and national levels will continue to oppose repressive legislation and support reform, like Representative Barney Frank's medical marijuana bill. And we will work hard to educate the public as well, through media relations, publications and other forms of outreach. ACLU members, too, have a critical role to play. This is a debate that needs to take place in every community. Fundamental questions about individual freedom and limits on government power need to be addressed. You can write letters to your local newspapers and let your elected representatives at all levels know what you think. This newsletter contains information about on going legislative campaigns in several states in which the ACLU is involved, and about proposals pending in Congress. For more information you can check the ACLU's website which contains a special collection of material on this issue at archive.aclu.org
Stop Punishing Sick People
When he was 18 years old, Joe Pinson discovered that smoking marijuana helped alleviate his debilitating asthma symptoms (as many other asthma sufferers have discovered). In 1993, when he was 30, he decided to grow his own marijuana in the attic of the house he shared with his mother. He purchased growing equipment from an indoor gardening store that was under surveillance by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Not long after, he was arrested for cultivation and possession of marijuana. Even though it was his first offense, he was sentenced to a five-year mandatory minimum jail term. What happened to Pinson is, unfortunately, not unique. Evidence of marijuana's medical efficacy grows daily. Tens of thousands of patients report they have found that smoking marijuana relieves symptoms ranging from AIDS wasting syndrome to muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis. Doctors, too, are well aware of marijuana's medical benefits. And at least 24 professional medical associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine publicly support prescriptive access to marijuana. But none of this has stopped the federal government from second-guessing doctors and their patients. The Drug Enforcement Administration persists in classifying marijuana as a Schedule I drug ("unsafe, highly subject to abuse, and possessing no medicinal value"), and this classification leaves both physicians and patients vulnerable to serious penalties, up to and including imprisonment. Publicity surrounding stories like Joe Pinson's has moved many Americans to support the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. In 1996 a majority of voters in California and Arizona approved the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. And a March 1998 CNN poll reaped an overwhelming 96% favorable response. In the face of widespread public support for medical marijuana law reform, the Clinton Administration's intransigence seems increasingly strange. Today, battles on the medical marijuana front continue throughout the United States. The ACLU's First Amendment challenge to the Clinton Administration's threat to punish California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients is ongoing (see below). Individual patients who are arrested for marijuana possession or cultivation continue to assert a defense based on medical necessity, with mixed results. In November 1998, voters in several states will have an opportunity to vote on medical marijuana measures in their states (see opposite). And legislation to remove the federal ban on prescribing marijuana is pending in Congress. It's crucial that lawmakers on both the state and federal levels hear from ACLU members on this important issue. Seriously ill people ought to be able to secure the best possible care for themselves without being threatened with criminal prosecution and prison.
|
To find out more about marijuana reform, visit these websites: www.norml.org
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) www.mpp.org
Marijuana Policy Project www.drcnet.org
Drug Reform Coordination Network www.famm.org
Families Against Mandatory Minimums www.dpf.org
Drug Policy Foundation www.drugpolicy.org
Drug Policy Alliance ACLU ACTION | Bypassing the state legislature altogether, the Alaska CLU is supporting a ballot initiative in favor of legalizing medical marijuana. The ballot is expected to be voted on in November 1998. At least four other states Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Washington have ballot initiatives on medical marijuana scheduled for popular vote this November. The ACLU of Northern California is representing a group of doctors in a First Amendment case against the Clinton Administration for threatening to punish physicians who recommend medical marijuana to their patients (Conant v. McCaffrey).In May 1997, we scored a major victory when a federal court issued a preliminary injunction barring the government from following through on its threats. A final ruling by the trial court is expected later this year. The ACLU of Georgia helped defeat legislation threatening to repeal the state's cannabis therapeutic research program, and supported the "Access to Medical Treatment Act," which provides that, "individuals have the right to be provided with any... experimental or nonconventional... medical treatment desired or authorized" by a licensed medical practitioner. The ACLU of Florida is an active member of the Coalition Advocating Medical Marijuana (CAMM), which is working to have a medical marijuana initiative on the November ballot. CAMM is sponsoring "Medical Action Weeks" a series of student, medical and legal forums in cities across the state. ACLU speakers will be featured. Although a measure to protect seriously ill patients using medical marijuana from criminal prosecution was defeated in the state legislature in 1997, the Maine CLU, a staunch supporter of the legislation, is hoping that a medical marijuana initiative will qualify for a statewide ballot in 1998 or 1999. Besides supporting the medical marijuana ballot initiative in that state, the ACLU of Oregon is asking voters to say "no" to ballot measure 57, which would recriminalize possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. Ironically, Oregon was the first state to recriminalize possession of this amount of the drug in 1973. And the ACLU of Washington is actively supporting two medical marijuana measures a ballot initiative and a legislative proposal. There are several measures, both good and bad, introduced in Congress. Only one a toothless, nonbinding resolution opposing medical marijuana law reform is likely to be considered. Also introduced, however, is a proposal sponsored by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), that would change marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug, making it possible for physicians to prescribe it for medical use. Other measures unlikely to be considered include Speaker Newt Gingrich's "Drug Importer Death Penalty Act," that would impose the death penalty on those trafficking in "100 dosage amounts" of an illicit drug, including marijuana. Yet another bill, proposed by Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-NC), would impose a sentence of up to eight years, a $60,000 fine, and license revocation, upon any physician caught recommending marijuana to a patient. |
|
