cannabisnews.com: Are Marijuana Laws 'Shwag' or 'Dank?'





Are Marijuana Laws 'Shwag' or 'Dank?'
Posted by CN Staff on November 10, 2004 at 08:50:14 PT
Editorial
Source: Iowa State Daily 
In case you missed it, last week Montana became the 11th state to allow medical marijuana. Voters in Alaska, which already allows medicinal marijuana, decided not to decriminalize the drug. If you're keeping score at home, marijuana is still illegal throughout the United States, but its medicinal use is now allowed throughout much of the West.We hope this trend of allowing reasonable use of marijuana continues, however slowly.
(And it has been slow -- in 1995, the American Public Health Association issued a statement on marijuana concluding "that greater harm is caused by the legal consequences of its prohibition than possible risks of medicinal use." It has now taken 10 years to get to our present position.)In any case, we also think a nice complement to the loosening of prohibitions on the drug would be some relaxation of the criminal penalties still associated everywhere with its use.More than 85 percent of marijuana-related arrests -- and there were more than 750,000 such arrests in 2003 -- are for possession. Whether those arrests lead to fines or jail time, it's at the least a lot of paperwork associated with offenses against a law that Americans are clearly beginning to question.We don't question tough sentences for marijuana producers and distributors -- the law is still the law, and to flaunt the law because you feel it to be mistaken has not proven an especially wise strategy in American politics of late.But it seems appropriate to re-evaluate sentences for possession in light of both the large number of arrests and the changing attitudes of the electorate toward the drug. It doesn't make a lot of sense, given finite law enforcement capabilities and prison space, to make penalties for marijuana use punitive.It's true that this sounds like accommodating the law to what people happen to believe at the moment instead of basing decisions on the objective research of doctors and a reasoned discussion of the value of marijuana.But this isn't analogous to blaming a riot solely on alcohol regulations and arguing that their removal would eliminate the possibility of a future riot (Veishea, cough, cough). In this case, proponents of decriminalization actually are offering some reasoned opinions. We wouldn't argue for the softening of the penalties if we weren't prepared to follow the argument to its logical conclusion -- the eventual decriminalization of the drug.A bit of common sense enters the discussion, too. With regard to both legislation and law enforcement, it seems there are better issues to spend time worrying about in the United States. With our prisons packed, it's "high time" we re-examine our marijuana laws. Editorial Board: Lucas Grundmeier, Ayrel Clark, Scott Rank, P. Kim Bui, Anna Holland, Shauna Stephenson, Drew MillerSource: Iowa State Daily (IA Edu)Published: November 10, 2004 Copyright: 2004 Iowa State DailyContact: letters iowastatedaily.comWebsite: http://www.iowastatedaily.com/Related Articles:Most of West Covered by Med Marijuana Lawshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19767.shtmlMedical Marijuana Approved http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19761.shtmlVoters Pass Medical Marijuana Ballothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19758.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by CannabisMark on November 10, 2004 at 19:46:21 PT:
lmao E_Johnson
hahahahah...very funny E_J. right on man!
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Comment #3 posted by John Tyler on November 10, 2004 at 19:04:10 PT
Black leaders noticing the Drug War
I have mentioned it here several times that it seems to me that black leaders have been ignoring the effects of the drug war on their own people. Lately though, I have noticed that according to the many articles in the two free black oriented newspapers in my town that finally black leaders and politicians are waking up to the fact that black folks are the ones on the receiving end of the Drug War. 
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Comment #2 posted by DeVoHawk on November 10, 2004 at 16:57:18 PT
E_J -- Right On
I had similar thoughts as I read the article about how patients are suppose to get their medicine, but I did not have such a witty retort as yourself.Thanks for the laughs.
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Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on November 10, 2004 at 10:00:28 PT
Were they drunk when they wrote this?
They don't question tough penalties for production and distribution -- because after all, the law is the law???What kind of logical argument is that?Here's what I wrote:Dear editors,You applaud the legalization of medicinal marijuana yet you also say you do not question tough sentences for marijuana producers and distributors.How you do imagine that sick people are to get their marijuana? Doesn't someone have to produce it and distribute it first?Or do they just pull the marijuana out of the same place you get your position on marijuana policy?
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