2001: A Year In The Life of Marijuana Prohibition

"House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002." - Reuters, May 1998

Welcome to 2002, Land of the Virtually Drug-Free. We are a people unanimous in our conviction to eradicate marijuana from the face of the earth. Or are we?

Despite 13 million marijuana arrests since 1970, several hundred billion dollars spent, and the development of the largest prison system in the history of the world, a record 34 percent of Americans believe that marijuana should be legalized.

The 64th year of modern Marijuana Prohibition, 2001, was characterized by a widening of the gap between the hard-line drug policies of the United States and the increasingly tolerant approach of many governments abroad. In May, the United States was voted off the United Nations Drug Control Board and Human Rights Board on the same day. Meanwhile Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium decriminalized personal possession of marijuana, and polls showed a majority favoring outright legalization in Britain and Jamaica. Forty-seven percent of Canadians polled favor marijuana legalization.

Despite a campaign promise that he would allew states to decide on the issue of medical marijuana individually, the newly-elected President George Bush reaffirmed his commitment to hardline prohibitionism through the appointments of John Ashcroft as Attorney General, and John P. Walters as Drug Czar. In their own words:

"I want to escalate the war on drugs. I want to renew it. I want to refresh it, relaunch it, if you will." - Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, February 7, 2001

"What really drives the battle against law enforcement and punishment, however, is not a commitment to treatment, but the widely held view that ( 1 ) we are imprisoning too many people for merely possessing illegal drugs, ( 2 ) drug and other criminal sentences are too long and harsh, and ( 3 ) the criminal justice system is unjustly punishing young black men. These are among the great urban myths of our time." - John P. Walters, America's Drug Czar designate, Weekly Standard, March 6, 2001

The following tidbits, culled from the press over the past 12 months, illustrate the patterns of abuse, fraudulence and violence pandemic to American drug policy.

January 12 - The nephew of Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft received probation after a felony conviction in state court for growing 60 marijuana plants with intent to distribute the drug in 1992- a lenient sentence, given that the charges against him often trigger much tougher federal penalties and jail time. Ashcroft was the tough-on-drugs Missouri governor at the time.

January 19 - ( AP ) The Belgian government agreed Friday to decriminalize the use of marijuana, following its neighbor the Netherlands in granting legal tolerance to use of the drug.

The Belgian legislation, which is expected to be approved by parliament early this year, will legalize possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal consumption. It will not allow sale of the drug, unlike in the Netherlands, where "coffee shops" selling marijuana cigarettes are a common sight in many cities.

February 11 - President Jorge Batlle of Uruguay, becomes the first head of state in Latin America to call for the decriminalization of drugs and an end to the drug war. "During the past 30 years this has grown, grown, grown and grown, every day more problems, every day more violence, every day more militarization," the 73-year-old president told a radio audience recently. "This has not gotten people off drugs. And what's more, if you remove the economic incentive of the [drug trade] it loses strength, it loses size, it loses people who participate."

February 16 - ( AP ) More than half of the Swiss support loosening the laws banning marijuana, according to a survey by a drug and alcohol agency. The figures, released Thursday by the private Swiss Institute for Alcohol and Drug Problems following a study in November, say that 54 percent favor a softening of penalties for smoking, possessing and selling the drug. "Cannabis consumption is becoming normal," institute director Richard Mueller said.

March 9 - William J. Allegro, 32, of Bradley Beach, New Jersey is sentenced to 50 years in prison for growing marijuana in his home. "The court imposed this sentence because the court felt obligated to do so under the law," said Judge Paul F. Chaiet, a former prosecutor. "Mandatory sentencing provisions can create difficult results. In the court's view, this is one of those times where the ultimate results are difficult to accept."

Allegro's previous criminal record was made up of several non-violent offenses including a sale of marijuana.

April 18 - ( AP ) Kenneth Hayes and Michael Foley are acquitted by a Sonoma County jury on charges of cultivating and possessing marijuana. The two were men arrested for growing 899 marijuana plants for the1,200 members of a San Francisco medical marijuana club called CHAMP- Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems. Hayes ran the club.

Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins said "Our contention was that you can't be a caregiver under the definition of the statute to that many people. The jury felt otherwise."

April 20 - Christian missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter Charity are killed when their small plane is shot out of the sky by a Peruvian military jet, as part of a CIA-backed program that patrols the Amazon basin for drug couriers.

April 24 - In Oklahoma, Will Foster, 42, a medical marijuana patient who in 1995 was sentenced to 93 years in prison for growing 39 marijuana plants in his basement, is released on parole. Foster used the marijuana to relieve chronic pain caused by acute rheumatoid arthritis.

"My medical use of marijuana never interfered with my work, I ran a successful business," said Foster. "I was minding my own business taking care of my health and my family. What was I doing to anybody that got me 93 years?"

April 24 - The Boston Globe reports: A narrowly divided Supreme Court gave police sweeping authority Tuesday to arrest and jail those who break even minor criminal laws, such as failing to fasten a car's seat belt.

May 2 - The Louisiana Senate, voting 29-5, passes sweeping legislation to bring relief to an overflowing state prison system, ending mandatory prison time for possession of small quantities of drugs.

"We have lost control of the prison population," said Sen. Charles Jones, D-Monroe, lead author of SB239. "We are spending nearly $600 million a year on prisons." Jones said there are 35,000 inmates in Louisiana state prisons and 15,000 of them are there on drug-related charges.

May 5 - The United States is voted off the United Nations Narcotics Control Board. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States would continue its "strong support" for U.N. anti-drug programs despite its ouster from the 13-member board that monitors compliance with U.N. drug conventions on substance abuse and illegal trafficking.

Indeed, after the son of U.S. Rep. "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., was found flying an airplane loaded with 400 pounds of marijuana, he was freed on bail but then tested positive for cocaine three times. He wound up getting a mere 2 1/2 years in prison.

Former Education Secretary Richard Riley's son got just six months' house arrest for conspiring to sell cocaine and marijuana, though he had been indicted earlier on charges that can lead to life in prison.

August 26 - ( AP ) The number of adults behind bars, on parole or on probation reached a record 6.47 million in 2000 -- or one in 32 American adults, the government reported Sunday.

August 29 - ABC News 20/20 Downtown features a comparison of U.S. and Dutch drug policy, with an accompanying online interactive poll, asking "SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED?" 78 percent respond YES.

September 8 - Thirteen current and former Miami police officers were accused by U.S. authorities Friday of shooting unarmed people and then conspiring to cover it up by planting evidence. The indictment is just the latest scandal for this city's trouble-plagued police force. All of those charged were veterans assigned to SWAT teams, narcotics units or special crime-suppression teams in the late 1990s.

October 27 - The ( UK ) Guardian reports: A majority of Britons believe cannabis should be legalised and sold under licence in a similar way to alcohol, according to a new poll. Some 65 percent of those questioned, agreed it should be legalised and 91 percent said it should be available on prescription for sufferers of diseases like multiple sclerosis.

The poll, carried out by Mori for the News of the World, follows the Government's announcement that the law on the drug has been eased. While possession of cannabis will still be illegal, police will no longer be able to arrest those carrying it.

November 3 - The DEA raid the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, a medical marijuana distribution facility, arresting President Scott Imler. "They were as gracious as they can be when they are raping you," Imler says of the DEA agents.

The bust was a result of months of surveillance and years of investigation of the LACRC by the DEA.

City officials condemned the raid at a press conference last Friday that was attended by more than 100 center members.

November 9 - The San Jose Mercury News reports: Despite objections from former first lady Betty Ford and drug-treatment authorities, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of John Walters as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

November 19 - Former West Vancouver school superintendent Ed Carlin is furious with North Vancouver RCMP after a blunder during which the emergency response team raided a basement rental suite occupied by his son and three others in search of drugs and guns.

Red-faced cops took down the four young men at gunpoint and found Nintendo controllers in the home, but no guns or drugs.

December 7 - The Long Beach Press-Telegram reports: A Poly High School senior who played bass in the school orchestra took his life after being booked on marijuana possession charges, police said Thursday.

A police officer at Poly was notified at about 2 p.m. Wednesday that a bag of what appeared to be marijuana was visible in Andreas Wickstrom's car, parked in a campus parking lot.

"His mother was contacted and came down to pick him up. They were able to pick up the vehicle and return home about 5 p.m.," Blair said.

Minutes later, the boy's mother heard a noise, then "found her son in the bathroom, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A shotgun kept in the home was found beside him," Blair said.

Paramedics called to the home, in the 3900 block of Elm Avenue, pronounced him dead at 5:11 p.m., Blair said.

Andreas' aunt, Diana Haye, said he was humiliated by his arrest. "All he repeated to his mother on the way home was 'they treated me like a common criminal,' " she said.

December 24 - In North Carolina, the Lexington Dispatch reports about the dismissal of 65 criminal cases investigated by three county narcotics officers now charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to distribute drugs.

According to a federal affidavit issued in the case, law enforcement officers abused their authority in one or more ways, including writing fake search warrants, planting evidence and fabricating charges, keeping drugs and money seized during arrests, attempting to extort more money from the people arrested, and intimidating suspects and potential witnesses.

2001 in Drug Statistics - Estimated U.S. deaths in year 2001 attributed to tobacco: 400,000; alcohol: 110,000; prescription drugs: 100,000; suicide: 30,000; murder: 15,000; aspirin and related painkillers: 7600; marijuana: 0? ( unknown )

"The difference between a policy and a crusade is that a policy is judged by its results, while a crusade is judged by how good it makes its crusaders feel." - Thomas Sowell

Here in Washington we voted to allow medical marijuana use back in '98. But because of confusion over federal regulations patients still do not have reliable, safe access to it that I know of.

I personally know someone who used pot to control constant back pain and anxiety. One day after work last summer he unwisely decided he couldn't wait until he got home, and lit a single puff as he drove home. He was stopped and siezed by local police, and held by them for several hours, incommunicado. The State Police were summoned; his car was searched by drug sniffing dogs and towed away.

The search found only marijuana, in an amount less than a gram, although the police kept hounding him and insisting that he must be on crack (his anxiety disorder caused his pulse to be extreme). Eventually, they took him to the hospital to test his blood, and left him there to find his way home.

This person is now spending FIVE YEARS in a deferred prosecution program, forking out gobs of money for mandatory "treatment", lawyers and court fees. The judge deemed that, although this person rarely drinks and alcohol was not involved in any way in his "crime", he is required to abstain from it for this five year period as well.

Now, admittedly, it was foolish of my friend not to wait until he got home before taking his medicine. But, does this punishment, in your opinion CJ, remotely fit the "crime"? Is it right that his family, for whom he is the sole breadwinner, sat for hours wondering if he had been killed, or that they now must sink deep into debt so that some moronic "treatment" facility can get rich having him pay to piss into bottles, at their demand? Is it right that he spend the next five years in untreatable chronic pain?

If my friend had gone to trial, according to his lawyer, he would have been found guilty (because he was driving while "intoxicated"), and would be experiencing similar travails with the addition of a minimum of a night in jail, thousands in fines (and additional legal fees), his driver's license revoked and possible loss of his employment.

Does any of this seem remotely proportional to the severity of my friend's "offense"?

Despite 13 million marijuana arrests since 1970,

What a sad joke. The government throws 13 million *AMERICAN* people in cages for smoking pot, while we have millions of criminal illegal aliens crashing our borders and spitting on our sovereignty, taking jobs, filling our jails, and choking off our services, yet the government encourages and supports this massive invasion on America.

This government is so anti American and so freaking screwed up. The priorities of this government is disgraceful

I've tried many time to reason, but when you bring up facts that drugs are bad and that following the socialist European way is not the way to go, they get 'snippy".

Dane, do you WODers ever have anything more substantive than your own opinion? Drugs, bad. Europe, bad. Oh, that's pursuasive.

Why is it that in the debate about legalizing drugs, normally logical, facts-driven conservatives all of a sudden turn into mushy minded people who place more importance on their own feelings than on facts. This is exactly the behavior of liberals they love to pound, but apparently it's OK when WOD conservatives do it.

What do you have to say for yourself, Dane?

And I just love how every WOD-er here picks on Europe as a first resort. I'd venture to say you've never been to Belgium, 4Freedom, but don't let that stop you from speaking as some kind of authority on the matter. I however, have been to Belgium and most of the other countries you guys like to pick on and have never seen the drugged out zombies you're always referring to.

...but when you bring up facts that drugs are bad and that following the socialist European way is not the way to go, they get 'snippy".

Those are not facts, Dane. That's pure opinion. And you've done absolutely nothing to reinforce your argument with facts or backup your opinion with anything substantive.

How can you go and make the general statemnent that drugs are bad? Do you think prescription drugs like Lipitor, Prilosec, and Prosac are bad? Certainly not. Shocking news here: drugs can lead to a higher quality of life. Oh, yes, but those are presription drugs. Well, the only difference between a legal and illegal drug is some bureaucrat in Washington saying so.

And I find it ironic that you attach the adjective 'socialist' when mentioning Europe. True, much of Europe's economic policies are more socialist than in the U.S., but what does it's economic policy have to do with it's drug policy. They are wholly separate issues. You merely attach 'socialist' there to be pejorative.

Interestingly, your views could be considered more socialist themselves. You've tended to argue in many threads here, that drugs should be outlawed because they are detrimental to the social contract theory of human co-existance. Drug users tend to be less productive, comrade, and that harms the collective. HMmmmm! Who's the Socialist, Dane?

So many pro-drug war people are proud to dehumanize drug users and can't wish death upon them fast enough.

And I thought it was the other way around. So often libertarians will applaud needless suffering and death as "cleansing the gene pool" or some other cruel social-Darwinist statement. In fact, their arguments for medical self-use are always negated by their argument for full legalization of all drugs for any purpose at any time for any reason by anyone in any amount, even unto death. The libs have to come to grips with the unalienable right to life, and they're doing a piss-poor job so far in upholding it.

And then there's the instances of the teenagers out for a joyride on the night of their prom who never made it back home ever. Some adults want to make their own moral decisions without considering their responsibilities to young people, who look up to adults to see how they should behave. The few often spoil it for the many, or in this next instance, the many spoil it for the few: If Joe Libertarian wasn't so enamored with abusing a drug for hedonistic and selfish reasons then your friend might be today legally helped with the same substance for his back pain.

Freedom means people may make poor and sometimes self-destructive choices.

Libertarians beleive it is not government's role to save you from yourself, that it is dangerous to have such policies.

If you see someone suffering from drug addiction, it would be the humane thing (a very Christian thing?) to help them. Why do you think you need government to be compassionate? Government is not compassion, government is violence. People helped the poor before being forced to at gun point in the modern welfare state.

The right to life, is obviously the most fundamental. I'm not following what your point is regarding that.

One need be neither a Euro-socialist nor libertarian to think, quite sensibly, that the government has no real business telling people they cannot wreck their lives. Seat belt laws, helmet laws, ridiculously low speed limits, and anti-smoking laws all assume that the state has the right to tell Joe Citizen, "You cannot make bad choices." It's like making suicide a prosecutable crime. I happen to live with three very genial stoners who pose little or no threat to society at large. Indeed, one has a MA in Journalism (though he's working as a restaraunt shift manager since he doesn't want to have to pee in a cup wherever he works), the other has just finished his BA in political science and is now looking for work, while the third works a solid forty hour week. All of these men are hard workers, decent room-mates, and no real threat to the social fabric that I can see (well, except for the fact that they voted for Gore and Nader).

This is not to deny that certain folks can be turned into shiftless layabouts due to the stuff, but a bad alcohol habit can turn a man into a layabout who lives only for his next binge as well. We tried illegalizing alcohol and the treatment was worse than the sickness. The thing to remember is that its just bad policy to have a government telling people what they can't do with their own brains. The whole point of conservatism is that of personal responsibility, not a government nanny looking out for you. Well, as long as I'm at it, let me continue. The reason certain intoxicants are sold by decidedly unsavory characters is because it is illegal, which automatically precludes decent people from growing, manufacturing, etc. Drugs are used and sold by criminals because that's what our laws have necessitated.

And then there's the instances of the teenagers out for a joyride on the night of their prom who never made it back home ever.

I knew of several kids in high school who were killed in wrecks. A kid who was in my driver's ed class was run down as he walked along a highway. Don't know if drugs or alcohol were involved -- they never caught the person who did it. Another bunch got drunk one night and ploughed into a phone pole. Another girl was riding on the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle when a car ran the light they were turning at and killed them both. Another one drank too much and wandered out into traffic.

Note that drugs currently designated "illegal" had no known factor in any of these tragic occurrences.

We don't come into this world with guarantees of "safety", and for the government to even pretend to promise it can deliver same, would be farcical if it didn't cause so much misery to so many people.

Think of how many tax-paid resources were expended, just in the various stages of persecuting my friend. Three court hearings, the three or four carloads of police who spent three to four hours grilling him, the dog, the tests. Imagine if those resources had instead been available to, for example, apprehend and prosecute the people who stole more than 8,000 cars* here in King County just in the first half of last year. Those thieves caused real harm to others. But instead, they piddle around harassing easy targets, guys with long hair and tiny amounts of illicit substances, like my friend.

* source for car theft statistics

Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft!.....................................................................................................................................................................................

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Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!

How's it comin' over here?

I support a separation of this substance from the FDA classification it is in now, and turn the issue over to the states to decide as per the 10th Amendment.

Wow, CJ, there may be hope for you yet! Maybe now you can understand just what many of us libertarians and others have known all along about the FEDERAL component of the the drug war, and how it is the most pernicious and corrupting aspect of it.

So, with that said - in the absence of any state laws prohibiting it, would you support allowing individuals to grow marijuana in their homes for their private, personal use, without interference from the DEA or the FDA? Or do you still think that it's the responsibility of the feds to "send a message"? Care to comment?

thanks for the bump. I believe the inequity of the laws related to cannibis and then it's random punishment as presented here says it all...ie Ashcrofts' nephew gets probation while Allegro gets 50 years for the same "crime." And more sadly, there are people here who will maintain this is justice.

Then there is Foster who got 93 years for the same "crime" as Ashcrofts' nephew and Allegro. Ok, he was released on parole yea, but what, after 6 years served?

How do we end these injustices and this inhumanity to man? Especially when the politicians like Ashcroft are in a position to take care of their own while all the rest are bantam fodder for enforcement and the courts.

Seems to me we have a huge discrepancy of "justice" here. A matter that goes well beyond the issue of drugs.

I would think that the weed this boy had been smoking would have something to do with his actions (as well as the alcohol). How bout you?

Or perhaps this 17 year old was so frightend of the results (legal, parental, other...) of being busted he chose to try and flee. Poor judgement to be sure, but 17 year olds have been known to exhibit such even when they're stone cold sobre. Given that the cops are starting to shoot people in no-knock raids on their homes for even being accused (sometimes falsely) of drug use/dealing... well, you get the idea.

There was an article here on FR a month or so ago about how such things were dealt with in the past; before the WOD. Church, community, family, peer review all came into play. Indeed, I know someone who damn near ruined his life because of cocaine. It wasn't the courts or rehab, loss of wealth or jail; none of those turned him around. It was us, the people who loved him. We didn't give up on him, but each inour own way made damn sure we let him now how we all felt about it. All those things finally took their toll, and he just up and quit. Yea, he could still get it if he wanted to, but he doesn't and he's happy about it. I have my friend back.

Pot? I don't like it, some people do. I've never seen anyone get violent on it. The worse someone might do on pot is drive too slow, or come to a stop at a light 5 car lengths back, or some other stuff like that. I don't believe it to be addictive. So I figure we could legalize it; get the drug lords out of the loop, tax the hell out of it (it would probably still make it cheaper than the black market), apply similar laws for age and motor vechicle use as alcohol; employers could mandate no use during business hours (like they most all do regarding booze) and be done with it.

At least pot is 100% natural, the way God made it. These new designer drugs are more troubling. And with genetic engineering getting more commonplace and sophisticated; that problem is only going to get worse. Pot is the least of our worries and the WOD, the way its being fought now, is a bust.

When you find yourself in a hole - STOP DIGGING!

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