In 1977, a mother in Atlanta walked outside during her son’s birthday party to serve cake, but her son and his friends were nowhere to be found. She frantically searched until ultimately noticing smoke seeping out of his old tree house. Assuming they had gotten ahold of cigarettes, she climbed up, only to find something else: the kids were smoking marijuana.
Anti-marijuana advocate Sue Rusche likes to recall this story as the beginning of the Parent Movement in the War on Drugs. Even though many of these parents had smoked in their youths, they were still worried about their children using marijuana. These parents spent decades as the largest and most powerful political opposition to marijuana legalization, helping to crack down on users and dealers alike.
Decades have passed, and despite the efforts of the Parent Movement, the War on Drugs has failed. Most teens say it’s easier to get marijuana than alcohol or tobacco, billions are spent annually on enforcement, and drug violence continues to rise throughout the world. In turn, states have begun decriminalizing or legalizing small amounts for recreational use — the majority of Americans even favor full legalization. What changed? Concerned parents have started to support treating the issue as a medical, and not criminal, one. They are coming around to legalization as a better approach to confronting marijuana abuse than merely outlawing the drug entirely. At least with regards to teen safety, legalizing marijuana is preferable to the status quo.
Enabling the Government
The War on Drugs thus far has aimed to eliminate the United States’ supply of drugs. The logic appears pretty simple — if you can prevent it from existing, people cannot use it. With marijuana use and abuse both rising, this simply has not worked. And how much has this strategy cost? Harvard economist and drug legalization expert Jeff Miron claimed, “Aggregate, between state and federal level, eighty to ninety billion [dollars] annually.”
The government could have more effectively used this money. Morgan Fox of Marijuana Policy Project told the HPR, “Drug education and treatment would deal with the issue much better than prohibition does.” Many supporters of legalization argue earmarking revenues from marijuana excise taxes could pay for marijuana education programs, similar to how gas taxes are earmarked for road construction. Instead of trying to control supply, demand could be limited under legalization. Plus, some countries (e.g., Israel) could mass produce legal marijuana at less than a twentieth of the cost of American street prices, giving the government significant room to tax the drug.
If legalized, laws similar to those regulating alcohol and tobacco could be enacted to manage the marijuana market. Stores would have incentives not to sell marijuana to minors — if caught doing so, their entire business could be shut down or face heavy fines. Drug dealers, on the other hand, have never been known to check IDs; this fact heavily contributes to why marijuana is easier for teens to get ahold of than legal, age-restricted substances. Thus, legal markets are more able to keep marijuana out of the hands of teenagers. Marijuana prohibition not only interferes with what people can do, but also what the government can.
Street Violence
While most American drug violence does not involve marijuana, the drug plays a role. Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, told the HPR, “Cartels and drug trafficking organizations are active in two thousand [American] cities, and 60% of their profits are from marijuana.” While few, if any, deaths can be attributed to a marijuana overdose, the drug war has claimed the lives of enforcement officers, dealers, buyers, and innocent bystanders; even at Harvard, student Justin Cosby died in a 2009 marijuana-related shooting. Estimates vary, but roughly 1,500 Americans die annually in the War on Drugs. If marijuana were sold at dispensaries, the law would regulate it — not gun violence.
Outside the United States, one must consider the violence occurring throughout Mexico and much of Latin America as a result of our War on Drugs. Mexico alone has seen well over 60,000 War on Drug deaths; another 200,000 are missing or displaced. Statistics for most countries are not available (or when so, not reliable), but, with Mexican cartels beginning to move south, the numbers are expected to rise. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Peru, and Venezuela all have significant drug violence. Oddly enough, these countries have low drug usage levels; they mostly export drugs to the United States. Continually stronger efforts, including the presence of the CIA in Latin America, to combat drugs have not cut down on the violence; former Mexican president and current Harvard Kennedy School fellow Felipe Calderón committed military forces to the War in 2006, and soon death tolls rose significantly above prior levels. Legalization of marijuana in the United States and these countries could turn dangerous black markets into safe trading.
As Miron noted, drug legalization would create more law-abiding citizens at home as well: “When you are so unsuccessful in prohibiting something, people start to realize laws are for suckers, and they become less willing to respect other laws.” This not only makes psychological sense, but also practical sense: if the gangs funded by marijuana go broke, related violence would fall. While the extent to which drug violence would decline is hard to predict, even minimal reductions in unnecessary violence can save lives.
Parents for Pot: Part II, to be released March 12, 2013, will continue to make the case for legalizing marijuana as a matter of teen safety.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons