15 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED BECAUSE POT IS ILLEGAL

WHEN Will Our Dumb Marijuana Prohibition Be Overturned?

Criminal Laws Are Not an Effective Way to Control Marijuana; Removing
Criminal Penalties Does Not Lead to Increased Use; Decriminalization
Creates Savings in Law Enforcement.

The great divide between politicians and the people is showing itself
in California where polls show the voters support Proposition 19 and
where the mainstream politicians mostly oppose it.

To many Americans, there are few policies more bankrupt than the
prohibition on marijuana use, a recognition that a blue-ribbon panel
reached four decades ago, urging an emphasis on drug education rather
than incarceration.

In 1970, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse
recommended ending the illegality of marijuana in the United States.
The Dutch also had a national commission that reached the same conclusion.

The difference was the Dutch listened to their experts and President
Nixon and other American politicians ignored the U.S. experts. Well,
the results are in - the experts were right and the politicians were
wrong, even on the issue of how many people use marijuana. It turns
out prohibition was less successful than decriminalization.

According to surveys conducted by both governments: in the United
States 41 percent of Americans have used marijuana, compared to 22.6
percent in Holland.

In 2001, based on recommendations from a national commission, Portugal
went further than Holland and abolished all criminal penalties for
possession of marijuana and other drugs. The result - reduced use,
reduced costs and reduced damage from marijuana to people's lives.

Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime
marijuana use in people over 15 in the European Union, a mere 10
percent. Further, Portugal reports that use dropped among teens: rates
of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth
graders fell from 14.1 percent to 10.6 percent; drug use in older
teens also declined.

Yet, rather than listen to the experts four decades ago, President
Nixon doubled down on the already failed and mistaken policy. The
result was 100,000 additional arrests the year after the experts said
people should no longer be treated as criminals for marijuana use.

And, since the experts said it should not be a crime nearly 15 million
Americans have been arrested. Only four states have populations larger
than the number of people arrested for marijuana since the experts
said people should not be arrested for marijuana offenses.

Still, the status quo politicians in California - people like Sen.
Dianne Feinstein and Gov .Arnold Schwarzenegger - continue to want to
ignore the experts and, more important, they want to ignore the people.

Polls have consistently shown Proposition 19 to be 7 to 11 points
ahead of those who oppose the initiative. Nationally polls show large
pluralities and even a majority of Americans oppose keeping marijuana
illegal.

How can police continue to enforce laws that half the people oppose?
What kind of legitimacy does enforcement of such laws have? Won't
enforcing illegitimate laws undermine police relations with
communities?

That is why smart, experienced police officers like Neil Franklin, a
33-year law enforcement veteran at both the state and city levels
supports Proposition 19. Officer Franklin sees Prop. 19 as a step
toward healing the division between the people and the police.

He recognizes that marijuana prohibition undermines the relationship
between police and the people they serve because when they come into
their neighborhoods it is to search homes, cars and people. It creates
distrust and undermines effective community policing.

So, this Nov. 2, the people of California have an opportunity to tell
the professional politicians that most voters want to end policies
that do not work and undermine law enforcement.

It is obvious to most people that the war on marijuana has been a
destructive failure, but the politicians still don't get it.

Of course, if I were a politician who supported marijuana being
illegal throughout my career, I would not want to admit I was wrong.
Hard to say "sorry we arrested you and ruined your life for something
that should not have been illegal."

It is hard to admit an error so large and so destructive to millions
of lives.

Time magazine reports that the instincts of Officer Neil Franklin are
right. Joao Castel-Branco Goulao, Portugual's "drug czar" and
president of the Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction, told Time that
police are now able to re-focus on more serious crimes.

In fact, the experience in the United States is the same. In 1982, the
National Academy of Sciences issues a report entitled "An Analysis of
Marijuana Policy." It recommended going beyond decriminalization and
beginning to regulate the sale of marijuana.

In making this recommendation, the report looked at states that had
decriminalized marijuana possession and found the reform had "not led
to appreciably higher levels of marijuana use than would have existed
if use were also prohibited."

The NAS also reported savings in tax dollars by ending criminal
enforcement against marijuana possession, noting "substantial savings
in states that have repealed laws that prohibit use."

And, as Officer Franklin noted, the NAS found "alienation from the
rule of law in democratic society may be the most serious cost of
current marijuana laws."

Such savings are also predicted if California passes Prop.
19.

The California Legislative Analyst says it would enable California to
put police priorities where they belong saying it "could result in
savings to the state and local governments by reducing the number of
marijuana offenders incarcerated in state prisons and county jails, as
well as the number placed under county probation or state parole
supervision.

"These savings could reach several tens of millions of dollars
annually. The county jail savings would be offset to the extent that
jail beds no longer needed for marijuana offenders were used for other
criminals who are now being released early because of a lack of jail
space."

The findings of the experts are consistent: criminal laws are not an
effective way to control marijuana; removing criminal penalties does
not lead to increased use; decriminalization creates savings in law
enforcement and better relations between community and police.

In the year of supposed voter outrage against politics as usual,
California voters may send one of the clearest messages to the
politicians, that it is time to end the decades-old criminal
prohibition on marijuana use by adults.