DECRIMINALIZATION IS NOT ENOUGH

Marijuana prohibition is a policy choice, not a fact of life. With a
devastating economic downturn and increasing violence associated with
illicit drug syndicates, that choice makes sense to fewer people than
ever. Forty years after the war on drugs started, an October Gallup
poll found for the first time that 50 percent of Americans support
making marijuana legal. The poll indicated that only 46 percent
oppose ending marijuana prohibition.

No other law is enforced so harshly and pervasively yet deemed
unnecessary by so many Americans. Almost half of U.S. adults admit in
government surveys to having tried marijuana at least once.
Politicians on the campaign trail readily admit to being members of
that group. And yet over 800,000 people are arrested every year for
violating marijuana laws - the vast majority for personal possession
- - at a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars. In every state, people
of color are disproportionately arrested for marijuana offenses.

Fourteen states, including California, have tried to address the
hypocrisy and waste of marijuana prohibition by lowering criminal
penalties. In January, California reduced the penalty for possession
of under an ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction, a
finable offense that does not carry a penalty of incarceration. Even
with this positive change, however, marijuana laws will continue to
soak up local law enforcement time (to issue infractions) and waste
court and jail resources (to prosecute and incarcerate those who do
not or cannot pay their fines) - and will probably continue to have a
disproportionate impact on people of color.

Decriminalization also fails to address the huge underground supply
chain for marijuana. The value of marijuana produced in the U.S. to
meet domestic demand is estimated to be over $35 billion, making it
the nation's largest cash crop. This immense market is completely
untaxed, a source of revenue that federal and state governments can
ill afford to neglect.

Prohibition - even where possession is decriminalized - ensures that
this vast market enriches criminal organizations and contributes to
violence, crime and corruption on a massive scale. Virtually all
"marijuana-related violence" is a direct result of prohibition, which
keeps responsible, regulated businesses out of the market. Since
illegal businesses have no legitimate means to settle disputes,
violence inevitably results - just as it did during alcohol Prohibition.

Gallup has been asking Americans since 1970, "Do you think the use of
marijuana should be made legal, or not?" Forty years ago, support
registered at 12 percent, rose to 28 percent by the late 1970s,
dipped slightly during the 1980s, and then rose gradually to 36
percent in 2005. In the past six years, however, support has jumped
dramatically, with important implications for state and national
marijuana policy. Majorities of men, liberals, 18-29 year-olds,
moderates, independents, Democrats, 30-49 year-olds, and voters in
Western, Midwestern and Eastern states now support legalizing cannabis.

Proposition 19 was a turning point for the national debate. Last
November, more than 4.6 million Californians (46.5 percent of those
at the polls) voted to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with
sensible regulations for adult marijuana consumption, sales, and
cultivation. That campaign moved marijuana legalization into the
mainstream of U.S. politics, forged an unprecedented model reform
coalition, and made ending marijuana prohibition in California a
matter of when and how.

For an increasingly wide range of groups - including the California
branch of the NAACP, the California affiliates of the American Civil
Liberties Union, the California Young Democrats, the Republican
Liberty Caucus, the California Council of Churches, several big labor
unions and most recently the California Medical Association - the
question is not whether marijuana prohibition should end, but what
marijuana regulation should look like.