Thanks to Baker Institute, DFW NORML, NORML

My name – Outreach (177 chapters) – NORML SHOW – NORML Network – High School Guidance Counselor line

Dr. Sabet Ph.D. – intimidated – Buster Bronco line, Waffle House line

My one advantage – I am the person these policy talks directly affect – I have “skin in the game” – all friends, family, pot smokers – and not one is a criminal or any threat to you.

Law – Some people may think “no big deal” – not coke or heroin:

Federal: possession misd 1yr $1,000, plant felony, 5yrs, $250,000; one of nine countries with death penalty

Texas: possession (no priors) 6 mo prob $2,000, mand rehab; plant felony, 6mo-2yrs, $10,000

Oregon: possession <1oz ticket, 6mo d/l, $1,000, >1oz felony 10yrs $100,000, plant felony 10yrs $100,000

Florida: possession 21g felony 5 years $5,000, lose vote, pot pipe adds misd 1yr $1,000

Effects After Arrest

Drug Felon – Voting – Security Clearances (Damon)

Financial Aid (Kaliko)

Federal Housing (Serra)

Child Custody

Effects Without Arrest

Afraid to interface with police

Underemployment/ Unemployment (Me)

Unwilling to report workplace injuries (Iva, Shawana)

Organ Transplants (Jim Klahr, Jon Hamm)

Bottom line: Dr. Sabet endorses policies that put people like me in cages they do not deserve and rehabs they do not need

Now to the question: The War on Drugs Has Failed, Is Legalization the Answer?

First off, not really a “War on Drugs”

I’ve never seen the DEA point an automatic weapon at a pot plant. I have seen more than few pointed at some pot smokers. So “War on People Who Use Drugs”

But not all people equally. I have (Paul Mooney) “complexion of protection”, middle aged, good impulse control

Drugs are celebrated and promoted in our society, from Budweiser at the Super Bowl to that Viagra couple in the tubs (Cialis / tadalafil line) to the depressed cartoon lady who takes the pills, but the cartoon depression robe is still on her, so she gets another pill to add to the first pill and that makes the depression robe just follow her around all day

Even the evil legal drug, cigarettes, are tolerated. Companies build shelters for smoke breaks!

And even the “War on Drugs” isn’t about drugs – 52% of all drug arrests are for marijuana. 88% of those for possession, in Texas it’s 97% for possession

So, at best, War on Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free Drugs

Second, has failed at what?

Viewed with the right perspective, the War on Drugs is a rousing success

It eliminates cheap natural alternatives to prescription drugs and alcohol (Less opioids medmj patients, alcohol switch)

It keeps private prison stock prices and prison guard salaries rising ($74K median in California)

It gives cops a great way to collect fingerprints on poor kids in the cities and profit from asset forfeitures and federal grants

It provides a low-education, low-skill job market (how high would unemployment really be…)

And more, which you’ll hear in great detail from the other panels

Nixon’s “Public Enemy Number One” – must eliminate drug abuse

Well, it’s failed at that, for sure. Goes up, goes down, never goes away.

Goes up – Oh no! We need to fight the drug war harder!

Goes down – Aha! What we’re doing is working, keep fighting!

We may as well have a “War on Tides” Tide comes in, goes out…

Is Legalization The Answer?

Well, no, not if you’re trying to achieve the unattainable and unrealistic goal of stopping humans from getting high.

Maybe, if you’re trying to achieve the realistic goal of reducing the harm done by humans who get high

But in the case of marijuana, I reject the underlying assumption that stopping people from using it is either necessary or desirable – and now, more Americans agree with me than do not.

Marijuana is far less harmful to the user and to society than alcohol, tobacco, or even caffeine and cheeseburgers and there is no legitimate reason to use guns to force people to stop using it.

At this point, we don’t have to defend why we should legalize marijuana, they have to defend why we should keep locking people up for it.

I smoke pot and I like it a lot – and so do many Americans

102 million 18+ Lifetime Users (44.5%) Ages 18-49 (52.5%)

Flip a Coin

26 million 18+ Annual Users (11.3%)

More Tokers Than Texans!

16 million 18+ Monthly Users (6.9%)

More than there are unionized workers in USA

2.6 million 18+ Daily Users (1.1%)

More Herb Lovers than Houstonians

Why do we feel compelled to make them stop smoking pot?

Why We Can’t Legalize – Muddying the Waters

Terrible things will happen that aren’t happening now

Alcohol & Tobacco bring in $14B & $25B, cost us $235B & $200B, why add marijuana?

Not “adding” anything – 26 million smoke pot NOW

Marijuana currently brings in $0 and costs us $7B to enforce

Alcohol & Tobacco cost $435B because they’re toxic and addictive

Nobody ever mentions how much marijuana costs NOW

If they did, then take that times the percentage you think use would increase, subtract the $7B we’re spending now, and make the tax that high.

But if we legalize, use rates will skyrocket!

Would they? Probably at first – people who toke now would have easier access and people who were curious might start

But even NIDA says marijuana’s addictiveness is like that of caffeine

And increased marijuana use is a net gain if it decreases prescription drug complications, alcohol abuse, crime inherent in prohibition.

What about the children?

The “gateway” isn’t physical – it’s economic – access to marijuana gives you access to hard drugs – they don’t sell cocaine next to tequila

Kids are the ones dealing weed NOW. 1 million teenage dealers.

CASA kids easier to get weed than alcohol

Dutch 15-year-olds 1/3^rd lifetime use rates as Americans

Alcohol decline, tobacco decline, no arrests of adults

Terror on the Highways – The Stoned Drivers

Again, 26 million of us now. Where are the bodies?

Study after study shows pot drivers are nowhere near the risk of alcohol drivers, yet we still have bars with parking lots.

Legalizing pot doesn’t legalize impaired driving – we’re catching pot DUIDs now and getting 90% conviction rates

Studies claiming increased crash risks conflate “detected marijuana” with “marijuana impaired someone so they crashed”.

What we’re doing now isn’t terrible

Kinder, Gentler Drug War Prisons – We’ll force potheads into rehab!

More young people in rehab for marijuana because we catch young people with marijuana and3

sentence them to rehab.

Over 60% of rehab admissions for marijuana only are criminal justice referrals

Over a third of rehab admissions hadn’t even smoked pot the month before rehab.

So we pee test a bunch of people who weren’t really addicted in the first place, declare rehab a success, and sentence more people to it.

Last Ditch Effort: Well, we don’t really lock anyone up for pot…

2M to 16M living in fear

850,000 arrests

40,000 marijuana prisoners

Many “3^rd strikers”, probation/parole violations

…we only go after the big time distributors

Like Patricia Spottedcrow – $31 in weed, 10 years in prison

Dale Schafer & Dr. Mollie Fry – 5 years each for growing medical marijuana for cancer patients in accordance with California Law and the blessing of the county and local law enforcement

Like my “guy” in Idaho who dealt weed to a close circle of musicians from his closet grow, doing 8 years in Idaho Pen

So… Why NOT Legalize Marijuana?

Marijuana’s not harmless – nothing is – but it is far below what we tolerate for alcohol – we don’t imprison alcoholics

Our experience legalizing alcohol and regulating tobacco, two drugs far more harmful and addictive than marijuana, shows we can reduce use and harm without putting people in cages and forcing them to quit.

Separating marijuana from the hard drug market is the best way to close the gateway.

Remember, any answer Dr. Sabet may give you must end with the following sentence:

…and that’s why Russ should be put in a cage and forced to stop smoking pot.