Pubdate: Fri, 16 Sep 2005
Source: Boston Phoenix (MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group.
Contact:  http://www.bostonphoenix.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/54
Author: David S.  Bernstein
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

THE $4 BILLION WAR ON POT

Enforcing Marijuana Laws Costs More And More Every Year. And For What?

Crime in America has declined significantly in the last 15 years -- that is 
to say, serious crime, "Part I Crime" in law-enforcement terms: rape, 
murder, robbery, automobile theft, and such. Arrests for those crimes are 
down 24 percent since 1990.

But arrests of those who use, carry, distribute, or transport marijuana 
have more than doubled, from 327,000 in 1990 to 697,000 in 2002. In fact, 
according  to a report released in May by Washington, DC-based think tank 
The Sentencing  Project, 82 percent of the increase in drug arrests during 
those years is attributable to marijuana arrests -- 79 percent from 
marijuana possession arrests. The US spends $4 billion each year on the 
arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of marijuana-law offenders, 
according to The Sentencing Project  report. That's about six times the 
amount spent globally on AIDS-vaccine  research and development. 
Massachusetts alone could save $120 million a year by legalizing the drug, 
according to a study by Jeffrey Miron, economics professor  at Boston 
University. (And collect another $17 million by taxing it.) It is unlikely 
that this is what constituents have had in mind as they've watched more and 
more of their tax dollars go toward drug control.

Barely A Dent

Much of this spending, particularly at the federal level, goes to busting 
marijuana-trafficking rings.

Last November, for instance, two undercover agents from the Boston office 
of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Drug Smuggling Group 
drove a tractor-trailer filled with pot from a warehouse in  Laredo, Texas, 
to the parking lot of the Tage Inn in Somerville. That operation  led to 10 
arrests, and the seizure of 1500 pounds of smuggled marijuana. What that 
didn't do, of course, is reduce the use of marijuana in Massachusetts, 
where pot smoking is higher than almost anywhere in the country -- largely, 
surveys suggest, because Bay State residents view the drug as less  harmful 
than do denizens of other states.

Nationally, interdiction has had little effect on use or availability. 
Federal authorities seized 1225 metric tons of the stuff in 2003, barely a 
dent  in the estimated 12,000 to 25,000 tons used. The National Drug 
Intelligence Center's (NDIC) 2005 National Drug Threat Assessment describes 
"steady supply of and demand for marijuana overall, and the strong, stable 
market for its distribution."

On the user side, several recent studies have documented the extent of this 
country's efforts to imprison people for possession or low-level selling of 
pot.  But perhaps the most persuasive is the US government's 40-page 
attempt at a counter-argument, released last year, titled "Who's Really in 
Prison for Marijuana?"

The report, by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, 
endeavors to "set the record straight" against "those who are willing to 
spread false information for the purpose of legalizing drug trafficking and 
use." But the document, which argues that the government is not targeting 
casual pot smokers, actually shows just how little ammunition the 
government has on this topic. It resorts to citing 10-year-old articles 
(including a 1994 Marjorie Eagan column in the Boston Herald) as the 
sources of the misinformation --  and then admits that those critics indeed 
have their facts right. As the report concedes, at last count roughly 
32,400 people were in state prisons for marijuana offenses, a quarter of 
whom were there for possession only -- including 3600 first-time offenders.

Not a huge percentage of the prison population, but not an insignificant 
number of people living at the public's expense either.

Hidden Costs?

The government argues that legalization, decriminalization (in which 
possession would be allowed but trafficking would remain illegal), or 
relaxed enforcement of marijuana laws would increase usage, leading to 
increases in  other costs, including health care, rehabilitation, crime, 
and lost  productivity. "When you look at a cost-benefit analysis, you need 
to take those things into account," says Anthony Pettigrew, spokesperson 
for the New England  office of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

But it's uncertain whether usage would actually spike, says Miron. And if 
it does, it's unclear what societal costs would result. Pettigrew and 
others point to two recent trends that supposedly illustrate the harm of 
marijuana.

The first, an increase in emergency-room patients citing marijuana use as 
the cause of their visit, is potentially troubling, although  the reasons 
and costs are not yet clear.

The second is an increase in the number  of marijuana users -- particularly 
younger ones -- entering rehab. "There are more teenagers entering 
rehabilitation for marijuana than for alcohol or any other  drug," 
Pettigrew says.

Miron maintains that such reports are misleading. "Marijuana-abuse 
treatment is kind of loony," he says. "There is a surge of people entering 
marijuana-abuse  treatment, but they're being forced into it. They are 
told, 'you can get probation [instead of jail time], if you enter 
marijuana-abuse treatment.' " There is, of course, a third argument that 
Pettigrew and others make, one that is as old as the hills: that more pot 
use leads inevitably to use of harder drugs, like cocaine, heroin, and 
crystal methamphetamine. That concern doesn't seem to be on the minds of 
state and local law-enforcement agencies surveyed by the NDIC, however. 
"Few consider  [marijuana] a significant threat to public health and 
safety," the study says. Although 95 percent of those agencies report that 
marijuana is easily available  in their jurisdiction, only 12 percent call 
it their greatest drug threat,  according to the NDIC assessment.

In fact, if harder drugs are the source of concern, the NDIC report reads 
like an argument for pot legalization. The stable and very profitable black 
market in marijuana provides "financial stability [for] drug traffickers, 
many of whom traffic marijuana to bankroll other criminal activity," the 
NDIC assessment says. Those other criminal activities include trafficking 
of harder drugs, guns, and illegal weapons.

In other words, by sending pot profits to criminals, instead of legitimate 
businesses, criminalization effectively enables trafficking in far more 
dangerous ventures.
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