Get Active Subscribe Support Us

BRING BACK CANNABIS HEARINGS

To the Editor:

Your recent editorial, "Our View: Not everyone is on board with marijuana enforcement," raises some very valid points.

When President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs in 1970, marijuana prohibition was a new thing.  But 45 years later it has become an industry.  We have become so conditioned to the negative indoctrination of almost five decades of anti-pot propaganda that we often blindly accept it.

In 1997 President Bill Clinton, responding to the legalization of medical cannabis in California, commissioned the Institute of Medicine Report on medical cannabis.  This federal report was released in March 1999, and although heavily politicized, still acknowledged that cannabis had great medical value.  It also debunked the so-called "gateway theory."

That law enforcement continues to frequently cite that discredited theory today as a St.  Croix County Sheriff was quoted in the article, is evidence of how deep it runs.

In 2009, when Democrats controlled the state legislature, a public hearing was held on medical cannabis legislation.  According to open records requests, when an attempt was made to secure unanimous opposition to the legislation by all state district attorneys, several instead spoke in favor in an email discussion.

One district attorney wrote, "My understanding is that this legislation would actually provide a relief to law enforcement and lessens prosecution caseloads for possession charges.  Why is this bad? Shouldn't we be excited to have resources freed up to focus on more serious matters such as violent crime or drunk driving?"

An asst.  D.A.  opined, "How is enforcement of legal medical marijuana any different and different than enforcing prescription drugs?"

"Look at the carnage I deal with on a daily basis due to alcohol," wrote another district attorney.  "And you can't understand why I am mystified as to the vehemence of objection to the very notion of a medical use for THC."

In 1975, the state of Wisconsin held a series of hearings on pot laws at eight locations across the state from Superior to Milwaukee.  The result was the overwhelming majority favored full legalization with decriminalization coming in second.  This was back at a time when there was little talk of medical use but there was not yet the saturation of anti-pot propaganda we see so ingrained today.

Unfortunately the panel's mandate was never carried out.  Every attempt at statewide decriminalization in the legislature has failed so not only is there a patchwork of laws nationally but also across Wisconsin.

Perhaps it's time to go back to the people and reprise the 1975 hearings.  Wisconsin does not exist in a bubble and the cannabis plant, once a source of so much income to Wisconsin as industrial hemp, offers a lot of hope as a job and business creators on a much greater scale today.

( Gary Storck of Madison, co-founder of Is My Medicine Legal YET? ( IMMLY.org ).  He is also the cofounder and former president of the Madison & Wisconsin chapters of the National Organization for Marijuana Laws ( NORML ), Advisory Board Member of Patients Out of Time ( medicalcannnabis.com ) and a longtime advocate for cannabis law reform.  )