We the people. The ink used to write those words, along with the rest of our Constitution, were penned onto paper made from hemp.
For 150 years of our nation’s history, hemp provided a low-cost, environmentally friendly and renewable resource used to produce paper, clothing, and many other products. On what basis was hemp suddenly deemed so dangerous that if you are caught with more than an ounce-and-a-half of hemp’s biological cousin marijuana, sentencing guidelines require penalties comparable to those for robbers, child molesters, arsonists and rapists?
Consider these statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Transportation: Annual deaths due to tobacco consumption: 500,000; Annual deaths due to alcohol consumption: 100,000; Annual deaths due to marijuana consumption: Zero.
Is there anything else we might like to spend the estimated $7 billion it costs to arrest, prosecute and jail simple marijuana possessors every year? Nah, we don’t need to plug funding gaps in education, infrastructure, or social services. Let them rot, at the cost of $24,000 a year per prisoner. More than three times the cost of educating a child.
When the available facts make the policy look ridiculous, I’ve learned to look for hidden agendas.
History shows that marijuana only became a big issue after the alcohol prohibition of the 1920s was lifted. Why? First, the federal law enforcement bureaucracy focused on alcohol had lost its reason for existence. Facing unemployment, its leaders declared marijuana the new menace. Powerful corporations backed the initiative when they saw an opportunity to kill off hemp, a major competitor to paper manufacturers (chemically processed paper pulp) and petrochemical companies (nylon and other petroleum-based fabrics). Private companies that build and manage prisons have joined the special interests wishing to preserve current law. Their lobbyists have no facts and no scientific evidence to justify our system of marijuana laws, but those corporations make money off the status quo and spend tons of money preserving the marijuana myth.
Look behind the myth and you find no integrity, moral, medical, fiscal or otherwise, behind our multi-billion effort to suppress the adult consumption of a substance less harmful and less addictive than tobacco or alcohol. Seventy percent of voters nationally think our war on drugs is a complete failure and 74 percent of Washingtonians agree that we should reduce the penalties for marijuana possession. Yet our politicians sit on their hands, intimidated by the powerful myth-makers with accusations of being “soft on crime.”
It’s up to us. We the people must look at the hard facts and tell our state legislators to act. They are currently considering reducing the penalties for simple possession. If we stick to the popular mythology about marijuana and ignore the results of our current policies, that way lies the true reefer madness.
Kirkland resident Mark Nassutti can be reached at m.nassutti@verizon.net or 206-940-9449.
