A Vermont representative unveiled new data yesterday showing that the Green Mountain state spends more than $700,000 annually to prosecute small-time marijuana offenders.

Calling such expenditures wasteful and ineffective, Rep. Jason P. Lorber (D-Burlington) said he plans to introduce legislation that would decriminalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, meaning it would no longer be a criminal misdemeanor requiring prosecution, but rather a civil infraction similar to a parking ticket. Under Vermont’s current law, the maximum penalty for possession of up to two ounces of marijuana is 6 months in prison and a $500 fine.

Thirteen other states have decriminalized marijuana possession in some form or another, and a 2009 Mason-Dixon poll showed that Vermont voters support decriminalization by more than a 2-1 margin.

Earlier this year, MPP backed Democrat Peter Shumlin in his successful bid for governor largely because of his vocal support for decriminalizing marijuana. Once he enters office next year, Vermont will be well positioned to pass this sensible legislation.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a resolution today declaring illegal marijuana cultivation on federal lands to be an “unacceptable threat to the safety of law enforcement and the public,” and calling upon the nation’s drug czar “to work in conjunction with Federal and State agencies to develop a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to permanently dismantle Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating on Federal lands.”

Speaking on the House floor yesterday, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) agreed with the goals of H. Res. 1540, but said the only way to accomplish such objectives would be to eliminate “the failed policy of prohibition with regard to marijuana and replac[e] it with regulation.”

“I have no doubt that marijuana plantations, as the resolution states, pose a threat to the environmental health of Federal lands, that drug traffickers spray unregulated chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers, but I submit that the best way to address that is to incorporate this into a meaningful and enforceable agricultural policy for the country with regard to the regulatory structure for the production of marijuana,” said Polis, whose home state of Colorado has emerged as a national leader in the regulation of medical marijuana. “… As long as [marijuana] remains illegal and as long as there is a market demand, the production will be driven underground. No matter how much we throw at enforcement, it will continue to be a threat not only to our Federal lands, but to our border security and to our safety within our country.”

Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, today joined Rep. Polis in endorsing the underlying rationale of the resolution and suggesting that accomplishing the goals detailed in legislation will require an entirely new strategy by the federal government.

“Passage of this resolution will send a clear message to the drug czar and others that our current strategies for combating illegal marijuana production are not working and that a new direction is needed,” Fox said. “There are two choices here: continue the failed prohibitionist policies that encourage Mexican drug cartels to keep growing marijuana on federal lands, or embrace a new path that would acknowledge the reality that marijuana is not going away, but its production and sale can be sensibly regulated in order to reduce the harm caused by its illicit production on federal lands.”

UPDATE: The bill passed overwhelmingly yesterday, with the only “no” votes being cast by Reps. Polis, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko — who, as we’ve discussed in a previous post, receives hundreds of thousands of federal dollars annually to pursue eradication efforts — told the Redding Record-Searchlight that the vote “sends a very clear message that Congress recognizes the impact and the problems with illegal marijuana growing and dangers on public lands.”

But unless Congress and the drug czar’s office agree to consider regulating marijuana in order to shut down its illicit production, there’s little chance all this chest-thumping will lead to any new, more effective strategies. In the perceptive words of Scott Morgan, “If you don’t want Mexican gangsters growing marijuana in the woods, then it’s time to allow people who aren’t Mexican gangsters to grow marijuana somewhere that isn’t the woods.”

Some reassuring words of wisdom from Washington state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D), who tells The Stranger that she intends to introduce a bill to tax and regulate marijuana in next year’s legislature:

“We would legalize it, regulate it, and tax it,” she says. “I am serious. We have been wasting scores of millions of dollars on arresting and jailing people who have done nothing more than smoke marijuana recreationally. That has ended up harming people and costing taxpayers tremendously. So it’s a very high cost to individuals and to taxpayers—it’s a wrongheaded policy that simply needs to be changed. People need to stick their neck out and say enough already and people are starting to do that. You will see that we will have a very good sponsor [for a companion bill to legalize marijuana] in the senate, someone who is very well respected. I am dead serious about this.”

Dickerson also points to a recent poll showing support for treating marijuana like alcohol at 54 percent among Washington voters. “If [the legislature doesn't] pass it this year, there’s a possibility we will take our case to the people in the initiative process in 2012,” she says.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has spent much of the last year trying to weaken the medical marijuana law signed by his predecessor, announced new regulations Friday that made several concessions to patient advocates, but in many respects remain unjustly prohibitive. In either case, the latest proposal may finally allow for the first medical marijuana sales in New Jersey to take place as soon as this summer.

Under the new rules:

• New Jersey will become home to six legal growing sites and six distribution sites. (Christie originally wanted only two growers and four distributors.)
• Patients suffering from three “nonfatal” conditions – seizures, glaucoma, and intractable muscle spasms – will be required to exhaust all other treatment options before their doctor can recommend marijuana. (Christie originally wanted this cruel mandate to apply to all qualifying patients.)
• New Jersey will become the first medical marijuana state in the country to place an arbitrary cap (10 percent) on the level of THC allowed in all marijuana sold. (This is an unreasonable restriction for several reasons: THC is virtually nontoxic at any concentration, some patients may have better results with higher potency marijuana, and the pill Marinol, which is legal in all 50 states and approved by the FDA, is comprised of 100 percent THC.)
• Patients will still not be allowed to grow their own medicine. (Washington, D.C. is the only other medical marijuana jurisdiction with such a restriction.)
• The sales of marijuana-laced edibles will be prohibited, but items such as lozenges and skin ointments will be permitted.
• Only six marijuana plant strains will be allowed to be sold, further limiting the options for patients who might respond better to one specific strain over another.

[Read more →]

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) will put a hold on the nomination of Michele Leonhart to be the next administrator of the DEA.

Kohl’s beef with Leonhart has nothing to do with her views on marijuana issues, but rather the DEA’s work in restricting access to certain prescription pain medications in nursing homes. Still, this represents the strongest opposition to date against Leonhart, who is currently interim DEA head and has played a crucial role in overseeing raids on state-legal medical marijuana collectives and denying applications to do FDA-level research on marijuana.

In recent months, MPP and many of our allies have protested Leonhart’s nomination to head the DEA based on concerns over those above-mentioned actions and some less-than-thoughtful comments she has made about the worsening prohibition-fueled violence in Mexico. At her confirmation hearing, Leonhart, a Bush administration holdover, promised Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) that, “If confirmed as administrator, we would continue to enforce the federal drug laws” — which directly contradicts last year’s Department of Justice directive to respect state medical marijuana laws.

Despite those concerns, Leonhart’s confirmation seemed all but certain, but Sen. Kohl now has the power to draw the process out for some time. Stay tuned for updates.