Last week, the Beckley Foundation announced the launch of the Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform at the UK’s House of Lords. This project is made up of senior policy representatives from around the world. Together with the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which issued a damning report on current prohibition strategies earlier this year, the Initiative is taking important steps toward starting an international discussion on how to move beyond the failed current drug control system.

MPP is proud to be a signatory to this initiative and will be doing everything we can to help spread the conversation on ending marijuana prohibition worldwide, as well as increasing pressure on the United States to reform their position on international drug treaties.

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One of the most often-heard arguments against marijuana reform can basically be summed up as follows:

“But what about the children?”

Prohibitionists are quick to trot this one out whenever their other arguments have failed because it’s an easy way to elicit a strong emotional response. They claim that marijuana reform will lead to increased rates of use, developmental damage, and easier access to marijuana. Even talking about the issue will lead to higher rates of use, according to their arguments. Never mind that teen use rates tend to decrease in states that pass medical marijuana laws, or that licensed distributors would have ample reason to ID customers.

No, facts don’t really apply to this argument. It is very useful, however, when it comes to terrifying parents. According to the standard drug warrior mentality, the only way to keep kids away from marijuana is to arrest adults for using it. To do otherwise would “send the wrong message to our youth.”

Apparently, all this concern does not extend to children living on the U.S.-Mexico border:

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Texas law enforcement officials say several Mexican drug cartels are luring youngsters as young as 11 to work in their smuggling operations.

Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told Reuters the drug gangs have a chilling name for the young Texans lured into their operations.

“They call them ‘the expendables,’” he said.

McCraw said his investigators have evidence six Mexican drug gangs — including the violent Zetas — have “command and control centers” in Texas actively recruiting children for their operations, attracting them with what appears to be “easy money” for doing simple tasks.

The policy of marijuana prohibition is the primary reason cartels are able to bring in so much profit from distribution within the U.S., the reason they are in such brutal competition with each other, and the catalyst for using cheap and available child conscripts within our borders. Instituting more rational marijuana policies and bringing marijuana into a regulated, legal market would greatly diminish the power of the cartels, as well as their need to corrupt our youth. Licensed businesses, unlike cartels, must obey child labor laws and other regulations in order to stay in business.

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske and other prohibitionists don’t want to hear that, though. It seems as if they have no problem using imaginary children to scare people away from reform. Real children, however, are “expendable.”

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A new Gallup poll shows that 50% of voters nationwide answered “Yes” to the question, “Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not?” Only 46% of respondents answered “No.” This is the first time on record that more Americans support ending marijuana prohibition than support maintaining the status quo of arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana possession. Support for marijuana reform has been growing steadily over the last few decades, but this poll shows a 4% increase over last year, when Gallup asked respondents the same question.

Opinions were heavily divided by age, with support being strongest among 18-29 year olds (62%) and 30-49 year olds (56%). The results were also quite divided geographically, with the highest support coming from the West, Midwest, and East.

“This is an historic day in the decades-long war on marijuana. As of today, a majority of the American public believes the use of marijuana should be legal for adults,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “Moreover, it is clear from the levels of support among various age groups that support will only increase over time. None of this is surprising. Americans know that prohibition is a failed policy. It was true for alcohol, and it is true for marijuana, a substance far less harmful than alcohol. The American people are clearly saying it is time to stop arresting adults for using marijuana. Now it is time for our elected officials to listen to the public.”

This poll comes at an interesting time, with many states re-examining their marijuana laws and a series of bills sitting before Congress that would limit federal involvement in marijuana policy. Currently, the Obama administration is reversing its earlier stance of non-interference in medical marijuana states and is increasing efforts to shut down the medical marijuana industry in California and elsewhere, a move that experts say will drive medical marijuana patients into the criminal market to obtain their medicine. At the same time, several states, including Colorado, California, and Washington, are considering ballot initiatives that would tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol.

The poll, conducted October 6-9 by Gallup, surveyed 1,005 registered voters from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It is available for download at http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Record-High-Americans-Favor-Legalizing-Marijuana.aspx

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During his run for the presidency, Barack Obama instilled hope in medical marijuana supporters by pledging to respect state laws on the matter. And for the first two years of his term, he was generally faithful to his promise. Yet suddenly, and with no logical explanation, over the past eight months he has become arguably the worst president in U.S. history regarding medical marijuana.

1. In 1970, Nixon signed into law the Controlled Substances Act, which placed marijuana in Schedule I — the most restrictive of the five schedules, which declared that marijuana has no medical value whatsoever. Since then, all seven presidents have been content to keep marijuana in Schedule I, even going so far as to have (1) DEA bureaucrats overrule the DEA’s own administrative law judge on the matter, and (2) Health & Human Services reject scientific petitions for rescheduling.

Read more …

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As a female working in the generally male-dominated world of marijuana policy reform, you’d think I’d be accustomed to the gender gap that exists between male and female support for the taxation and regulation of marijuana. And yet, I’m continually shocked when poll after poll reveals sizeable differences among levels of support between the two genders. Although nationwide support for legalizing marijuana has never been higher, we’re going to need the backing of the ladies to push the issue over the tipping point.

As a matter of fact, women generally tend to lag at least five percentage points behind men when it comes to support for ending marijuana prohibition. In national polling, for example, a March 2011 Pew Research Center poll found 48% of males favor marijuana legalization, while female support trailed at 42%. An October 2010 Gallup poll showed a more striking gap between male and female support, with 51% of males and only 41% of females in favor of making the use of marijuana legal.

Unfortunately, this gender gap also exists in state-level polling, as evidenced by the following cases from Colorado and Washington state. An August 2011 Public Policy Polling poll of Colorado voters found 54% of males, but only 49% of females, support making marijuana usage legal in the state, while a September 2011 Strategies 360 poll of Washington state voters showed 56% of males and a whopping 37% of females think the use of marijuana should be made legal in Washington. That’s a difference of nearly twenty percentage points!

Colorado and Washington state are notable examples here, as voters in both states will likely have the opportunity to vote on state ballot initiatives to tax and regulate marijuana in 2012. With voters in those states currently split on the issue, a boost in female support is exactly what’s needed to achieve strong majority support for taxing and regulating marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. And speaking of alcohol, just as women were pivotal in bringing about the repeal of its prohibition in the 1930s, so too will they be instrumental in effecting the end of marijuana prohibition.

In fact, perhaps we can learn something from our Prohibition-era sisters. Did you know that many of the women who initially supported alcohol prohibition ultimately grew disenchanted with it and fought for its repeal? Pauline Sabin, founder of the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, favored prohibition in the beginning because she thought it would be best for her children. But Sabin, like many others, finally came to the conclusion that the prohibition against alcohol was more dangerous and destructive than the substance itself. Perhaps, someday soon, more and more women will come to realize that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is the prohibition against it.

Though women are increasingly coming out in support for reforming our country’s marijuana laws, from “stiletto stoners” to “marijuana moms” and “ganja grannies,” we need to broaden our base to include more women who aren’t necessarily marijuana users, but who share the belief that our current marijuana policies have failed and it’s time for a new approach. Whether they’re ultimately inspired by personal liberty arguments, maternalistic concerns for children and family, issues of public safety, or economic cares related to the waste of public resources, women could very well be the driving force in getting the nation to that critical moment when the demand for the end of marijuana prohibition simply cannot be denied. I hope to see the female voters in states like Colorado and Washington leading the charge in 2012.

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Why do you think women are more reluctant than men to support the end of marijuana prohibition? And what can we collectively do to try to change that? Please comment or send me an email at kzawidzki@mpp.org.

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