Why Regulation is Better Than Decriminalization
Ever since California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill decriminalizing possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in the Golden State, opponents of Prop 19 have latched onto this development as their latest (bogus) talking point for why voters should reject the ballot measure on Nov. 2.
Their argument goes something like this: By making possession a civil infraction rather than a misdemeanor, people will no longer be arrested for marijuana possession in California; therefore, one of the main arguments in support of Prop 19 (that it’s wasteful and wrong to arrest adults for using something that’s safer than alcohol) is now moot. “This takes away the last reason why anyone would support Proposition 19,” writes Orange County sheriff Sandra Hutchens and former state Sen. Dick Ackerman in yesterday’s Orange County Register, to cite just one example.
Here’s what the “decriminalization is good enough” argument gets wrong:
- Police priorities: SB 1449, the decriminalization bill Schwarzenegger signed, doesn’t change the penalty for possessing marijuana (it already was and remains a $100 fine). It simply reclassifies possession as a civil infraction, rather than a misdemeanor that might require a court appearance. In no way does this mean that police will decide to stop wasting their time tracking down low-level marijuana offenders. Instead of 60,000+ marijuana arrests each year, California would simply have 60,000+ marijuana citations. Prop 19 would eliminate the need for either, and compel police to focus on true threats to public safety.
- Racial disparities: As Hanna Liebman Dershowitz points out in another O.C. Register op-ed countering Hutchens and Ackerman, as long as law enforcement can cite and harass people for possessing marijuana, “the shameless pattern of racially disproportionate enforcement that has been a hallmark of marijuana prohibition” will continue: “[P]olice could still target communities of color and may even be motivated to issue more citations than in the past, since they won’t cost as much under SB 1449. Prop. 19, by contrast, will end futile practices of subjecting otherwise law-abiding consumers to detention, citation and collection of personal data, while wasting law enforcement effort and cost; SB 1449, by contrast, preserves these practices.”
- Still sold by criminals: Decriminalization takes a step in the right direction by removing criminal penalties for the average marijuana user, but it does nothing to authorize the sale of marijuana and remove it from the hands of criminals and drug cartels (as Prop 19 would). A report issued last week by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy was emphatic on this point: “Without regulatory controls allowing for limited distribution – as employed for other psychoactive substances such as alcohol and tobacco – organized crime groups continue to exercise control over the cannabis market,” the report states.
- No tax revenue: On that same note, as long as the sale of marijuana remains outside the rule of law, California and its many localities will be unable to tax that sale and make any revenue from what’s been widely estimated to be the state’s largest cash crop. Decriminalization would contribute little toward collecting the $1.4 billion California’s Board of Equalization estimated the state could make by ending marijuana prohibition.
- No regulation: Finally, with marijuana decriminalized, and its sale illegal, local governments will be unable to establish regulations dictating how and where marijuana can be sold, who can sell it, and to whom. Under decriminalization, as well as prohibition, there is no system to license or zone vendors, or to require them to check customer IDs. Nor are there any regulations that apply to the product itself. Until marijuana is sold in a legal, regulated market (as it would be under Prop 19), it will still be controlled by drug dealers who offer no quality control, have no legal means to resolve disputes, and have no qualms about selling to people under 21.
The only way to eliminate these harms once and for all is to completely remove marijuana from the criminal justice system and bring its sale under the rule of law – just as Proposition 19 would do in California.
Tagged with: California and decriminalization and Dick Ackerman and Hanna Liebman Dershowitz and International Centre for Science and Orange County Register and Prop 19 and Proposition 19 and Sandra Hutchens and SB 1449 and Schwarzenegger by the author
18 comments
We most deffinitly need legalization in Cali. Not for Cali but for the rest of the nation. We need one state to take the lead, to give the rest of the states food for thought. Fine, Cali has de-crim, Im happy for you. Here in my state, one seed will ruin you, one arrest will stop you from getting a job, a drivers license, housing, and many other things….YOU ARE RUINED! It has to stop. So please, those of you in Cali , dont get the “I got mine ” Attitude, for the sake of the rest of the nation.
How is it that no one ever brings up the other big legal drug in america CAFFEINE ? it is bad for you but it is also pushed on you to make you more productive. I am just saying.
Just like Gary Johnson referenced in the Colbert show. A man recently got a 25 year sentance for 1 gram of marijuana because he was on probation.
25 years !
decriminalization is not enough. Its just a “lazy tax” and you can still get fired from your job for what you do in your off time. And good luck finding another job.
Wisconsin agrees and is ready to take the lead. Talking about hemp and cannabis with truth, honesty and compassion will lead to comprehensive legislation for Industrial Hemp, Medical Marijuana and Recreational Cannabis.
As states move towards total legalization of marijuana, who will supply all this pot and how? http://www.jayselthofner.com/wordpress/2010/10/supply-marijuana-states-legal/
Arnold signed the bill hoping it would help defeat Prop. 19. As for revenue, with decrim. the pig will start writing tickets as fast as they can. Prop. 19 is the best answer at this time.
Vote YES on Proposition 19, because cannabis prohibition was a mistake that gets worse every year.
Not to mention from a consumer POV, decrim means you still get your herb confiscated. Plus growing is still a felony. Furthermore once local LEO has identified you as a toker, its the beginning of being watched and harassed frequently until you move away, Its not exactly like beat-cops will forget you face once they’ve cited you a couple times for cannabis use.
Regulation and taxation is the way to ensure that pot remains legal once it is legalised. It wouldn’t be to hard to just change it back to a misdeemer if the political wind changes direction. But it would be difficult to close down legitimate businesses and through taxation money away.
Cops are so stupid I swear LOL
Yesterdays killing of a cop in Mexico over an American water skier is the reason we need to tax and regulate. If every one over 21 has to pay a fee to the state to grow personel herbs we would be so much better off. I would be happy to pay, say, meybe 25 dollers a year for my permit. If I was to have to buy my meds I would expect to pay a state tax also. The state gets paid, I get left alone and nobody gets rich and most importantly, nobody dies.
yah, i alrdy got possession on my record, i cant even find a good job, now every job here makes us take drug tests…nd now i cant get my own place anymore cause of my record…soo im living with someone and there landlord lookd at my damn Background only nd found out i had possession nd she now is warning me if anybody stops here like 3 cars she thinks im buying drugs or havin drug ppl come here, nd she said she would kick me out only nd make me find a new place to live. FUCK THIS. WE NEED CHANGE HERE.
LOOK # 10…
“Officials at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) say Hartley’s apparent death marked the FIFTH incident since April 30 in which U.S. residents ventured into Mexican waters and encountered pirates on Falcon Lake. Prior to last week, the most recent occurred on Aug. 31, when authorities say pirates aboard a small boat with “Game Wardin” written on its side, in duct-tape lettering, tried to intercept a Texas fisherman. The fisherman, aware of warnings about pirates on the lake and recognizing the misspelling of the word “warden,” managed to outrun the Mexican vessel to safety, officials said.”
And how can our government stand by and do nothing…. makes me sick to my stomach. Looks like we need to form a MOB and go pirate hunting. I bet we can get Discovery to make a documentary out of it to show the whole world what is going on and get more people involved to get it stopped.
Makes me wanna swear Yo Samity Sam like. Enough
Nick that is fucked up. My roommate is not allowed to see his son anymore because his son told his mom that we smoke pot. This little 15 year old bastard. He was sitting on the porch while me and my GF were smoking and he’s like “I wanna try it.” Im like, you’re too young buddy, at least wait till you’re 18 when your dad is not responsible for what you do. Anyways, the ex found out we smoke pot. She said that she will not let the son come to the house “where drugs are being taken.” Yet his dad drinks half a bottle of vodka on the weekends, and this kid told me his uncle drinks like a sailor. Fucking hypocrisy.
This is really so fucked up because some some old fuck in our government back in 37′ made reefer illegal they dont want to “admit” they fucked up in the first place so we all suffer now and the cocksucker pigs love it cause they make there quota every month. Really whats it gonna take for these fucking idiots in our government to fix there fuck up fuck at least legalize industrial hemp. Im movin to cali fuck mass
My preferred outcome for social status of pot is deregulation/deregulated. This whole idea of legalization and regulation seems stupid for us – brilliant for ‘them’. If people want to grow and sell pot in a deregulated state they would be able to bank and reinvest and pay taxes on their profit and wages like everybody else. Has anyone done a cost/benefit analysis comparing the alternatives of deregulation versus regulation?
The cost of maintaining the regulatory control would outweigh any possible saving. Violators of the state regulation would still be subject to prosecution and probably incarceration. A new bureaucracy would absorb the enforcers of the old bureaucracy.
Deregulate it!
I have been growing my own medicine since the early 90′s. I live in Alabama, and my sister got mad at me and called the sheriff on me for my garden. I had to stay clean for 18 months and go to rehab. T his was in 06. Now I am facing another charge, a felony and may go be incarcerated for three years! I have hepatitis c,so other any drugs affect my liver. Leagalization is the only option. I am 60 years old and have smoked marijuana since I was 16.
How can you authorize the sale of marijuana and remove it from the hands of criminals if the criminals are legally allowed to sell it?
How about the government in its resourceful idea to generate income by taxing the sell of cannabis, work on helping the industry itself become legal? Help the “criminals” become small business owners who pay their taxes.
Regulation from the inside of the industry outward instead of outside government creating regulation inward. I keep hearing “self regulation”. It can only be the fairest way. Its not fair for the “criminals” involved in this un-industry who have been building their non-businesses for years, building so much that Cali looks at what they are doing and wants in on it, to suddenly be regulated out of the water just because Cali is ready to end prohibition.
Thats not fair. So why isn’t the un-indusrty itself working on self regulation in efforts to prepare for this government take over of their non-businesses? Its sort of fine and dandy if your a card carrying patient to speak up for yourself in the public eye. How can the “criminals” even get together and talk about self regulationg the indusrty without fear of conspiracy charge at the hands of the regulationg force itself?
Cali is greedy. The “criminals” are greedy too. Capitalism, cool, fine, get over it. Everyone wants the control.
It sounds safer, strictly regulate the new non-criminals instead of helping the old criminals pay their taxes. Its sounds safer from an ordinary average person’s perspective from the outside looking in. Its not safer. If the black market lives on it will be because the price of cannabis increases either by taxes or lack of liscenses and permits. Or the black market criminals will stay criminals because the government won’t allow them to become non-criminals. And why would Cali do that? The same reason the criminals are criminals in the first place, money. So if it is still profitable to sell weed when the government is selling it too, and there is no clear path for a drug dealer to become a tax paying small business owner, then the drug war lives on. Only this time its not just about safety and the law, now its about money t00, Cali’s money.
NO TAXES ON PERSONAL GROWING.
Yes some regulations that the industry can set as far as safety because we don’t want people starting fires, but
NO REGULATIONS ON PERSONAL GROWING.
Why would they only give the people only a 5×5 per household grow space?
If its illegal to sell it or buy it from a non liscenced grower, then why would they put a limit on how much you can grow for yourself? 5×5 is nothing if you don’t know what you are doing and you have share it with you family or roommates. The only thing I can think of is to discourage small business. No one should even think they could grow a small surplus and get paid for it. In fact, some think you should pay Cali to be able to grow for yourself. NO
No taxes on personal growing.
No to permits you have to buy.
Regulate only for safety standards.
Now the question is prop 19, yes or no. Whatever I might believe, the people worked hard on this. It took a lot of money to get to this point. Is that reason enough to vote yes? No. But when the hell is someone else going to put the money up agian to back a proposition? We all want to critisize and say the prop 19ers are greedy, but thats why they have money to back it. Thats why anyone would, now or in the future. Who knows what the next rich backer will want out of it? Who knows when or if there will be another?
Its kind of like a step in the right direction along with a few steps in the wrong direction. For me its deciding if that one step foward is worth those two steps back. For most people it most definetly is. For some people, its most definetly not worth it. But for those people, we do have to weigh out the big picture. The only problem is the big picture starts to look even scarier with prop 19.
Yes I want my kids, future generations to enjoy the freedoms of the end of cannabis prohibition. No, I dont want my kids asking me one day how we could have let the government butcher this indusrty. This cannabis industry condemed by this government for so long, so much death and lives ruined for so long, and now they want it and we are giving it to them. This industry with so much potential for the people because even though its age old, its so new. The people have a chance to get this one right. I hope that prop 19 doesn’t take our chance away.
We have to be careful about “regulation” because most of what’s called “regulation” these days, is better described as a “protection racket” and isn’t different from what the Mafia provides, except it’s provided by government. An acceptable regulation would be that marijuana can’t be sold to minors. Beyond that, politicians and bureaucrats create a system whereby corruption ensues, like bureaucrats demanding money under the table to get a license for a business to sell marijuana, or they only provide such licenses to those who contribute to certain political campaigns. And they restrict competition by limiting the number of licenses. Other “regulations” might include expensive testing on the product, and perhaps for every strain, that essentially creates a testing market (the owners of which contribute to political campaigns demanding testing). Such testing might be for “safety” or to rule out pesticide residue (some Colorado dispensaries actually test their products for this, without such regulations – but why mandate it). So beware of supporting “regulation”.
You can support taxation (there is no fair tax IMHO, but certainly taxes on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and other “luxuries” have certain appeal to the electorate in that they are relatively voluntary.
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