Marijuana Prohibition is a
Catastrophe:
The Solution is Legal
Regulation and Control
What is Marijuana?
The marijuana plant has a long history of medical,
religious and industrial uses dating back thousands of
years. Few Americans had even heard of marijuana
when it was first federally prohibited in 1937. Today, it
is the most widely used illegal drug in the U.S. and the
world. More than 100 million Americans – about 42
percent of American adults – admit to having tried it,
and over 15 million have used it in the past month.1
The value of marijuana produced in the U.S. is
estimated to be over $35 billion, making it the nation’s
largest cash crop and exceeding the value of corn and
wheat combined.2 Since 1996, fourteen states have
passed laws permitting the medical use of marijuana.
"When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was
the point."
– Then-Senator Barack Obama, 2006
The Costs and Consequences of Prohibition
Wasted Law Enforcement Resources. In 2008, there
were 847,864 marijuana arrests in the U.S. – one
every 37 seconds, comprising half of all drug arrests.
Almost 90 percent of these arrests were for simple
possession, not sale or manufacture. There are more
arrests for marijuana possession arrests each year
than for all violent crimes combined.3
Wasted Lives. In addition to arrest and incarceration,
people with marijuana convictions suffer from
excessively harsh collateral consequences: loss of
property, employment, child custody, and access to
public assistance such as food stamps, housing and
financial aid for college.
Violence. Virtually all “marijuana-related violence” is a
direct result of prohibition, which keeps responsible,
regulated businesses out of the market. Since illegal
Drug Policy Alliance | 70 West 36th Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10018
nyc@drugpolicy.org | 212.613.8020 voice | 212.613.8021 fax
businesses have no legitimate means to settle
disputes, violence inevitably results — just as it did
during alcohol Prohibition.
Wasted Money. Marijuana prohibition imposes the
onerous financial and administrative burden of
enforcement and incarceration primarily on cash-
strapped state and local governments – on top of the
additional costs created by prohibition’s
counterproductive effects on public safety and health.
Legally regulating marijuana would save $7.7 billion in
government expenditures on prohibition enforcement
— $2.4 billion at the federal level and $5.3 billion at the
state and local levels. Revenue from taxation of
marijuana sales could range from an estimated $2.4
billion per year if marijuana were taxed like ordinary
consumer goods to $6.2 billion if it were taxed like
alcohol or tobacco.4
Unjust Racial Disparities. According to government
data, white people reportedly consume and sell
marijuana at the same rates as African-Americans.
Yet, African-Americans are twice as likely to be
arrested for marijuana possession. Likewise, African-
Americans are twice as likely to be arrested for selling
marijuana compared to whites.5
In California, African Americans make up less than 7
percent of the state population but represent 22
percent of people arrested for all marijuana offenses
and 33 percent of all marijuana felony arrests in 2008.6
In New York City, from 1980 to 2008 African
Americans and Hispanics represented 85 percent of
low level marijuana defendants, although they
represent only half of the city’s population. African
Americans were four times as likely as whites to
receive jail time for possession of marijuana and
Hispanics were three times as likely.7
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What Does Regulation Mean?
Legal regulation is not a step into the unknown – we
have centuries of experience in legally regulating
thousands of different drugs. Legal regulation means
commonsense controls – marijuana wouldn’t be
treated like Coca-Cola, available to anyone of any age,
anywhere, at any time. Under many regulatory
proposals, it would be taxed and regulated in a manner
similar to alcoholic beverages.
Improving Health and Public Safety
Marijuana prohibition persists, in large part, because of
out-dated, hyperbolic “Reefer Madness” claims about
health impacts. The truth is that marijuana is
considerably less dangerous than either alcohol or
cigarettes. It’s far less addictive, and typically
consumed in much smaller amounts. It lacks alcohol’s
powerful association with violence, accidents and
reckless sexual behavior. And it’s impossible to die of
a marijuana overdose. Taken medicinally, marijuana is
effective at addressing a wide variety of symptoms,
including nausea, vomiting, and wasting diseases.
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man.”
- Drug Enforcement Administration Chief
Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young, 1988
● Regulating marijuana means restricting access to
adults, and imposing penalties for sales to minors.
For three decades, between 80 and 90 percent of high
school seniors have told government survey
administrators that marijuana is “easy to get.”
According to government data, teenagers are now
more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco.8
● Laws against driving under the influence would still
carry the same penalties.
● Regulation allows for quality control so that
consumers would know what they are buying and are
protected from dangerous adulterants. Producers
would be strictly regulated with regard to advertising,
marketing, health warnings and packaging.
● Countries that have adopted less punitive policies —
such as the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Italy,
Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal,
Austria and India — did not experience an increase in
marijuana consumption or marijuana-related harm
relative to more punitive countries.9
Drug Policy Alliance | 70 West 36th Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10018
nyc@drugpolicy.org | 212.613.8020 voice | 212.613.8021 fax
Support for Regulation is Surging
Lawmakers in numerous states have introduced bills to
fix backwards marijuana policies, and there is more
public support for reform than ever before. With new
polls showing nearly half the country in favor of taxing
and regulating marijuana, there is currently an
unprecedented opportunity to push for change.
1 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2008,
Table G.1 and G.5.
2
Gettman, Jon, “Marijuana Production in the United States”,
The Bulletin of Cannabis Reform, No. 2, December 2006.
3 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports,
Crime in the United States, 2008.
4
Miron, Jeffrey L., The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana
Prohibition, June 2005.
5
Mauer, Marc. The Changing Racial Dynamics of the War on
Drugs. The Sentencing Project. April, 2009.
6
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice; Criminal Justice
Statistics Center, Crime in California, CA Dept. of Justice,
1954-2008.
7
Levine, Harry. New York City’s Marijuana Arrest Crusade
Continues, September 2009.
8
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G. &
Schulenberg, J. E. “Various stimulant drugs show continuing
gradual declines among teens in 2008, most illicit drugs hold
steady.” University of Michigan News Service: Ann Arbor, MI.
9
Reuter, Peter, et. al. Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond
Stalemate, Oxford University Press, 2010.
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