I have been very heartened lately to see the attention paid to marijuana legalization both in the "mainstream" media and on this site. For whatever reason, whether because of the growing spirit of progressivism in America, the campaign promises of Barack Obama, the growing number of presidential former drug users, or the dwindling number of people whose formative years were not affected by the 60s, the issue seems to be gaining momentum.
But whenever a weed diary is posted here at Daily kos, a phenomenon occurs which is unique to weed diaries (and pooties). Inevitably, a handful of commenters feel it is their duty to inform the diarist that legalization is not the most important issue facing America right now. Apparently these commenters are worried that either the internet or the puny Democratic brain will soon fill to capacity, leaving no room for other, more deserving topics to be discussed.
Well, I, for one, would like to go on record and state explicitly: I believe marijuana legalization is THE most important issue facing America today. I belive it is more important than health care reform. I believe it is more important than energy reform. I believe it is more important than EFCA, TARP, AIG, or any other acronym. And I think it is more important than torture and the war on terror.
Here's why:
In order to properly frame my argument, I will first present a list of givens. These are facts that must be assumed for the sake of the argument. Some of them are easily verifiable, other are not. Reliable conviction statistics, for example, are very messy. It is difficult to databases that list drug convictions by type of drug and level of offense, plus the distinction between possession and dealing is very fuzzy, and no one can say whether a conviction is reflective of the actual crime committed or simply a result of plea bargaining. Nevertheless, I don't believe I am making any unforgivable logical leaps here.
Given: Weed is harmless. It does not cause cancer. It cannot lead to overdose. It is not addictive. It has no long term affects. It is pretty much about as harmful to an individual as potato chips or XBOX 360.
Given: Hundreds of Thousands of American Citizens are in Prison Only Because of Weed. Like I said, the numbers are fuzzy. But there are over 2.3 million people in prison in this country, and over a million of them are nonviolent drug offenders. And if you're one of those people who remembers a time when cops wouldn't arrest you for small amounts of weed, you should know that times have changed. Since 1993, federal agents have been arresting for possession of small amounts. The War on Drugs is no longer the War on Hard Drugs- the biggest money maker for Mexican cartels is now marijuana.
So I don't think it's at all inaccurate to say that hundreds of thousands of Americans are locked away in prison at this very moment because of marijuana possession. These people cannot vote, and in some states never will vote again, to say nothing of all the other freedoms they have lost.
Given: The War on Drugs disproportionately affects minorities: Better diaries than this one have been written on this subject. If you've seen the numbers, they're shocking. African Americans make up more than 50% of the prison population despite being less than 15% of the American population - 10% of African American males between the ages of twenty something and thirty something are in prison.
Beyond arrests and convictions, I have seen firsthand the harrassment that goes on in poor minority neighborhoods, where police stop and frisk people on the sidewalk for suspicion of possession.
Given: Private Prisons are a $40 billion a year industry. Since the mid 1980s, prisons have been allowed to be owned and operated by private companies. The profit margins of those companies depend on two things: the efficiency of the prison, and the prison population.
Since that time, the number of prisoners in this country has increased tenfold, from a couple hundred thousand to almost two and a half million. The money flowing into these private prisons is powerfully corrupting, as evidenced by the story earlier this year of two juvenile justices taking over a million dollars in bribes in return for sentencing innocent juveniles to years of detention.
Given: The War on Drugs provides funding to all kinds of agencies on the federal, state, and municipal level. Marijuana criminalization provides funding for all kinds of agencies. There are the obvious ones, like police, prosecutors, and prisons. In many states inner city convicts will be sent to prisons in another county, resulting in taxes being reallocated to the school district and municipal government in that other county. But beyond just law enforcement, agencies in the department of defense, of agriculture, immigration, and others receive funding to fight the war on drugs.
The result is a large chunk of federal funding being paid out to a small portion of the population, but this portion is made up largely of politicians, police officers, attorneys, and government employees.
Given: Iran-Contra. There are covert forces at work in the intelligence community that have an interest in keeping drugs expensive and illegal. Maybe they want to use this money to buy weapons from Middle-Eastern terrorists. Maybe they want to use this money to give weapons to corrupt Central American regimes. Either way, we don't know, because the money is abundant and untraceable.
-CONCLUSION-
In conclusion, the laws against marijuana has led to a breakdown in democracy. We have a substance that is completely harmless, and laws which have ruined thousands of lives, not just the hundreds of thousands of people incarcerated, but the hundreds and thousands of family and friends affected, the incredible costs of incarceration, plus the social cost of making ex-convicts unemployable by revoking federal student loans and burdening them with a criminal record.
But this substance, which 50% of adults in this country have tried, and 80% of living US presidents have either tried or advocated for legalizing has not led to a serious effort on the national level to legalize or decriminalize.
Meanwhile, private prisons continue to make $40 billion a year, agencies continue to expand due to increased violence in Mexico or some new urgency to save the children, and still thousands of nonviolent Americans languish in tents in the Arizona desert, or cement cells with fluorescent lighting flickering, or dormitories filled with violent offenders and junkies.
The reason I think this issue is the most important issue facing America today is because it applies directly to our idea of what freedom is. There are many good arguments to be made for legalization - a person's right to privacy and freedom to control their own body; the promise of medical marijuana; the utility of hemp; the revenue from taxation - but the one I've tried to outline above is the most important, I think. There are hundreds of thousands of people languishing in American prisons for harming nobody, not even themselves.
This is more important than energy or health care, in my opinion. Other than a few extreme cases, those issues are essentially economic. Economic issues pale in comparison to the complete and total revocation of freedom, to say nothing of the cost of the War on Drugs. Furthermore, I believe the case can be made that this issue is more important than torture. Gitmo only had a few thousand inmates, our prisons have over a million nonviolent drug offenders. Plus, although there are no dogs or waterboarding or slamming heads into walls, American prisons have plenty of conditions that violate Geneva conventions- solitary confinement, overcrowding, outdoor exercise once a month, chain gangs, sleeping in a tent in 110 degree heat. Furthermore, I think the campaign of propoganda, intimidation, and bribery in support of the War on Drugs is much more sinister than the one for the war on terror.
If that's what not what you think, fine. Maybe we can quibble on some of the factual issues above. But there should be no doubt in your minds that I firmly believe those things, and if those are true, there should be no question that legalizing marijuana can be the most important issue facing America today.