Concerning the Legalization of Hemp

“Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."

~ Harry J. Anslinger

The idea of outright legalization of Cannabis is probably one of the more controversial and difficult issues to overcome when considering the reform of laws currently governing this plant.  With roughly four score and seven years of demonization and social conditioning, propaganda and draconian legislation, most Americans are not only ignorant of the history of this plant, of its multiple uses, but even its real names, relying instead upon the ethnic slang used to redefine Cannabis in the early days of the 20^th Century.  This became grossly apparent when one day in March of 2008, I took an early draft of Proposition 420 to the offices of U.S. Representative Trent Franks of Arizona and was granted an audience with one of his staffers.  After about ten minutes of describing the benefits of Hemp/Cannabis, this individual asked me if I could tell him what Hemp or Cannabis was.  Only under its slang name had he ever heard of Cannabis and he was completely unaware of its history or its uses.  This same phenomenon has replayed itself in any number of conversations before and since and is telling as to how effective mass, generational propaganda can be.  To reverse the forced mindset of most of a century I expect to be difficult yet not impossible.  Americans are, in the end, a bizarre tribe that so cherishes individual freedom as to base the grandest of all socio-political experiments in history upon that very idea.  Thus, in order to achieve a rational reevaluation of Cannabis and laws currently governing it, I hope to appeal to that collectively cherished sentiment and its even greater companion…the pocket book.

To first understand the degree of injustice that has been placed upon this land, we must first take a brief glimpse as to why this crime was allowed to occur.  Sadly, as with most crime, illegitimate financial gain was the prime motivator.  During the early decades of the 20^th Century, there were new and emerging industries that found themselves coming into conflict with the economic possibilities of Hemp.  Included in these ambitious industries were many names, recognizable around the world, which have since enjoyed near monopolies on products that are also possible with Hemp.  From synthetic fibers to lubricants, medicines to papers and the emerging national demand for fuel, industries so involved found that Hemp proved to be not only a valid if not superior competitor, but also one they were unable to form an exclusive monopoly on.  Thus a concentrated effort on behalf of these industries to lobby the U.S. Government to render illegal that singular crop which offered opportunity to anyone industrious enough to tame it.

To achieve these ends, these well-known companies adopted a policy to demonize the use of Hemp/Cannabis by taking advantage of the social crisis that had grown over the recent development and production of addictive pharmaceuticals such as cocaine and heroin.  Tapping into the fear over such narcotic abuse, allied with the near fanatical dispositions of the Temperance movement, these propagandists, led by Harry J. Anslinger, began a decades long portrayal of Hemp/Cannabis as the worst of all possible substances.  Being that the Nation then used Hemp/Cannabis in a variety of ways, attempting to discredit Hemp/Cannabis was not feasible.  Therefore, Anslinger, along with the largest newspaper mogul of the day, William R. Hearst, began flooding America with a new word, one that sounded foreign, alien…”marijuana”, a Mexican slang term, and stories of the “evil” this “Devil’s weed” caused.  Direct commentary from these individuals reveal their blatant use of racial paranoia and mistrust in the pursuit of this goal.

Now, nearly a century later, this little known slang term is all that most Americans know of Cannabis.  Now, nearly a century later, mere possession of the tiniest amounts of Cannabis has been enough to so overcrowd the Nation’s prison network that a grossly over-represented amount of that population helps keep this Land of the Free the most incarcerated in the world.  Now, nearly a century later, campaigns are regularly forced into the daily media diet of America still demonizing this plant with dis-proven rumors and lies.  Thus, we are at the beginning of a new century with incarceration costs eating up the tax-revenue of a nation while removing capable, competent and productive members from the tax rolls and from society.  After all this time, a century past, what has this policy benefited the Nation now that we find ourselves held prisoner not only by restrictive, costly laws but by the very industries which sought to outlaw Cannabis for their own selfish economical gain?

Consider the costs of incarceration.  According to the Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons, the annual average cost of incarceration for a Federal inmate in the Fiscal Year of 2007 was $24,922.  Some States record costs upwards of $45,000 per year.  In 2007, it is estimated that there were around 1.8 million ‘drug’ related arrests.  Of this amount, roughly 47% were for Cannabis related charges.  Taking those numbers and applying just the lower Federal cost of incarceration to represent the State costs as well, nearly $21 billion dollars of tax payer funds are currently being wasted prosecuting, housing and feeding former tax payers forcefully removed from those same tax rolls.  In 2007, over 850,000 U.S. Citizens were arrested for possession and/or sale of Cannabis.  Include now into this mix the overall costs associated with including Cannabis in the ‘War on Drugs’, from court costs associated with over three quarters of a million new cases annually and one must wonder just how fiscally conservative any policy could be which is designed to burden the tax payer that much.  Oh, it can be said that the fines that those arrested will be forced to pay will assist in defraying those costs, but where do those funds come from?  Following will be a characterization that hopefully will bring to light the total costs associated with a legal philosophy that is designed to punish non-violent, non-criminal actions associated with lifestyle choice.

To give this portrayal some life, let us name the protagonist, for lack of anything better, Thurgood.  Now let us build up who Thurgood is.  Let’s give him a good job with a middle class income of, oh, for simplicity, let’s go with $75,000 per year.  Thurgood has a mortgage and two car payments with which he is both diligent as well as current.  Thurgood is happily married and is an involved father to three children, ranging in age from infant to primary school.  Thurgood doesn’t smoke tobacco, drinks only occasionally and socially at that and avoids all hard, addictive drugs.  Thurgood does, however, occasionally smoke Cannabis in the comfort of his home, behind closed doors.  The primary problem Thurgood has is the acquisition of his Cannabis.  To do so, he finds he has to develop clandestine relationships with individuals whom he otherwise wouldn’t.

One day, on the way home from replenishing his personal use cache of Cannabis, Thurgood finds himself in a routine traffic stop for a cracked windshield.  The officer who makes the stop smells the fresh, un-smoked Cannabis lying beneath Thurgood’s briefcase on the passenger seat.  Thurgood promptly finds himself, simply for the possession of a small, personal amount of Cannabis, once the most prized crop in the United States, staring out the bars of the local pokey.  Those bars change quite quickly however to those of the Big House where Thurgood has been sentenced to an automatic five year minimum stay in an overcrowded facility. 

Now there will be some who enjoy the thought of controlling the personal habits of others and punishing them for not sharing the lifestyle and worldview they themselves adhere to and will applaud such draconian measures, but thankfully, such perverts are a minority.  For the most part, Americans are a merciful and forgiving people when they are given the chance.  Having established mandatory minimum sentences imposed upon non-violent violators of current legal custom however does not allow for such mercy, such restraint.  Instead, with the heaviest of hands, Thurgood finds himself in the harshest of universities, one populated by the most violent this society has to offer and which has, as its only curriculum, base survival and an education in anti-social behavior.  Tossed into the general population, stripped of his productivity and the self-esteem that productive work provides, depression becomes the least of Thurgood’s emerging issues.  Now Thurgood, who was once a responsible, tax paying wage earner, is naught but a $24,922 a year tax burden on every other American tax-paying citizen.  The question that arises here is, how could anyone who considers themselves to be fiscally conservative condone such a blatant reversal of fortune which affects not only individuals like our hero, but they themselves through their tax monies?

Sadly, the costs have only just begun to show.  While Thurgood was off learning how to fashion shanks and the finer points of various criminal specialties from cell-mates, Thurgood’s wife, Mary Jane, has her own problems.  First off, the family income has been completely dissolved.  Sure, she has a job herself, but it was part-time as she also worked very hard being a full-time, very involved mother.  Now she has to not only return to work early, but also take on a second part-time job so she can slip into trouble a little bit slower.  First one car is repossessed, then she finds herself struggling with the house payments while she sees less and less of her children.  Ultimately, she is forced to downgrade and finds herself moving into an apartment as her house goes into foreclosure.  Christmas that first year is meager and the second, well, sad is the best description available.  By the third year, her marriage has become irrevocably strained as she struggles to manage three young children, a toughening economy and an overbearing loneliness.  Eventually the inevitable happens and divorce papers are filed.  The irony of the situation is that so-called ‘moral’ or ‘social conservatives’ applaud, through their encouragement of laws criminalizing Cannabis, this active decay of the core of the American Family.  For some reason, stripping a parent away from a child due to a simple lifestyle choice in recreational or medicinal usage of a biblical plant, is acceptable to some sitting safe behind their addictions to socially acceptable hobbies such as prescription pills, alcohol and the psychological influences of revivalist theology.

By no means is this issue over.  When Thurgood is ultimately released from prison, he finds he is unable to return to the work he had been so successful at.  Having now a criminal record for the simple possession of a small amount of Cannabis, he finds he is pretty much blacklisted, at times overtly, at others less so, from pursuing most white collar positions such as he once held.  He is though able to eventually find some work flipping burgers for meager pay and no benefits.  A horrible criminal can’t expect much more.  When he tries to contact his former spouse, he is met at the door by her new boyfriend.  When he tries to spend what little time he is allowed to spend with the children he has missed so dearly, the eldest two regard him as a stranger and the youngest doesn’t even know him.  Desperation, despair and social stigma leave few options for what was once a promising life.  What does he have left and how does a situation such as this benefit our society in any positive manner?  How can one who considers themselves to be either fiscally or socially conservative, one who claims to cherish family, condone a legal system designed to destroy both the national economic health as well as the core concept of the American Family?

The costs associated with continuing to incarcerate even one individual for the possession, use or sale of Cannabis, are detrimental to the health of this Nation.  From both the standpoint of economic responsibility and that of social cohesion, such policies do naught but weaken the fabric of American society.  Instead, Cannabis should be outright legalized for both commercial and personal use.  Cannabis should be taxed fairly and exclusively.  Individuals currently incarcerated for non-violent Cannabis related charges should receive not only immediate release but full pardons as well.  The United States needs, at this moment in our history, all capable hands available helping to rebuild this Nation and a realistic reevaluation of our national priorities needs to take place.  While there are certain activities or work situations which should have regulations, similar to alcohol, imposed denying the active consumption of Cannabis, for personal use, be that medicinal or recreational, Cannabis should exist as a free, legal and safe personal choice alternative.