Drug Policy

Decriminalization

Medical

Legalization

District Attorney Seth Williams “We have to be smart

on crime. We can't declare a war on drugs by going after the kid who's smoking a joint on 55th Street. We have to go after the large traffickers.”

$200, $300 dollar fines for less than 30 grams of marijuana, no

DA Williams' Comment Sparked Advocates Imaginations

Those arrested for these offenses will still be restrained, identified and processed by police in policecustody. They will still have to answer to the charges, but they will be doing so in a speedier andmore efficient process. We want to use valuable court resources in the best way possible and webelieve that means giving minor drug offenders the option of getting into diversionary programs,get drug education or enter drug treatment centers. Again we are NOT decriminalizing marijuana,and the penalty for these offenses remains the same."

We are not decriminalizing marijuana -- any effort like that would be one for the legislature to undertake. The penalty available for these minimal amount offenses remains exactly the same. What we are doing is properly dealing with cases involving minimal amounts of marijuana in the most efficient and cost effective process possible.

Decriminalization

To reduce or abolish criminal penalties for an act that was previously deemed illegal

Most commonly it replaces a misdemeanor charge (i.e. w/ criminal record and court

proceedings) with disorderly conduct (a minimal fine. $100 in massachusetts, for example)

National

Regulated Markets?

Gonzales v. Raich (previously Ashcroft v. Raich), 545 U.S. 1 (2005), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled on June 6,

2005 that under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, which allows the United States Congress "To regulate Commerce... among the several States," Congress may ban the use

of cannabis even where states approve its use for medicinal purposes.

Medical MarijuanaThe government contends that

consuming one's locally

grown marijuana for

medical purposes affects the interstate market of marijuana, and hence

that the federal

government may regulate—and prohibit

—such consumption.

The Interstate Commerce ClauseThe government contended that consuming one's locally grown

marijuana for medical purposes affects the interstate market of marijuana, and hence that the federal government may regulate—and prohibit—such consumption.

Obama opposes federal government intervention if state law allows medical consumption;

DEA raids in Colorado and California have still occurred

Eric Holder

"The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy." -Barack Obama

“I think consumption is down. But that's only one of the measures as to whether or not we're getting a handle on the drug problem.”

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal."

Cost of DrugsCocaine $17,000–$28,000/kilogram $70–$125/gram. Crack cocaine $800–$1,600/ounce$70/gram

Heroin $95,000–$105,000/kilogram $65–$300/gram

Marijuana $800–$2,500/pound$25/one-eighth ounce

Methamphetamine $8,000–$20,000/kilogram$42–$175/gram

Source:http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/statelocal/pa/paphiladelphia.pdf

The study estimates that marijuana production, at a value of $35.8 billion, exceeds the combined value of corn

($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).

When there's a demand...

State

Locke's State of War

To protect property rights, people sign social contracts with governments to provide an impartial judge in adjudicating the affairs. They enter this contract to prevent having to enter the state of war to protect one's possessions.

It's always difficult to pinpoint specific factors that carry the lion's share of the blame for gun violence in Philadelphia, but a few generally seem to rise to the top. These include open-air, illicit drug markets, alcohol outlets, and availability of illegal firearms. Illegal drugs likely relate to violence brought about by trafficking and, to some degree, actual usage of illegal drugs. Illegal guns and

the way these guns get into criminal hands is also likely important.

-Charles Branas, PhD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Senior Scholar in the CCEB and Lead Epidemiologist in the Firearm and Injury Center at Penn (FICAP)

John Locke's Right To Property“If the innocent honest man

must quietly quit all he has, for peace sake, to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered, what a kind of peace there will be in the world, which consists only in violence and rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of robbers and oppressors.”

“He that so employed his pains about any of the spontaneous products of nature...by placing any of his labor on them did thereby acquire a propriety in them.”

Statement from ONDCP Director R. Gil Kerlikowske Why Marijuana Legalization Would Compromise Public

Health and Public Safety

“You all know the impacts of marijuana in this state– from the proliferation of marijuana being grown on public lands and indoor grows, to the negative effects of marijuana use among youth, the increasing influence of violent gangs on the marijuana trade, and the problems associated with medical marijuana dispensaries.”

“Controls and prohibitions help to keep prices higher, and higher prices help keep use rates relatively low.”

“In the United States, illegal drugs already cost $180 billion a year in health care, lost productivity, crime, and other expenditures.”

Health, Work, and Your Rights

"We're not going to stop locking people up" -Lt. Frank Vanore

"Law enforcement will never solvethis problem. We will never arrest ourway out of this problem”- PoliceCommissioner Sylvester Johnson

Incarceration

Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy Incarceration of offenders for drug- related crimes is the largest cost component of drug abuse at $39 billion in 2002, or about 21.7 percent of total costs. These costs rose from $17.9 billion in 1992 to $30 billion in 2002. Costs increased by 8.1 percent annually between 1992 and 2002 due in almost equal measures to increases in the number of incarcerated drug offenders and wage increases.

Operation Safe Streets

Operation Safe Streets Developed in May 2002, the

purpose of this Mayoral initiative is to build coalitions to end the

violence, disorder and human tragedies associated with the sale of illegal drugs and drug addiction.

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Drug Demand

Treatment

Reducing Teen Use?

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control

a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that

are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a

blow at the very principles upon which our government was

founded."

-Abraham Lincoln