WAR

ON WEED
Legalizing Marijuana

Mallory Ann Waggoner

University Of New Mexico | ENGL 219

Legalization of Marijuana

Introduction
The criminalization of marijuana affects
everyone. Every year millions of dollars are
wasted on enforcing the prohibition of
marijuana. Federally legalizing marijuana
would dramatically reduce crime rates and
government spending, as well as increase
yearly tax revenue. If marijuana remains
illegal, crime rates, illicit drug use and
government spending will continue to
outrageously soar.
The Nixon administration declared the failed
war on drugs fifty years ago. He classified
marijuana possession as a category one
crime which carries the most severe
consequences. Since the war on drugs was
declared, drug abuse has increased,
thousands of people are incarcerated for
small possession cases and millions of tax
payer dollars are being spent on drug
enforcement. His war on drugs has set the
standard for disappointment. Every year
thousands of people are incarcerated for
drug-related, non-violent offenses while
drug overdoses and deaths from more
serious narcotics continue to set records.
This report will discuss the history of
criminalizing marijuana, current statistics of
marijuana use, racial disparity, how to fix the
problem and the cost and benefits.

History
Marijuana has been in American culture
since the 1600s. There was a time marijuana
cultivation was encouraged and there was
wide spread use for medicinal purposes.
In 1937, during the Great Depression, the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) needed a
way to keep their department running.

Introduction Summary

Marijuana has been around for

centuries

The war on drugs is has failed

Tax dollars are spent on keeping

people incarcerated for small
possession charges

More people are set free for

violent crimes than people
arrested for small possession
charges

Harry Anslinger gathered false information
on marijuana stating marijuana usage cause
social deviance and violence. He collected
false stories called the Gore Files to
present to Congress when he proposed
nationally prohibiting marijuana in the
Marijuana Tax Act. None of these stories
were verified and no data proved marijuana
use has increased creating need to control
the substance. In the 1980s President
Reagan expanded drug crimes and penalties,
creating a large increase in the number of
people behind bars for nonviolent drug
crimes.

Current Statistics
The war on drugs is still being waged in the
United States today. The United States
government spends over $51 million per
year on operations to combat drug use
including
arresting
perpetrators,
prosecution of arrests, and money spent on
incarceration. The cost per single possession
arrest ranges from one to two thousand
dollars. This massive drug enforcement
effort results in millions of costly wasted

Legalization of Marijuana

arrests per year. Half of all drug related
arrest are for marijuana, totaling 643,121 in
2015 alone. 89 percent of those arrests were
for possession of only a small amount of
marijuana.
This heavy-handed approach to substance
abuse has had a troubling trend over the
past 35 years. Starting in 1980, the number
of arrests per hundred thousand population
steadily increased from two hundred to an
astounding peak of nearly five hundred
twenty-five in 2007. While the number of
arrests has slowly, yet steadily decreased
since that peak, another trouble trend has
remained. Since 2000, the percentage of
people aged 12 and older who have used
illicit drugs has increased from 11% to nearly
18% in 2015. This latest census was the first
time since 1980 that the percentage of those
who have used an illicit drug has surpassed
17%. Both trends can be seen in figure 1.

rate of any country in the world, holding

over 20% of the worlds prisoners while only
have around 5% of the worlds population.
This is in part caused by the high annual rate
of drug related arrests and mandatory
sentencing for these types of infractions.
Embarrassingly, this approach is extremely
racially biased. According to the ACLU,
African American are 4 times more likely to
be arrested for the possession of marijuana
than their Caucasian counter parts. This
racial discrimination in drug enforcement
has led to a United States prison population
that has over 800,000 combined black and
Hispanic prisoners. These two minorities
account for over 57% of the US prison
population while only making up around
30% of the overall population.

Racial Disparity
The war on drugs has led to mass
incarceration in the United States. The
United States has the highest incarceration

In summary, the war on drugs has caused

mass incarceration inflicting a tremendous
strain
on
the
United
States.
Disproportionate prison pollutions and
millions of drug related arrests led to an
estimated financial loss of $3.6 billion per
year for any given state. This loss is
compounded by the fact that the drug
market could bring in an estimated $46
billion per year in tax revenue per the Drug
policy alliance. In addition to the finical
burden placed on US tax payers, the war on
drugs
has
demonstrated
glaring
discrimination. African Americans and

Legalization of Marijuana

Hispanics have been incarcerated
disproportionally and are especially
susceptible to marijuana arrests compared
to Caucasians. Below is a figure of the
targetted possession arrests of African
Americans versus Caucasains since 2001.

Maine, and Washington D.C. As one would

expect, most states that have legalized
marijuana have populations that are
majority democrat, supporting more
progressive political agendas. Unfortunately,
many states are home to populations that
are much more conservative and that do not
support any form of marijuana legalization.

The Plan

If this problem is not immediately fixed taxes
fueling the failed drug war will continue to
soar without any desired improvements.
The United States will continue to
experience the highest crime statistics and
penalties for petty crimes while the black
market prospers. Violent offenders will walk
free while possession arrests fill our prisons
and racial injustice will persist.

Fixing the Problem

To solve the failed war on drugs, it is
necessary to federally legalize marijuana.
Currently, marijuana is a state issue.
Therefore, different states are in different
stages of legalizing marijuana. The solution
for states with legalized medical marijuana
will slightly differ from states that prohibit
marijuana in its entirety.
While marijuana legalization has begun to
experience a sharp rise in support, there is
still vehement opposition present in much of
the United States. So far, eight states (and
one district) have fully legalized the
possession and use of marijuana. Some of
the most notable being California, Colorado,

The disparity from one state to another

presents a problem for the effort to legalize
marijuana at the United States federal level.
Many conservative state representatives will
vote against the any bill supporting the
legalization of marijuana. In addition to a
congress with a conservative majority, the
president elect of the United States is also a
republican and will appoint supreme court
justices that will sway the Judicial branch of
government to a more conservative
majority. This means that even if a marijuana
legalization bill passed both the legislative
and executive branches of the US
government, it could still be ruled
unconstitutional by the supreme court.
To overcome this ongoing political
disadvantage that marijuana legalization
faces, a direct and decisive plan must be
executed. If successful, marijuana would be
legalized at the federal level of government,
permitting its possession and use in all 50
states. Legislation is the only way to legalize
marijuana in the United States and as such a
bill with this intent would have to be passed.
This is broken down into a four step
process listed below.

Legalization of Marijuana

1. Write a bill
2. Present bill to congress
3. Bill is then passed to United
States President
4. Bill becomes subject to
judicial review

Executing the Plan

To properly execute the drafting of such a
bill, a legal team with experience in drug
related laws would likely be the authors.
After the bill was written, it would have to be
endorsed by a current state representative.
This State representative would then
present the bill to the House of
Representatives. If a majority of State
Representatives supported the bill, it would
then be passed to the United States Senate
where it would again have to be supported
by a majority of the Senators. To achieve this
level of congressional support, conservative
members of congress would have to be
convinced to vote in favor of the progressive
legalization of marijuana. Various lobbying
factions would be responsible for persuading
these congress men. The lobbyists would
have to convince representatives that
legalizing marijuana would decrease crime
and support economic growth within each of
their respective states.
After passing the United States congress, the
marijuana legalization bill would be
presented to the president of the United
States. The president would then have to
support the bill by either signing it or not
doing anything if the bill was passed by a 2/3
super majority in the US congress. Since the
president of the Untied States is less

susceptible to lobbying efforts, a grass roots

campaign would have to be established to
sway the popular opinion of the US
population. If a majority of Americans
actively supported marijuana legalization,
the president would likely support the bill.
After the president passed the bill,
marijuana would be legal at the federal level
of the United States government. This would
almost certainly not be the end of the legal
process of legalization. After the bill was
passed, there would almost certainly be
lawsuits filed to challenge the legalization of
marijuana. Eventually these cases would be
brought before the Supreme court of the
United States. If the justices of the supreme
court agreed to hear the case, the legal team
would have to convince each justice that the
legalization of marijuana was constitutional.
If the justices vote to uphold the bill,
Marijuana would finally be legalized for all
50 states.

States such as Washington have
implemented recreational marijuana and
their results have flourished. In 2015
Washingtons violent crime rate decreased
by ten percent, its murder rate decreased by
thirteen percent. All marijuana convictions
are down by eighty-one percent and all

Legalization of Marijuana

category marijuana violations are down by
sixty-three percent. The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration reported stable
traffic fatalities since legalization.
Washington State has used the huge influx of
tax revenue on program funding educating
youth regarding drug abuse. If all states
followed Washingtons lead our country
would see the same widespread benefits.

Costs and Benefits

multimedia advertising, door to door

campaigning, and public forums. This scale
of a campaign would incur the largest cost of
any aspect of this proposal.
Finally, the bill would need lobbying to gain
support
among
United
States
representatives. Lobbyist would be
responsible for persuading members of
congress that marijuana legalization in in
their states best interest. This would mean
that the lobbyist conveys the billions in tax
revenue and the decrease in crime spending.

This plan serves to significantly increase tax

revenue, decrease government spending, as
well as decrease
crime rates. These
The first year of legalization
near future benefits
significantly
will save the United States
outweigh the costs.

Ten years of prohibition

of
marijuana
cost
Washington State 200
million dollars to enforce
marijuana
laws.
government at least twice as
Washington
earned
much as the project will
approximately
83
million
Passing
the
dollars in tax revenue in
legislation legalizing
cost
the first two full years of
marijuana involves
legalization. The first year
lobbyists, a legal
of legalization will save the United States
team, advertisement, and grass roots
government at least twice as much as the
campaigning. The total cost of the project
project will cost. Within the first-year tax
would be around one hundred million.
revenue will earn back more than the project
Donations made by business interests,
cost.
citizens supporting the bill, the ACLU,
NORML and many other pro marijuana
The future of legalizing marijuana will allow
organizations would fund the cost.
officials to focus on serious offenses, violent
offenses and harder drugs. Currently 1.5
The legal team is assembled to draft a bill.
million people are federally incarcerated
This team would likely consist of lawyers and
from marijuana arrests, 84 percent of those
advocates familiar with the current laws
arrests are for possession only according to
related to drug and marijuana use in the
the Drug Policy Alliance. After federal
United States. These individuals would be
legalization, this number will drop by at least
able to provide expertise to writing
eighty percent. Meaning, significantly less
legislation that would successfully legalize
tax money will be spent keeping petty
marijuana in all 50 states.
offenders in prison. The black market will
forcefully shrink which will decrease
In order to garner support from the US
widespread crime offense.
population, a grassroots campaign would
have to be established. This would consist of


Thank you for taking the time to consider
this proposal. If you have any questions,
please contact Mallory Waggoner at
mwaggoner@unm.edu.

Legalization of Marijuana

References
ACLU. "Marijuana Arrests by the Numbers." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Dec.
2016.

Anti-Marijuana Campaign Figure 2: http://earthlymission.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/10/marijuana_reefer_madness_211014_2.jpg

"Drug War Statistics." Drug War Statistics | Marijuana Statistics | Mexico Drug War Deaths | Drug

Marijuana Summary Figure 5: http://badboysbailbondsutah.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/11/Marijuana-Facts.png

Policy Alliance. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.
"How Marijuana Became Illegal." How Marijuana Became Illegal. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.
New Mexico Compassionate Use Act 26-2B-1 et. seq.
PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.
"Persons Arrested." FBI. FBI, 16 May 2013. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.

Reefer Madness Figure:

http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/0OiXbAiro3bWl36jq0hQAWkpsR4=/http%3A%2F%2Fa.amz.mshcdn.c
om%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F04%2Freefermadness-9.jpg
""The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937." The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.
"The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937." Additional Statement of Harry J. Anslinger. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
Dec. 2016.
When and Why Was Marijuana Outlawed?" When and Why Was Marijuana Outlawed? N.p., n.d.
Web. 28 Dec. 2016.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/facts/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war
https://storify.com/slouis2/three-branches-of-government-562eaa4e17c0f65a0db8602c
http://ekwip.me/2012-incarcerated-population-demographic

Legalization of Marijuana