The Paradigm Shift of Marijuana in the United States

1. The Paradigm Shift of Marijuana in the United States By: Brandon Flint

3. “It appears that the medicalization of deviance increases after a failure or crisis in previous systems of social control.” • NEW YORK -- Despite an increased emphasis on treatment and prevention programs in recent years, the Obama administration in its 2013 budget still requested $25.6 billion in federal spending on the drug war. Of that, $15 billion would go to law enforcement, interdiction and international efforts. • The pro-reform Drug Policy Alliance estimates that when you combine state and local spending on everything from drug-related arrests to prison, the total cost adds up to at least $51 billion per year. Over four decades, the group says, American taxpayers have dished out $1 trillion on the drug war. • What all that money has helped produce -- aside from unchanged drug addiction rates -- is the world's highest incarceration rate. According to the Sentencing Project, 2.2 million Americans are in prison or jail. • More than half of federal prisoners are incarcerated for drug crimes in 2010,according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and that number has only just dipped below 50 percent in 2011. Despite more relaxed attitudes among the public at large toward non-violent offenses like marijuana use, the number of people in federal prison for drug offenses spiked from 74,276 in 2000 to 97,472 in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. • The punishment falls disproportionately on people of color. Blacks make up 50 percent of the state and local prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes. Black kids are 10 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than white ones -- even though white kids are more likely to abuse drugs.

5. Injustice within the Criminal Justice System • Only having 5% of the world's population, the United States has 25% of the world’s prison population and half of this 25% is incarcerated for non-violent crimes, such as possession of marijuana. • Mandatory minimum-sentencing rules force courts to pass down sentences that are harsh and inflexible for minimal drug crimes and offenses. • One such victim of these harsh and unjust sentences is Barbara Scrivner, was sentenced for her sell of a few ounces of methamphetamine; she refused to testify against her husband in his prosecution, received a mandatory sentence of 30 years, in spite of her minor role in her husband’s drug circle.

6. PresidentialHumanity? • President Obama recognized a need to reform the criminal justice system and in his final years in office, he is working on laws that would grant clemency to “hundreds, perhaps thousands,” of citizens incarcerated for non-violent drug crimes. The number of individuals Obama would like to pardon is a larger number than any pardon given since 1970’s when President Ford extended amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers in the 1970s. • In 2010, Obama was able to have the Fair Sentencing Act passed to decrease the sentencing difference between crack and powder cocaine. This is a step Obama's meant to correct a broad set of inequities in the criminal-justice system. • Working with the Office of the Pardon Attorney, the process of sifting, deciding and forwarding positive clemency petitions through to the President is being looked into as well in an attempt to have a better chance of being granted clemency.

7. Lawrence Keeps Marijuana Possession in Civil Court • If convicted in Lyon County of possession of any amount of marijuana for personal use, it is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500. For a second conviction the penalty increases to 10 - 42 months in jail and a fine of up to $100,000. • In Lawrence Kansas, first time offenders are tried in municipal court instead of state court. The intent was to protect students from losing financial aid for College. Fines are higher, so you pay cash instead.

11. “As a particular kind of deviance becomes a middle-class “problem” the probability of medicalization increases.” • Marijuana is the most common illicit drug used in the United States. After a period of decline in the last decade, its use has been increasing among young people since 2007, corresponding to a diminishing perception of the drug’s risks that may be associated with increased public debate over the drug’s legal status. Although the federal government considers marijuana a Schedule I substance (having no medicinal uses and high risk for abuse), two states have legalized marijuana for adult recreational use, and 20 states have passed laws allowing its use as a treatment for certain medical conditions.

12. Rising Potency • The amount of THC in marijuana samples confiscated by police has been increasing steadily over the past few decades. In 2012, THC concentrations in marijuana averaged close to 15 percent, compared to around 4 percent in the 1980s. For a new user, this may mean exposure to higher concentrations of THC, with a greater chance of an adverse or unpredictable reaction. Increases in potency may account for the rise in emergency department visits involving marijuana use. For frequent users, it may mean a greater risk for addiction if they are exposing themselves to high doses on a regular basis. However, the full range of consequences associated with marijuana's higher potency is not well understood. For example, experienced users may adjust their intake in accordance with the potency or they may be exposing their brains to higher levels overall, or both.

13. Long-term marijuana users trying to quit report withdrawal symptoms including irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety, and drug craving, all of which can make it difficult to abstain. Behavioral interventions, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and motivational incentives (i.e., providing vouchers for goods or services to patients who remain abstinent) have proven to be effective in treating marijuana addiction. Although no medications are currently available, recent discoveries about the workings of the endocannabinoid system offer promise for the development of medications to ease withdrawal, block the intoxicating effects of marijuana, and prevent relapse.

14. A nationwide survey made public found that 7.3% of Americans 12 or older regularly used marijuana in 2012, up from 7% in 2011. Marijuana use has increased steadily over the past five years. In 2007, the survey found that 5.8% of Americans 12 or older used marijuana. • Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department would not challenge states that have legalized use of small amounts of marijuana or medical marijuana if the states have strict measures to keep the drugs away from minors and have taken steps to regulate the drugs. • "Among the 22 million Americans who need treatment for substance use disorders, only about 2 million — one in 10 — receive it at a specialty facility," Kerlikowske said. "Yet, we know treatment works, and that is why we are working so aggressively to expand access to treatment." • Kerlikowske called the Affordable Care Act's requirement that insurance companies cover drug treatment "the most significant piece of drug-policy reform in generations" that will open addiction treatment to millions of Americans. • "Treatment should not be a privilege limited to those who can afford it, but a service available to all those who need it," he said.”

15. “Medicalization increases directly with its economic profitability.” • "I think everyone, including industry insiders, are surprised at the demand and the way the retail market has kicked off in Denver," said Ron Throgmartin, CEO of Diego Pellicer Worldwide, a company that provides work space and retail space for the marijuana industry. • "Take the numbers that Colorado is doing, I'm guessing they are going to do around $600 million. • For now, the industry still has its challenges -- like finding a bank. The banks have until now been forbidden by law to do business with pot growers and sellers. • "With the momentum that it's gaining right now," he said, the feds are watching. "Why not allow a product like this be taxed, just like any other product, like alcohol?“

17. After Washington and Colorado, the pot business is, if not mainstream, at least ready to push toward it. Advocates hope to legalize personal use in another 14 states by 2017, mostly among the 16 states besides Washington and Colorado where medical pot is legal (it's also legal in Washington, D.C.). Industry estimates say today's $1.5 billion legal market could quadruple by 2018. • What's striking is how conventional many of the business people's backgrounds — and their plans — increasingly are. Instead of backing marijuana dispensaries, investors such as Privateer and San Francisco-based ArcView Group are rushing to find consulting firms, software companies and insurance agencies to serve the new market. Even Privateer's strategy of merging small companies to form a big one is familiar: In traditional buyout shops, it's called a "roll-up.“ • Wiggins was impressed enough to agree to invest in MJ this year. Its software illustrates that pot markets will behave like other markets — they'll get more capital-intensive, more concentrated and more professional, assuming legalization spreads, he said. • The marijuana business is packed with people who aren't much on conventional opinion, and pot smokers are used to legal risk, Rosen said.

18. Proposed Process of Medicalization • Definition of behavior as deviant • Prospecting: medical discovery • Claims making : medical and non-medical interests • Legitimacy: securing medical turf • Institutionalization of a medical deviance designation

20. Pros • How much money is made from this single illegal substance? In fairness, nobody knows for sure. "Illegal" means hard data are difficult to come by. We do know, however, that according to recent figures, U.S. consumers number anywhere from 25 million to 60 million (depending on how likely survey respondents are to tell the whole truth), and at an average cost of $5 per cigarette (and factoring in one per day for each user), total spending on marijuana may add up to $45 billion to $110 billion a year. • What about possible tax revenue? From Canada we’ve learned that the production cost of (government-sponsored) marijuana is roughly 33¢ a gram. Currently, U.S. marijuana consumers pay at least $10 per gram retail for illegal marijuana. If the cost of retailing and distribution is the same as for legal tobacco cigarettes, about 10¢ a gram, then selling the (legal) product at exactly the same price as on the street today ($10 per gram) could raise $40 billion to $100 billion in new revenue. Not chump change. Government would simply be transferring revenue from organized crime to the public purse. • It is a proven technology. We did it in 1933 when Prohibition ended. It took 50 years for the U.S. to bring in Prohibition and 11 to get rid of it. Certainly, no lawmakers who voted for Prohibition guessed it would fail on such a large scale—just as anti-marijuana laws have. The existence of the California referendum shows support is growing to decriminalize marijuana. Even if the referendum fails this year, it serves as a signal that the U.S. is looking toward a future that doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

21. Cons • Gee, how about collecting taxes from legalized marijuana as a way of helping to deal with the deficit? Sounds great. Doesn’t work. Now our friends in California, who have a history of approving propositions costing billions of dollars with no offsetting revenue, have decided they can pay for their folly by getting tax from marijuana. Californians are great people, but I’m not sure we should use their business models as a way to fix the deficit problem in the U.S. • There are about 170 million users of alcohol in the U.S. and 16 million users of marijuana. This 10-to-1 ratio exists because alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. If we legalize marijuana, everyone agrees (even anti-prohibitionists) that we will have far more users. Ooooh, just think of all that revenue. Except we already have a working model for a legal intoxicant we collect taxes for. Let’s see how well that works: • Studies show that the U.S. collects about $8 billion yearly in taxes from alcohol. The problem is, the total cost to the U.S. in 2008 due to alcohol-related problems was $185 billion, and the government pays about 38% of that cost (approximately $72 billion), all due to consequences of alcohol consumption, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism. For every dollar the government collects in alcohol taxes, it expends about $9 (for such things as Medicare and Medicaid treatment for alcohol-related health troubles, long-term rehabilitation treatment, unemployment costs, and welfare). Does that seem like a model to emulate? • The legalization of alcohol is grandfathered in, and it is unlikely that major changes will be made. The last thing we should do is replicate this irrational business model. True, even though studies show both drugs are similar, many believe alcohol is worse. But even if we see only half the damages with marijuana, we cannot ignore the math: $4.50 for every $1 we collect is not a good business model. • If we need revenue that badly, why not legalize gambling and prostitution in California? My guess is those would raise more revenue than marijuana. How about a really radical idea—don’t legalize marijuana, prostitution, or gambling, and try spending less!

22. Conclusion • The medicalization and/or decriminalization of marijuana use is in a complex state of change in the United states. It’s use in some cases is accepted as medicine to treat disease, and in others, it’s use is treated as a sickness from which the user needs cured. Social, medical, and economical factors will continue to influence the way our society reacts to its use. If decriminalization leads to an increase in medicalization how will it be medicalized. How much will be considered too much, what doses and frequency of use will be used in treatment regimes, will it be regulated in a similar fashion as alcohol, or will merely possessing it warrant jail time and rehabilitation?

23. References • Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. • "DrugFacts: Marijuana." National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. • "Legal Pot Dispensaries, High on Profits." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. • Leinw, Donna, and Leger. "More Americans Are Using Marijuana." USA Today. Gannett, 05 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. • Mullaney, Tim. "As Marijuana Goes Legit, Investors Rush in." USA Today. Gannett, 08 Apr. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. • News, Liz Goodwin Yahoo. "Obama Plans Clemency for Hundreds of Drug Offenders." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 21 Apr. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. • PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. • Sledge, Matt. "The Drug War And Mass Incarceration By The Numbers." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Apr. 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. • United States. Douglas County. District Attorney's Office. Http://www.douglas-county.com/depts/da/docs/pdf/criminaldiversion_adult.pdf. By Charles E. Branson. N.p., 29 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. <http://www.douglas-county.com/depts/da/docs/pdf/criminaldiversion_adult.pdf>.