Decriminalization of marijuana

Although the US federal government has not decriminalized marijuana, the legalization of marijuana for personal use has gained popularity at the state level. By April 2024, thirty-eight states, Washington, DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands had legalized medical marijuana use; seven states had decriminalized small amounts of marijuana; and twenty-four states, two territories, and Washington, DC, had legalized small amounts of marijuana for recreational use for adults. Because some state governments have reduced the penalty for cannabis possession from a criminal offense, involving possible incarceration and a criminal record, to a misdemeanor, law enforcement officials have redirected their resources to fighting more serious crimes.

The legal status of marijuana has long been controversial in the United States. In 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse published its review of cannabis. It claimed that marijuana use did not cause physical or psychological problems, that the drug was instead opposed as "a symbol of the rejection of cherished values." The group warned against prohibition and recommended that personal use of marijuana be decriminalized. While President Richard M. Nixon rejected the commission’s conclusions, by the early 2000s, the statements were embraced by many in the general populace.

Some of the loudest proponents of decriminalization have argued their side on the basis of economics. In 2001, the New Mexico Drug Policy Advisory Group suggested decriminalization as a way to better allocate money for police officers to target more serious crimes. The police department of Oakland, California, moved beyond decriminalizing personal use by classifying marijuana possession and distribution as low priorities in 2004. Then, in 2005, hundreds of economists petitioned President George W. Bush to legalize marijuana. While moral issues continued to be part of the marijuana discourse, it became clear that the drug was also a symbol for broader concerns in the United States.

Decriminalization by State

Decriminalization of marijuana at the state level began in the 1970s. Activism grew following the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which replaced laws dating back to the 1930s in officially banning cannabis use, even for medical purposes, at the federal level. Oregon took the first measures to decriminalize in 1973, instituting a fine as the only punishment for possession of up to one ounce of the drug. The states of Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, and Ohio also introduced their own versions of decriminalization in 1975. They were followed by Minnesota in 1976; Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina in 1977; and Nebraska in 1978. However, a backlash against marijuana paraphernalia seemingly marketed toward youth, growing fears over the use of harder drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and the general conservative shift of the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan meant it would be decades before further decriminalization occured. Alaska even recriminalized marijuana in 1990.

The next wave of change came in the early 2000s, when several major cities decriminalized marijuana in rapid succession. Action at the state level followed, beginning with Massachusetts in 2008. Connecticut was next to decriminalize, in 2011, while Rhode Island followed in 2012. Levels of decriminalization varied with regard to the amount of marijuana in possession and whether the drug was for personal use, cultivation, or distribution. Others went beyond decriminalization and legalized marijuana, even for non-medical purposes, starting with Washington state and Colorado in 2012.

With public opinion on marijuana rapidly shifting, more states began to pass decriminalization legislation. Vermont did so in 2013, followed by Maryland and Missouri in 2014, Delaware in 2015, Illinois in 2016, and New Hampshire in 2017. Between 2014 and 2016, eight state legislatures moved to expunge, annul, or seal certain types of existing marijuana convictions, while similar measures failed in six states. The states of Oregon and Alaska, as well as the District of Columbia, passed measures to legalize the use of marijuana in 2014. In 2016 they were joined by Nevada, California, Massachusetts, and Maine. In 2018, Michigan approved legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana and Vermont legalized adult use of the substance. Other states have legalized cannabis use and several have urged Congress to reschedule or give states authority to set policies on the drug.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), by early 2024, thirty-one states and Washington, DC, had either decriminalized or legalized marijuana. This included eight states (and Washington, DC) allowing legal recreational use. Meanwhile, thirty-eight states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and Guam allowed the use of medical marijuana. Following the 2020 general election, the Marijuana Policy Project reported that a total of thirty-one states and the District of Columbia had decriminalized or legalized recreational marijuana, with the states of New Jersey, Montana, South Dakota, and Arizona approving legalization measures. In the 2022 general election, Maryland and Missouri voted to legalize recreational cannabis for those twenty-one years and older, while North Dakota, South Dakota, and Arkansas voted against legalization. By 2022, thirty-seven states, Washington, DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands had legalized medical marijuana use; twenty-seven states and Washington, DC, had decriminalized small amounts of marijuana; and twenty-one states, two territories, and Washington, DC, had legalized small amounts of marijuana for recreational use for adults.

Various groups have supported decriminalization and pushed for state reform. These groups included National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (commonly known as NORML), Americans for Safe Access, and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Advocates of the legalization of marijuana have argued from the standpoint of freedom of choice, with supporters clamoring against unnecessary government interference. Promoting the therapeutic aspects of cannabis, some groups present marijuana access as a human-rights issue and propose that the drug be available for medical purposes. As more states decriminalized marijuana, and as proponents of decriminalization argued widely against prohibition, the argument for protecting "cherished values" began to weaken. The tide of public opinion turned as well, with 57 percent of American adults expressing support of legalization in a fall 2016 Pew Research Center survey, up from 32 percent in 2006. That number had further increased to 61 percent by January 2018, 67 percent by November 2019, and 88 percent in November 2022.

However, the growing decriminalization and even legalization of marijuana at the state level continued to conflict with federal policy. The administration of President Barack Obama sought to bypass the legal confusion by ordering federal officials and law enforcement to take a generally lenient stance. The so-called Cole Memorandum of 2013 instructed for the enforcement of federal marijuana law only in certain situations such as cross-border drug trafficking and distribution to minors. However, these orders were rescinded in January 2018 by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the more conservative administration of President Donald Trump.

In October 2022, President Joe Biden announced that he was pardoning all of those who had been federally convicted of simple marijuana possession. In the same announcement, President Biden called for the attorney general to begin a review of marijuana's classification as a Schedule I substance on the Controlled Substances Act. In April 2024, the US Drug Enforcement Administration began moving to reclassify the substance.

Health and Morality

Initially thought to have adverse health effects, marijuana gained prominence as a natural therapy. It has been shown to revive the appetites of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to provide relief for those with AIDS or other serious health problems. Representing a state that was an early supporter of medical marijuana, legislators in California passed the Compassionate Use Act (Proposition 215) in 1996, allowing doctors to legally recommend or refer (not "prescribe") marijuana to their patients. Promoting medical marijuana access as a means of compassion directly contrasted views of marijuana use as immoral.

Following California’s lead, Alaska, Maine, and Oregon legalized medical marijuana in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, medical marijuana also became legal in several other states. With legalization came questions of regulation. The cases United States of America v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative and Jeffrey Jones (2001) and Gonzales v. Raich (2005) assessed the role of the federal government in regulating medical-marijuana distribution. As the federal government became more involved with the economic aspects of medical marijuana, the need for a unified national policy on the drug grew more urgent. The 2013 Cole Memorandum effectively approved of medical marijuana use in states where it was legal while keeping the federal ban technically intact, marking a significant shift in policy regarding the drug. The Trump administration's rescinding of that memo, however, indicated a regression to former policies.

Despite growing support for medical marijuana in particular, health concerns regarding its use remain. Marijuana does affect the nervous system in the short term and, if smoked, can damage the respiratory system in the long term. Marijuana consumption among adolescents may impair their brain development.

Driving or operating heavy equipment while high on marijuana is dangerous, much as it is while intoxicated from alcohol. States have had difficulty assessing the number of accidents directly caused by marijuana intoxication, however, because the psychoactive component in the drug can linger in the body for days after the high has worn off.

Impact

The trend of decriminalizing marijuana seems likely to continue. While the United States continues in many ways to fight the War on Drugs (despite phasing out that term), states have waged their own battles. By decriminalizing marijuana, states have been able to focus on hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, freeing space in crowded prisons for offenders of serious crimes. Some fear that decriminalization communicates an acceptance of drug use and illegal behavior, while others cite the health benefits of marijuana. Proponents of the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana have also cited apparent declines in teen arrests and high school dropout rates in decriminalized states such as California.

States have recognized some economic benefits of legalizing marijuana. For example, in 2021, Colorado collected $423 million in tax revenue since legalizing the substance. Should the federal government legalize marijuana, sales could generate billions in federal tax revenue.

Bibliography

Avery, Dan. "Where Is Weed Legal? Cannabis Laws in Every State." CNET, 31 May 2023, www.cnet.com/news/politics/marijuana-laws-by-state-is-weed-legal-where-you-live/. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Bennett, William J., and Robert A. White. Going to Pot: Why the Rush to Legalize Marijuana Is Harming America. New York: Center Street, 2015. Print.

Campbell, Greg. Pot, Inc.: Inside Medical Marijuana, America’s Most Outlaw Industry. New York: Sterling, 2012. Print.

"Cannabis Overview." National Conference of State Legislatures, 9 Apr. 2024, www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/marijuana-overview.aspx. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Caulkins, Jonathan P., et al. Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

"Decriminalization." Marijuana Policy Project, 2022, www.mpp.org/issues/decriminalization/. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Dickinson, Tim. "The War on Drugs Is Burning Out." Rolling Stone, 15 Jan. 2015: 33–37. Print.

Dufton, Emily. "US States Tried Decriminalizing Pot Before. Here's Why It Didn't Work." Time, 7 Dec. 2017, time.com/5054194/legal-pot-experiment-history/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2018.

Geiger, Abigail. "Support for Marijuana Legalization Continues to Rise." FactTank, Pew Research Center, 12 Oct. 2016, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/12/support-for-marijuana-legalization-continues-to-rise. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.

Grinspoon, Peter. "Medical Marijuana." Harvard Health Blog, Harvard U, 10 Apr. 2020, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/medical-marijuana-2018011513085. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Krishna, Mrinalini. "The Economic Benefits of Legalizing Marijuana." Investopedia, 15 Dec. 2023, www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/110916/economic-benefits-legalizing-weed.asp. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Lee, Martin A. Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana—Medical, Recreational, and Scientific. New York: Scribner, 2012. Print.

Linden, David J. The Compass of Pleasure. New York: Viking, 2011. Print.

Liptak, Kevin. "Biden Pardons All Federal Offenses of Simple Marijuana Possession in First Major Steps Towards Decriminalization." CNN, 6 Oct. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/politics/marijuana-decriminalization-white-house-joe-biden/index.html. Accessed 9 Nov. 2022.

Lopez, German. "15 States Have Decriminalized--but Not Legalized--Marijuana." Vox, 10 July 2019, www.vox.com/cards/marijuana-legalization/what-is-marijuana-decriminalization. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Regan, Trish. Joint Ventures: Inside America’s Almost Legal Marijuana Industry. Hoboken: Wiley, 2011. Print.

Schipani, Vanessa. "Unpacking Pot’s Impact in Colorado." FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 19 Aug. 2016, www.factcheck.org/2016/08/unpacking-pots-impact-in-colorado. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.

Smith, Mark Haskell. Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup. New York: Random, 2012. Print.

"State Medical Marijuana Laws." National Conference of State Legislatures, 22 June 2023, www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx. Accessed 22 May 2024.

The Union: The Business behind Getting High. Dir. Brett Harvey. Phase 4 Films, 2009. DVD.

Van Green, Ted. "Americans Overwhelmingly Say Marijuana Should Be Legal for Medical or Recreational Use." Pew Research Center, 22 Nov. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/22/americans-overwhelmingly-say-marijuana-should-be-legal-for-medical-or-recreational-use/. Accessed 22 May 2024.