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No. No more than they could stop the end of slavery, no more than you could stop women getting the vote, no more than you can stop the end of Jim Crow segregation," said Harry Levine, a university professor with decades of research into the war on drugs and specifically the enforcement of marijuana prohibition.
"This is a thing that runs counter to the fundamental functioning of a modern society. It's immensely wasteful, it's punitive, it's excessive and it doesn't make any sense," added Levine, a sociologist at City University of New York.
While we were waiting for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to announce what the federal stance toward legal marijuana in Washington and Colorado will be, we've been checking in with various experts in marijuana and the enforcement of laws against pot.
Levine's research has focused for decades on the drug war, internationally and in the U.S., and currently focuses on the "epidemic of marijuana possession arrests in New York City and throughout the U.S."
Just before the 2012 election in which Washington and Colorado voters approved legalization measures, Levine and his group released data showing the increase of marijuana arrests in Washington since the 1980s that have amounted to more than 240,000 arrests between 1986 and 2010. His research also shows that white Americans use marijuana at higher rates than people of color, but marijuana arrests fall heavily on minorities.
Decriminalizing marijuana possession, he said, has made a dramatic change — but not for everyone.
"So we now have upper-middle class white people justice for everybody. And the upper middle class white people have not suffered from this and the communities have not suffered from this and nothing bad is going to happen," he said.
"We know what happens when you stop arresting people for marijuana — nothing happens! We've been running that experiment for 30 years now."
Levine draws an interesting parallel with alcohol prohibition: Beer is to alcohol prohibition what marijuana is to the war on drugs. When prohibition hit in the 1920s, most people assumed it would affect mostly hard liquor, but the level of alcohol prohibited in the law ended up making some vinegars illegal ... let alone beer and wine, he explains.
"It was absolutely the case that the people in the 1920s and 1930s believed that they could not get beer legalized until the whole shebang was legalized, because the whole system ran on beer more than anybody understood. And, more than anybody understands around the drug war it runs on marijuana," Levine said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: seattlepi.com
Author: Jake Ellison
Contact: Contact the staff of seattlepi.com - seattlepi.com
Website: Can the feds hold back the tide of legal marijuana, even if they want? | The Pot Blog - seattlepi.com
"This is a thing that runs counter to the fundamental functioning of a modern society. It's immensely wasteful, it's punitive, it's excessive and it doesn't make any sense," added Levine, a sociologist at City University of New York.
While we were waiting for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to announce what the federal stance toward legal marijuana in Washington and Colorado will be, we've been checking in with various experts in marijuana and the enforcement of laws against pot.
Levine's research has focused for decades on the drug war, internationally and in the U.S., and currently focuses on the "epidemic of marijuana possession arrests in New York City and throughout the U.S."
Just before the 2012 election in which Washington and Colorado voters approved legalization measures, Levine and his group released data showing the increase of marijuana arrests in Washington since the 1980s that have amounted to more than 240,000 arrests between 1986 and 2010. His research also shows that white Americans use marijuana at higher rates than people of color, but marijuana arrests fall heavily on minorities.
Decriminalizing marijuana possession, he said, has made a dramatic change — but not for everyone.
"So we now have upper-middle class white people justice for everybody. And the upper middle class white people have not suffered from this and the communities have not suffered from this and nothing bad is going to happen," he said.
"We know what happens when you stop arresting people for marijuana — nothing happens! We've been running that experiment for 30 years now."
Levine draws an interesting parallel with alcohol prohibition: Beer is to alcohol prohibition what marijuana is to the war on drugs. When prohibition hit in the 1920s, most people assumed it would affect mostly hard liquor, but the level of alcohol prohibited in the law ended up making some vinegars illegal ... let alone beer and wine, he explains.
"It was absolutely the case that the people in the 1920s and 1930s believed that they could not get beer legalized until the whole shebang was legalized, because the whole system ran on beer more than anybody understood. And, more than anybody understands around the drug war it runs on marijuana," Levine said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: seattlepi.com
Author: Jake Ellison
Contact: Contact the staff of seattlepi.com - seattlepi.com
Website: Can the feds hold back the tide of legal marijuana, even if they want? | The Pot Blog - seattlepi.com
