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Wisconsin should legalize recreational use of marijuana - or at the very least lessen the penalties for minor cannabis possession.
Don't let my dreadlocks fool you. My conclusion was not an easy one, but everything in life should not automatically lend itself to a criminal justice solution.
Just because I favor the recreational use of marijuana doesn't mean that I believe it's good for you. It's not, but neither is smoking, drinking or overeating and a number of the other ills that society doesn't have a problem with until someone is hurt.
I don't smoke weed, but some of my friends do.
I have tried marijuana, and, yes, I did inhale. My first experience with weed occurred in middle school.
I was in the bathroom during recess, and two big eighth-graders walked in. I was in the stall, and they didn't see me. Next thing I knew, they were lighting up. When I walked out of the stall, they stopped me and gave me a choice. Either I could smoke with them so we all would get in trouble, or I could risk getting beat up. I smoked.
There is a problem when a young teenager can get his hands on a joint. But according to a 2009 Milwaukee Public Schools Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 52% of high school students have tried marijuana at least once. There will always be people who bend the rules, but the legal smoking age should be 21.
If marijuana is legalized in the state, it could be monitored for quality to make sure it doesn't have dangerous additives, and sales could be monitored and taxed - revenue that could fund underfunded drug and alcohol courts and treatment facilities. Treatment facilities work, but there are not enough open slots for all who could benefit.
Some of the lawmakers and public officials who I talked to about legalizing marijuana supported decriminalizing the drug, but few wanted to go to the point of making it legal for recreational use.
Today's marijuana is not the same drug of the flower-power era. It's more potent, and there are different strains that can be more dangerous, said John Chisholm, Milwaukee County district attorney.
But Chisholm didn't think legalization would lead to more widespread use.
Large drug cartels and corner dealers have most of the control in the marijua na trade. Legalization could swing some of that control to the states.
This nation spent billions on the War on Drugs, to take down cartels and kingpins. The war was a dismal failure. The nation's prisons are not packed with killers; they are filled with people who suffer from mental illness and drug and alcohol addictions. In Wisconsin, drug offenders accounted for more than 20% of the growth in the prison population from 1996 to 2006, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
There are some blocks in Milwaukee where people live in fear because drug dealers run those blocks and violence erupts when other dealers try to move in on their turf.
No one is immune to the impact of marijuana use, but the poor tend to be caught in the cross hairs because they have the most contact with law enforcement officials.
Those with marijuana convictions can lose financial aid for school, have their driver's license suspended and have their conviction placed on an online criminal document for potential employers to see.
David Liners, executive director of WISDOM, which just released a state report on incarceration, said drug convictions have had the largest impact on African-Americans, who make up 50% of the state prison population but only 6% of the state's population.
Many of these people are low-risk, nonviolent people who should not be incarcerated in the first place. Liners did not have a number of how many were incarcerated specifically for marijuana use or distribution, but he did say a larger investment on the front end in treatment would make more sense than incarcerating people on the back end.
Liners admitted that he was lucky. He said when he was a freshman at Marquette University, marijuana use was prevalent in his dorm room and the cops were not busting into dorms arresting students.
That is not the case for many black and brown youths who get busted with recreational amounts of weed on a daily basis.
If Wisconsin moved to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the state would join Colorado and Washington as the only ones to do so. Eighteen states have legalized medical marijuana for people with cancer or who have chronic headaches.
A lot of people smoke weed. When I was in line to pay for gas at a service station on N. 35th Street last week, four young men ahead of me were all purchasing Swisher Sweets blunt wraps. The cigars are popular among pot smokers, who use them to roll blunts. When I asked the cashier how many Swisher Sweets he sells in a week, he said hundreds.
"It's big business," he said.
If legalized and properly regulated, it could be big business for the state.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: jsonline.com
Author: James Casey
Contact: Contact Us - JSOnline
Website: James E. Causey - State should legalize recreational marijuana
Don't let my dreadlocks fool you. My conclusion was not an easy one, but everything in life should not automatically lend itself to a criminal justice solution.
Just because I favor the recreational use of marijuana doesn't mean that I believe it's good for you. It's not, but neither is smoking, drinking or overeating and a number of the other ills that society doesn't have a problem with until someone is hurt.
I don't smoke weed, but some of my friends do.
I have tried marijuana, and, yes, I did inhale. My first experience with weed occurred in middle school.
I was in the bathroom during recess, and two big eighth-graders walked in. I was in the stall, and they didn't see me. Next thing I knew, they were lighting up. When I walked out of the stall, they stopped me and gave me a choice. Either I could smoke with them so we all would get in trouble, or I could risk getting beat up. I smoked.
There is a problem when a young teenager can get his hands on a joint. But according to a 2009 Milwaukee Public Schools Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 52% of high school students have tried marijuana at least once. There will always be people who bend the rules, but the legal smoking age should be 21.
If marijuana is legalized in the state, it could be monitored for quality to make sure it doesn't have dangerous additives, and sales could be monitored and taxed - revenue that could fund underfunded drug and alcohol courts and treatment facilities. Treatment facilities work, but there are not enough open slots for all who could benefit.
Some of the lawmakers and public officials who I talked to about legalizing marijuana supported decriminalizing the drug, but few wanted to go to the point of making it legal for recreational use.
Today's marijuana is not the same drug of the flower-power era. It's more potent, and there are different strains that can be more dangerous, said John Chisholm, Milwaukee County district attorney.
But Chisholm didn't think legalization would lead to more widespread use.
Large drug cartels and corner dealers have most of the control in the marijua na trade. Legalization could swing some of that control to the states.
This nation spent billions on the War on Drugs, to take down cartels and kingpins. The war was a dismal failure. The nation's prisons are not packed with killers; they are filled with people who suffer from mental illness and drug and alcohol addictions. In Wisconsin, drug offenders accounted for more than 20% of the growth in the prison population from 1996 to 2006, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
There are some blocks in Milwaukee where people live in fear because drug dealers run those blocks and violence erupts when other dealers try to move in on their turf.
No one is immune to the impact of marijuana use, but the poor tend to be caught in the cross hairs because they have the most contact with law enforcement officials.
Those with marijuana convictions can lose financial aid for school, have their driver's license suspended and have their conviction placed on an online criminal document for potential employers to see.
David Liners, executive director of WISDOM, which just released a state report on incarceration, said drug convictions have had the largest impact on African-Americans, who make up 50% of the state prison population but only 6% of the state's population.
Many of these people are low-risk, nonviolent people who should not be incarcerated in the first place. Liners did not have a number of how many were incarcerated specifically for marijuana use or distribution, but he did say a larger investment on the front end in treatment would make more sense than incarcerating people on the back end.
Liners admitted that he was lucky. He said when he was a freshman at Marquette University, marijuana use was prevalent in his dorm room and the cops were not busting into dorms arresting students.
That is not the case for many black and brown youths who get busted with recreational amounts of weed on a daily basis.
If Wisconsin moved to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the state would join Colorado and Washington as the only ones to do so. Eighteen states have legalized medical marijuana for people with cancer or who have chronic headaches.
A lot of people smoke weed. When I was in line to pay for gas at a service station on N. 35th Street last week, four young men ahead of me were all purchasing Swisher Sweets blunt wraps. The cigars are popular among pot smokers, who use them to roll blunts. When I asked the cashier how many Swisher Sweets he sells in a week, he said hundreds.
"It's big business," he said.
If legalized and properly regulated, it could be big business for the state.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: jsonline.com
Author: James Casey
Contact: Contact Us - JSOnline
Website: James E. Causey - State should legalize recreational marijuana
