The ACLU has opposed marijuana prohibition since 1968. Since then, some things have changed, but too much has remained the same. In the past 30 years, 10 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses in the U.S., the vast majority of them for possession and use. Indeed, in 1996, the most recent year for which figures are available, there were 641,600 marijuana arrests in this country, 85% of them for possession -- more than in any previous year!
Why should you care about this issue? First and foremost, because it is wrong in principle for the government to criminalize such personal behavior. A government that cannot make it a crime for an individual to drink a martini should for the same reasons not be permitted to make it a crime to smoke marijauna. John Stuart Mill said it perfectly back in 1857 in his famous essay, On Liberty: "Over himself," he wrote, "over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." And Americans certainly behave as if they believe that: marijuana is the third most popular drug in America after alcohol and nicotine (approximately 18 million adults used it in 1997, and ten million are regular smokers).
The criminal prohibition of marijuana thus represents an extraordinary degree of government intrusion into the private, personal lives of those adults who choose to use it. Moreover, marijuana users are not the only victims of such a policy because a government that crosses easily over into this zone of personal behavior will cross over into others. The right to personal automony -- what Mill called individual sovereignty -- in matters of religion, political opinion, sexuality, reproductive decisions, and other private, consensual activities is at risk so long as the state thinks it can legitimately punish people for choosing a marijuana joint over a martini.
Second, marijuana prohibition is the cause of a host of other very serious civil liberties violations, including the drug testing of millions of innocent employees, and the civil forfeiture of people's homes, cars and other assets on the grounds they were "used in the commission of " a marijuana offense.
Ever since 1937, when it adopted the "Marihuana Tax Act," the government has justified the criminalization of marijuana use on the grounds that it is a dangerous drug. But this claim looks more and more ludicrous with each passing year. Every independent commission appointed to look into this claim has found that marijuana is relatively benign. For example, President Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded in 1972 that, "There is little proven danger of physical or psychological harm from the experimental or intermittent use of natural preparations of cannibis," and recommended that marijuana for personal use be decriminalized. Ten years later, the National Academy of Sciences issued its finding that, "Over the past forty years, marijuana has been accused of causing an array of anti-social effects including ... provoking crime and violence ... leading to heroin addiction ... and destroying the American work ethic in young people. [These] beliefs... have not been substantiated by scientific evidence."
Now here we are in 1998 and the government, along with anti-marijuana organizations like the Partnership for a Drug Free America, still persist in distorting the evidence, claiming, for example, that marijuana "kills brain cells" and that it is a "gateway" to hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. These fear tactics are a linchpin in the government's effort to maintain prohibition and the civil liberties violations that flow from it.
By becoming a member of the ACLU, you can support our work in favor of rational and humane drug policies.
Other ACLU resources on Drug Policy:
- ACLU Briefing Paper #19: Against Drug Prohibition
- Ira Glasser on Marijuana Myths and Facts
- News Releases:
- April 11, 1997 -- California Doctors and Patients Challenge Federal Threats on Medical Marijuana Discussions
- January 14, 1997 -- Doctors, Patients File Class Action Suit To Block Federal Punishment for Medical Marijuana
- December 31, 1996 -- ACLU Says Clinton Lags Way Behind Public on Medical Marijuana
New Books on Marijuana and its Effects: (information on ordering)
Marijuana Myths, Marijuna Facts
by Lynn Zimmer, PhD and John Morgan, M.D.
© 1997, The Lindesmith Center
"This is the most accurate book on the effects of marijuana that has appeared to date, an invaluable resource for anyone interested in this popular drug and the question of how society should regulate it."
- Andrew Weil, MD, author of Spontaneous Healing.Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine
by Lester Grinspoon, M.D. and James B. Bakalar
© 1997, Yale University Press
"A valuable compendium of marijuana's beneficial properties."
- Journal of the American Medical Association.
To find out more about marijuana reform, visit these websites:
- National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(NORML) -- www.norml.org - Marijuana Policy Project -- www.mpp.org
- Drug Reform Coordination Network -- www.drcnet.org
- Families Against Mandatory Minimums -- www.famm.org
- The Drug Policy Foundation -- www.dpf.org
- The Lindesmith Center -- www.lindesmith.org
Our ad as it appeared in the print edition of the New York Times is reproduced below. You can also read our previous ads from February on the subject of telephone privacy, March on sexual privacy, April on official prayer in schools, and our reader reactions.
THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED TUESDAY, MAY 12, 1998
Copyright 1998, The American Civil Liberties Union
Updated 98/05/24
by webmaster@vote-al.org
----- Built, hosted, and maintained by kryo.com