[Bonus] Part 11: It keeps 45,000 pot “offenders” imprisoned
Highly-compensated Cannabis Commerce corporate psychologists convinced me readers can’t resist an article titled with the hypnotic words, “Ten Reasons Why … ”
So I strove to keep the myriad ways MMJ mangles the cannabis economy down to ten parts.
And I succeeded. For a while.
However, the deeper I look, the more the collateral damage jumps out at me. One particular aftereffect of the public’s infatuation with MMJ became too toxic to suppress.
That the current obsession with MMJ keeps 45,000 marijuana “offenders” imprisoned occurred to me after Thomas Chong commented on the main article. The outlaw comic said that I came down way too hard on medical marijuana, adding that in his opinion we should be grateful that we have it.
This would be the same Thomas Chong, of Cheech and Chong fame, unquestionably the most conspicuous marijuana convict of our times. Chong served nine months in California’s Taft Correctional Institute for mailing a shipment of autographed bongs to the wrong state. His stance seemed a little … well … funny. But I let it go. I wasn’t motivated enough yet to post bonus reason eleven.
Last night, everything changed. I’ve been staying at a nonsmoker friend’s house in Boulder, where Eric Schlosser’s Reefer Madness unexpectedly stood out on a bookshelf. I eagerly plucked it from the shelf and began reading the introduction. Schlosser’s book was published in 2003, when the number of marijuana prisoners was still in the 20,000s — half the number the nation’s prisons house in 2011, according to DEA statistics, eight years later.
It wasn’t long before I realized Schlosser’s book was just too good. It was just too good in the same sense Robert Hughes The Fatal Shore was just too good about what it was like in 1850 to be starving in London, steal an orange off a fruit stand, then find yourself literally bound on a convict ship for a four-month journey around the Cape of Good Hope to Australia. That’s the equivalent of being sent to a penal colony on Pluto today. Hughes’ finely-honed powers of description made me squirm like I, too, suffered for months in the bilge of that steamy, miserable hellhole.
That sort of eerie, squeamish feeling was reprised as author Schlosser captured in meticulous detail the horror of serving a life sentence for having something vaguely to do with brokering a field of weed in our own times. It was almost too well written to read, it made me that uncomfortable.
The more Schlosser talked about the draconian sentences dished out to pot offenders in states like Oklahoma, the madder and more sickened I became about about MMJ proponents focusing on patient rights at the exclusion of everyone’s rights. That tact completely ignores the lives and fates of the 45,000 people, just like you and me, rotting away in prison cells — not in Australia in 1850, but right here in the land of the free and the home of the brave today.
There’s just no way to sugarcoat this reality. The needs of the “sick and dying” are served even as the basic human rights of the incarcerated are completely ignored.
Earlier, in Part Five, I stated that medical marijuana ironically blocking clinical studies into the disease-fighting attributes of THC was perhaps the saddest fallout from MMJ consciousness. Acting as if the 45,000 imprisoned pot offenders don’t exist is probably even worse, if that’s possible.
There are currently over 1,000 Americans serving life sentences for pot trafficking.
MMJ: the more you look, the heavier the ball, the longer the chain. Repealing prohibition is the only way the insanity will cease.
p.s. Unfortunately, there’s more. Reason 12 is making it s way down the birth chute.
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Dynamic MMJ laws force businesses onto the streetPart 2: MMJ limits cannatax to a fraction of what it could be
Part 3: MMJ limits job incubation to a fraction of what it could be
Part 4: MMJ limits cannabis' contribution to GDP to a fraction of what it could be
Part 5: Ironically, MMJ blocks clinical research into cannabis’ healing properties
Part 6: It's taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism
Part 7: The foot-in-the-door theory is flawed
Part 8: Emphasizing MMJ in the present pushes true legalization back to the future
Part 9: MMJ trivializes recreational and industrial use
Part 10: Fuck the patients
[Bonus] Part 11: It keeps 45,000 pot "offenders" imprisoned
[Bonus] Part 12: It keeps the DEA in business
[Bonus] Part 13: Cities and counties can vote it out anytime
7 comments
Thomas Chong says:
Jul 25, 2011
You must remember medical marijuana has opened the door that can never be shut again so rather than oppose or criticize the the “medical approach”, embrace it. The truth is we all smoke for a medical reason whether we know it or not. Stress relief is probably the number one “medical” reason we healthy people smoke it. “It relaxes me”. ” Helps me enjoy my time off” or helps me enjoy doing boring things. Airline pilots use it for long flights. Athletes use it to wind down after a hard game or practice. Stress relief. But the most compelling argument has to be the “take it or leave it” qualities. Pot is not physically addicting. Studies have shown people who smoked for years can and have stopped cold turkey with no physical side effects. And the good news is stopping a heavy pot habit can be beneficial to ones well being. So don’t get cute and knock the medical approach and realize the number one harmful addiction in America is junk food.
This addiction is killing Americans faster than drunk drivers. Over eating leads to heart problems, diabetics, and a host of other ailments that is encouraged by our so-called American culture of television ads and sit/coms that promote unhealthy habits as a way of life rather than a way of death. Pot, hemp, cannibis was given to us by our Creator when the Universe was created.”I give thee Green Herb and it shall be for meat” Genesis 29. And it was the disgraced President Nixon who gave us the DEA criminal gang and the money draining drug laws. So lets support the medical approach toward pot and educate the masses about the many ills pot can help with instead of trying to be ultra clever with the outlaw comedian approach….tc
Lory Kohn says:
Jul 25, 2011
I could take exception to several of your points. However, you are the co-author of the immortal lines:
mama try to tell me
try to tell me how to live
but I don’t listen to her
cause my head is like a sieve
So you can write whatever you want, whenever you want to write it, and I’ll be grateful for the contribution. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Don McAdams says:
Oct 15, 2011
Len Richmond’s movie is excellent. Under your picture of the youtube video, you state that, “Schedule 1 drugs can’t be tested on humans.” This is actually not the case. NIDA has a mandate that no Schedule 1 drugs can be tested for any benefits, but tests for potential harm are ran all the time. For a host of research, I recommend, well, Len Richmond’s movie. As something just as valuable, if not more so, is this 20 minute seminar from Dr. Abrams, http://projectcbd.org/Medicine.html#CME . He has over 30 years of NIDA funded MJ research that he talks about, as well as other research being done around the world, Dr. Guzman’s work from Spain being the most ground-breaking to date, mitigating glioblastoma multiforme, or brain tumors. Then I would suggest Dr. Tashkin’s NIDA funded 30+ year study confirming no link to MJ and lung cancer – it even suggested a protective effect from the cigarette smokers. I agree with Tommy Chong and Jack Herer – all use is medical. That being said, the MMJ initiatives may have a huge flaw of not offering enough, especially in the way of research, but it was a necessary step. We would never be talking about full legalization or repealing Prohibition 2 in a serious tone today if it wasn’t for the MMJ road paved for US. And yes, certain indicas high in CBD are better for physical treatments, while sativas high in THC and THCV are better for mental treatments, so recommended strains for the ailments isn’t entirely voodoo… You do bring up a necessary reminder for US all, though – no matter if we’re doing a medical or recreational attempt, research should always be included in the wording…
Lory Kohn says:
Oct 19, 2011
I disagree with your theory that MMJ is paving the way for full legalization, as opposed to blocking it — but respect your opinion. More on this soon. btw, is cannabis effective against spam?
Don McAdams says:
Oct 25, 2011
There is some truth that if Cali would have fully legalized cannabis in ’96, we could likely have 16 legal states today instead of medical states. The growing plethora of medical research could very likely have kept cannabis in a medical box for some time, and may have slowed the repeal / legalize progress. Considering how rigid the government still is on “legalizing,” though, medical really was (and unfortunately still is for the most part) the best avenue to get some freedom. I agree that there needs to be a break from medical to legal, and that would have been nice to see happen already. I believe that its lack of harm and vast medical efficacy will create a rapid shift from medical to repeal very soon, though, and that, almost unarguably, would have never been possible had cannabis not been a hot topic already these past several years, and that would have never happened without mmj initiatives being passed by the People. Perhaps it’s not really a paved road. It’s more like a dirt trail, and we need to get on the interstate. I agree with your sentiment of abandoning the medical model now, that time has come, but it’s not as easy to say for the 34 states that have no mj allowances… Our legalization init is lagging in Ohio, and still has all the hoops to get through yet, while the medical init here has jumped through the last hoop and is now collecting the half million signatures needed to get it on the ballot for 2012. I’m still gonna support both efforts, even though I have no qualifying medical condition…
Lory Kohn says:
Oct 25, 2011
Don, thanks for providing those links and sources to the groundbreaking research that has been performed.
You seem to like to write a bit — how’s about writing an article for CC clarifying what research can and can’t be performed on Schedule One drugs in the USA, and perhaps contrasting those regulations with international regulations?
I will admit that there have been benefits that have evolved from the flirtation with MMJ. For example, it has really pushed the envelope in medibles. I’ll be at my “caregiver,” Evergreen Apothecary today, listening to customers’ tales of how medibles have been helping them with their conditions, a variation on the “treat yourself” theme …
air jordan 11 says:
May 27, 2016
I want to say – thank you for this!