Robert M. Hardaway - Marijuana Politics

Marijuana Politics

Uncovering the Troublesome History and Social Costs of Criminalization

Robert M. Hardaway

Copyright 2018 by Robert M. Hardaway

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hardaway, Robert M., 1946 author.

Title: Marijuana politics : uncovering the troublesome history and social costs of criminalization / Robert M. Hardaway.

Description: Santa Barbara, California : Praeger, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017037270 (print) | LCCN 2017045707 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440837074 (e-book) | ISBN 9781440837067 (hard copy : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: MarijuanaPolitical aspectsUnited States. | MarijuanaLaw and legislationUnited States. | Marijuana abuseUnited States. | Drug legalizationUnited States.

Classification: LCC HV5822.M3 (ebook) | LCC HV5822.M3 H367 2018 (print) | DDC 362.29/55610973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017037270

ISBN: 978-1-4408-3706-7 (print)

978-1-4408-3707-4 (ebook)

222120191812345

This book is also available as an eBook.

Praeger

An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC

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This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dedicated to

Judy Swearingen Trejos

Contents

Kyle Bershok Ames

Kyle Bershok Ames

Kyle Bershok Ames

Taylor Hart-Bowlan and Kyle Bershok Ames

Taylor Hart-Bowlan

Preface

In 2003, Praeger Publishers, now a part of ABC-CLIO, published my book No Price Too High: Victimless Crimes and the Ninth Amendment , which set forth the history of marijuana criminalization and provided an overview and analysis of then-current laws regulating its use in the context of the Ninth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Since that time, many states have legalized marijuana use for medical purposes, and others have also legalized its use for recreational purposes. As of the publication date of this book, 29 states have legalized the former and eight the latter.

Because of the many legal developments that have occurred since 2003, this book was conceived as an update of this earlier work, with particular attention to the most recent laws representing the accelerating trend toward legalization that occurred during the 2016 election in the form of popular initiatives and referenda. For this reason, much of the history and legal developments in the area of marijuana law that occurred before 2003 has been carried forward from the earlier work, and in some cases entire relevant sections have been reproduced, often verbatim, in the pages that follow. This has been made possible by the fact that I wrote the previous work and the copyright of No Price Too High is now held by ABC-CLIO, the publisher of this book.

As noted in the previous works foreword by former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, The title of No Price Too High sarcastically implies that, to our law and judicial system, there is no price too high to make something illegal, even if that only makes the problem worse. Using extensive references, Hardaway proves that the drug problem has only increased since its criminalization.

Certainly the premise of that title has not changed since 2003, as society continues to be afflicted by the horrifying spectacles of tens of thousands of murders committed by drug cartels, mass graves, extravagant expenditure of resources diverted from rehabilitation to enforcement, the release of thousands of violent criminals from our prison systems to make room for drug offenders, the de facto diversion to and financing of organized crime, an increase in drug use, and not least the corruption of governmentall on the purported rationale of keeping people from possibly jeopardizing their health by using marijuana, even for medicinal purposes.

Likewise, federal Judge John L. Kane wrote in a separate foreword to my previous work: We are indebted to professor Hardaway for bringing together the common effects of (drug crimes) and demonstrating quite persuasively that such laws produce unintended consequences far more damaging to our society than the defined crimes.

Although my name appears as author, this book is in large part the product of a collaborative effort of a small army of research assistants, students at the University of Denvers Sturm College of Law. Their names appear in the acknowledgments. Two of themKyle Bershok Ames and Taylor Hart-Bowlanwere particularly productive, and their contributions not only to underlying research but also to drafting several of the chapters herein are recognized by their bylines in those chapters.

A final note of confession. I myself have never even tried or experimented with marijuana, and have never had the slightest inclination to do so. Although this may seem to set me at a disadvantage in writing a book on marijuana, I believe it has allowed me to be more objective by focusing on the societal, rather than personal, effects of marijuana criminalization.

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without the contributions of many dedicated people. First, there were the contributions of my two primary research assistants, Kyle Bershok Ames and Taylor Hart-Bowlan, both outstanding students at the University of Denvers Sturm College of Law, whose contributions were so substantial they are named as authors of , respectively.

The project was supported by a small army of dedicated law students, who enthusiastically volunteered for research assistant duties, meticulously scouring the libraries and databases as well as checking sources and citations. For this demanding, tedious, and labor-intensive work they deserve the most honorable mention: Josephine Bunker, Lindsay Gardner, Nicholas Gross, Michael Hartman, Megan Herr, Greg Huckaby, Caterina Lovell, Daniel Woodbridge, Zachary Schiffler, and Sahin Singh, who assisted Taylor Hart-Bowlan; and Mathew Spangler, Gracen Short, Mark Kollasch, Christopher Barbera, Hunter Heidrich, and Lindsey Idelberg, who assisted Kyle Bershok Ames.

Finally, much thanks to the entire staff at the University of Denvers College of Law, who labored diligently assisting in the preparation of the manuscript, and to Jessica Gribble of ABC-CLIO, whose scrupulous primary editing helped tighten the manuscript to a more readable size.

CHAPTER ONE

Marijuana: Politics, Partisanship, and Demagoguery

He who knows only his side of the case, knows little of that (but) wrong opinions and practices gradually yield to fact and argument.

John Stuart Mill

Every year, more than 480,000 Americans die as a result of using tobacco.

If a Martian were to visit the United States tomorrow and be shown these statistics, he might be surprised to learn that of three substancestobacco, alcohol, and drugsonly drugs, including marijuana, are criminalized. The Martian might also be surprised, indeed bewildered, to learn that even though alcohol and tobacco were legal substances and even subsidized, American society was willing to lose $180 billion annually, and tolerate the corruption and undermining of the political systemall to implement a drug war that has seen greater drug use after criminalization than before.