From: nyt@blythe.org (NY Transfer News)

/* Written  7:52 pm  Oct 13, 1993 by jnr@igc.apc.org in igc:talk.pol.drugs */
/* ---------- "Marijuana: Costly & Wasteful War" ---------- */
This paper retyped by jnr from a fax.  Errors are mine.
Original paper by D. Gieringer, CANORML

Marijuana Enforcement in California: A Costly and Wasteful War

Costs of Prohibition:

*  Marijuana accounts for 15,000 felony arrests per year, at a
   cost to the state of about $100 million.  Over half of
   arrestees are black and minorities.

*  CAMP helicopters disrupt the peace of our wilderness,
   invading personal privacy and promoting the spread of
   cultivation to public lands.

*  State eradication programs destroy an estimated $300 million
   in marijuana per year -- revenue that is lost to the local
   economy and diverted to foreign suppliers.

*  Californians consume about $3 - 6 billion worth of marijuana
   per year, representing some $250 - 500 million in lost sales
   taxes alone.

*  The war on marijuana has deprived us of an economically
   valuable crop, cannabis hemp, a productive source of fiber,
   biomass, protein and oil.

*  The war on marijuana has cruelly deprived medical patients of
   valuable therapy for nausea from chemotherapy, AIDS,
   glaucoma, chronic pain and spasticity, migraines, depression
   and other diseases.

The war on marijuana has not controlled drug abuse.  On the
contrary, the record shows clearly that the crackdown on
marijuana fueled the state's disastrous cocaine epidemic. Recent
studies have found that marijuana tends to substitute for alcohol
and harder drugs, and that states with tough marijuana laws tend
to have worse accident and drug abuse problems.

California's marijuana decrim law has been a success:  The
Moscone Act reduced the penalty for possession of less than one
ounce of marijuana from a felony to a minor misdemeanor in 1976. 
Since its passage, the state has saved $90 million per year in
arrest and court costs, while consumption declined to its lowest
level since 1967, when use was still a felony.

Official studies have consistently called for further
decriminalization, including the National Academy of Sciences
(1982), the Presidential Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse
(1973), and the state Research Advisory Panel (1990), which
recommended legalizing personal use and cultivation of marijuana.

Marijuana legalization works.  In the Netherlands, where cannabis
is legally available in coffee shops, only 5% of the population
are regular users, while opiate and hard drug addiction is lower
than in neighboring countries.  Other foreign countries,
including Germany, Australia, Italy, Switzerland and France, are
seriously considering the Dutch system.

-- D. Gieringer, Coordinator, California NORML, July 1993.

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML
2215-R Market Street #278
San Francisco CA 94114
tel: 415-563-5858