Jun 25, · With the current-day process of drug legalization and the popularization of cannabis, writing a marijuana essay becomes more than a one-track, anti-drug endeavor Apr 26, · Around nine-in-ten Americans favor some form of marijuana legalization, according to an April Pew Research Center blogger.com overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (91%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use (60%) or that it should be legal for medical use only (31%).Just 8% say the drug should not be legal in any form Sep 23, · The law allows New Yorkers to possess up to 3 ounces of cannabis for recreational use. People with certain marijuana-related convictions will have their records expunged immediately
How marijuana legalization would benefit the criminal justice system - The Blue Review
Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. dnar alucapgro. dnar tramsr, essays on marijuana legalization. State-level marijuana liberalization policies have been evolving for the past five decades, and yet the overall scientific evidence of the impact of these policies is widely believed to be inconclusive. In this review we summarize some of the key limitations of the studies evaluating the effects of decriminalization and medical marijuana laws on marijuana use, highlighting their inconsistencies in terms of the heterogeneity of policies, the timing of the evaluations, and the essays on marijuana legalization of use being considered.
We suggest that the heterogeneity in the responsiveness of different populations to particular laws is important for interpreting the mixed findings from the literature, and we highlight the limitations of the existing literature in providing clear insights into the probable effects of marijuana legalization. Although the federal law has prohibited the use and distribution of marijuana in the United States sincefor the past five decades states have been experimenting with marijuana liberalization polices.
State decriminalization policies were first passed in the s, patient medical access laws began to get adopted in the s, and more recently states have been experimenting with legalization of recreational markets. This has resulted in a spectrum of marijuana liberalization policies across the United States that is often not fully recognized or considered when conducting evaluations of recent policy changes, essays on marijuana legalization. Consider for example the state of marijuana policies in the United States at a single point of time.
As shown in Figure 1as of January 1, essays on marijuana legalization,21 states 1 have decriminalized certain marijuana possession offenses NCSL a26 states have legalized medical marijuana use, and another 16 states have adopted cannabidiol CBD -only laws NCSL b essays on marijuana legalization protect only essays on marijuana legalization strains of marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes.
However, there is tremendous overlap because some states have implemented combinations of each of these policies, as shown by the fact that the five states currently legalizing recreational marijuana use Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia all initially decriminalized marijuana and then passed medical marijuana allowances before passing their legalization policies.
Thus, the vast majority of US states have moved away from a strict prohibition position toward marijuana well before they started considering outright legalization. State marijuana policies as of January 1, Data from the RAND Marijuana Policy Database Pacula et al. Abbreviation: CBD, cannabidiol. The tremendous policy variation over time and across states would appear to give researchers ample opportunities to quantitatively assess the effect of marijuana liberalization policies on a variety of health and social outcomes.
However, the scientific literature has been slow to develop, and what exists in the literature offers generally mixed and largely insignificant findings. This has led many to conclude that the previous liberalization policies must be harmless and that ongoing legalization would similarly generate very little harm to society.
As we will argue throughout this article, however, at least three reasons suggest that we use caution in drawing conclusions from the mixed empirical evidence or, more importantly, in assuming that a change to legally protected commercial markets would result in outcomes similar to those essays on marijuana legalization the previous experiments, essays on marijuana legalization.
First, the literature has largely treated both decriminalization and medical marijuana policies as if they were simple dichotomous choices, implemented similarly across states. Such a treatment ignores the significant heterogeneity in these policies that can differentially influence harms and benefits and also contributes to what appear to be mixed results from evaluations, essays on marijuana legalization.
Second, the vast majority of policy evaluations conducted thus far examine the effect of the policy in terms of changes in prevalence rates in the general population, which assumes that the proportion of casual and heavy users, who are pooled together in these simple prevalence rates, remains stable even as the policy changes. Finally, essays on marijuana legalization, research has been slow to consider the essays on marijuana legalization to which these changes in policies influence the method by which the typical user consumes marijuana.
In this article, we review the existing literature on the effects of decriminalization and medical marijuana laws on marijuana use and marijuana use disorders in light of these limitations. Unlike other reviews, our goal is not to summarize all the existing literature on the effects of decriminalization and medicalization. Rather, the purpose of this review is to provide a better understanding of what can be gleaned from the literature when more consideration is given to the complexities of these policies, the populations examined, and the measures of use considered.
Doing so allows us to convey the need for more research, in terms of measurement and analysis, before we can truly understand the impacts of marijuana liberalization policies. It is important for any discussion of the literature to begin by defining the policies being considered. For the purposes of this review, we define four specific marijuana policies prohibition, decriminalization, medical marijuana, and legalization in terms of their legal definitions rather than their implementation in local communities, as the latter is often a function of the level of enforcement, which is difficult to measure in a systematic and analytic way.
Prohibition, therefore, essays on marijuana legalization, can be defined as a law that maintains the criminal status of any action related to marijuana possession, use, cultivation, sale, or distribution.
The level of crime may be statutorily defined as either a misdemeanor incurring relatively lower criminal penalties that may or may not include jail time or a felony entailing much more serious charges, tougher sanctions, and certain prison timeand the charge may be a function of the amount of marijuana involved or simply of the nature of the activity e. Regardless, the emphasis is on the criminal status of the related offenses, not the degree to which local law enforcement chooses to enforce it.
Decriminalization is a policy that was first defined by the Shaffer Commission also known as the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuseand it describes policies that do not define possession for personal use or casual nonmonetary distribution as a criminal offense.
The Shaffer Commission clearly stated that policies that simply lowered the penalties without removing the criminal status of the offense were not technically decriminalized, because they maintained the substantial social harm of the associated criminal convictions Natl. Marihuana Drug Abus. This distinction between essays on marijuana legalization that simply lower penalties and those that actually change the legal status of the offense is important, and yet it is not widely understood by many researchers evaluating even the early policies.
At least 2 of the 11 widely recognized decriminalized states from the s and s, California and North Carolina, did not remove the criminal status of the offense Pacula et al, essays on marijuana legalization. Yet, individuals in depenalization jurisdictions can still face significant barriers to access work, student loans, and public assistance if caught in possession of marijuana, even if they are only charged with a small fine, because they can still get a criminal charge on their record, essays on marijuana legalization.
Medical marijuana laws MMLs remove state penalties for the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes under specified conditions. Although the federal government continues to retain the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I substance with high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act ofP.
Early initiatives through the s aimed to encourage study of the therapeutic value of marijuana, essays on marijuana legalization, but they had little practical significance due to their heavy reliance on federal cooperation and the failure to establish a legitimate supply channel for patients Pacula et al. These modern MMLs have become the most commonly evaluated policies in comparative alcohol and drugs policy analysis Ritter et al.
Legalization removes criminal and monetary penalties for the possession, use, and supply of marijuana for recreational purposes. Whereas decriminalized countries such as the Netherlands have histories of de facto legalization, and medical marijuana programs are often regarded as thinly veiled recreational legalization Fischer et al.
The November ballot initiatives passed by voters in Colorado and Washington marked the first time that any jurisdiction worldwide has legally regulated marijuana. Much attention has been given to the recently created retail markets for legal marijuana in these two states, but the commercial model is but one regulatory essays on marijuana legalization for legal production, and a number of alternative strategies are available Caulkins et al.
Research has not yet assessed the consequences of legalization, essays on marijuana legalization, but the effects on the prevalence of marijuana use and use disorders will depend largely on the specific state-level regulations adopted as well as the response of the federal government, essays on marijuana legalization.
Establishing clear definitions for decriminalized, medicalized, and legalized states is not merely a semantic exercise; rather, it highlights the different mechanisms through which policies may influence use, essays on marijuana legalization, including changes in perceptions of risk or social disapproval, changes in product essays on marijuana legalization and variety, and changes in production methods or costs that reduce prices. Although it is tempting to use evaluations of decriminalization and medical marijuana policies to shed light on the likely consequences of legalization, the experiences of these states may not fully reflect the changes in price, potency, and product variety that will likely result from increased commercialization and promotion under legalization Caulkins et al.
Although the existing literature may be limited in answering how legalization will affect marijuana use and associated outcomes, it offers significant insights into how we should evaluate the effects of marijuana policy changes in a rapidly evolving and multilayered policy environment. As stated previously, much of the scientific research evaluating the impacts of decriminalization in the United States has ignored the legal definition provided by the Shaffer Commission.
In an examination of the original 11 statutes passed shortly after the Shaffer Commission, Pacula and colleagues discovered that 2 of the 11 widely recognized decriminalized states California and North Carolina retained the criminal status of marijuana possession offenses. Moreover, the reduced penalties in 4 of the original 11 states Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, and North Carolina only applied to first-time offenders, a distinction not consistent with the spirit of the Shaffer Commission definition, essays on marijuana legalization.
A comparison of state statutory penalties in so-called nondecriminalized states and in decriminalized states reveals that it is not possible to uniquely distinguish the two groups Pacula et al, essays on marijuana legalization. As early asthere were essays on marijuana legalization so-called nondecriminalized states that had removed the criminal status of all marijuana possession offenses and another 13 states that allowed for the reduced penalties and expungement of the criminal offense for first-time offenders Pacula et al.
Yet, research continued to use the decriminalization variable to identify differences in state marijuana policies that were not truly based on the criminal status or level of penalties. Given that most US studies have made use of a single dichotomous measure that cannot uniquely differentiate states with lower penalties and reduced criminal status, it is not surprising that they had mixed results. Even early studies examining immediate changes in laws using data from the s and s did not generate consistent findings.
Although several studies making use of population survey data found no statistically significant impact of decriminalization on general prevalence rates of marijuana use Johnston et al. More recent studies that analytically relied on cross-sectional variation in decriminalization status in the late s and s also produced mixed findings. MacCoun et al. Hypotheses offered include a proxy of broader social acceptance of marijuana use and an advertising effect of the reduced essays on marijuana legalization. Even beyond the problem of policy measurement, results from US studies evaluating the impact of marijuana decriminalization need to be interpreted with caution for several reasons.
First, in many studies, marijuana possession penalties do not vary substantially over time, which analytically confounds the effects of unobserved state characteristics e. Second, because there is no comprehensive data source reporting the actual penalties essays on marijuana legalization by offenders, these studies have all relied on proxies, such as maximum or median fines as indicated by statutory laws.
These statutory penalties may or may not accurately reflect the true severity of the penalties imposed in a jurisdiction. Last, essays on marijuana legalization, evidence has shown that citizens have relatively limited knowledge as to the statutory penalties and policies for marijuana possession in their states MacCoun et al. InCalifornia became the first state to pass what is now commonly recognized as an MML.
As of January25 additional states have passed similar legislation. Empirical evidence consistently shows a strong correlation between MMLs and the prevalence of marijuana use and marijuana use disorders Cerdá et al. One explanation for the inconsistent findings from causal studies is that the specific provisions of state MMLs have varied widely both among states and within any given state over time Pacula et al. The use of a single dichotomous indicator for the initial passage of an MML in policy evaluation obscures both types of variation.
Because the effects of any policy will depend on the specific statutory provisions and their implementation, studies examining outcome data covering different time frames are in fact evaluating the effects of very different policies. Further confounding comparison of prior estimates is the fact that the federal enforcement position has changed over time, and state MML provisions have adapted alongside changes in the federal stance.
We broadly categorize state policies into three waves, each initiated by an important political change: the ballot era —the early legislative era —and the late legislative era —present.
The ballot era states are the first seven states that enacted policies through ballot initiatives whether subsequently contested by state courts or not. These early laws aimed to protect the rights of patients who used medical marijuana and their caregivers who assisted in that use. Federal opposition to these policies was explicit, and one month after Proposition passed in California, then-drug czar Barry McCaffrey threatened to arrest any physician who recommended cannabis to a patient Pertwee The threat of federal enforcement created an important barrier to establishing clearly defined legal access to medical marijuana.
Early MMLs during the ballot era were often vague, defining medical use broadly to include consumption, home cultivation, production, transportation, essays on marijuana legalization, and acquisition. Most of the laws were ambiguous as to the legality of group growing or storefront dispensaries, resulting in confusion among law enforcement, patients, and caregivers as to what constituted legal participation in the medical marijuana market.
Furthermore, the uncertainty of the federal response to these state experiments meant that ballot era policies rarely mandated patients to register with a state authority, making it even more difficult for law enforcement to differentiate legitimate medical users from recreational users.
With the passage of S. Learning from the frustrating experiences of patients and law enforcement under the earlier state policies, states that passed laws during essays on marijuana legalization early legislative era — made more explicit allowances regarding the supply chain.
Most laws passed during this period included patient registry provisions, allowances for home cultivation, and limits on the amount of marijuana that patients or caregivers could possess and grow. In addition, many states that had initially passed laws through ballot initiatives e. Although MMLs during this early legislative era established clearer definitions of what constituted legal supply, uncertainty about the federal response to these policies inhibited a formal state regulation of producers.
Through S. New Mexico was the only state in the early legislative era to establish legal provisions for state-licensed dispensaries in its initial legislation in Julybut threats of federal prosecution led to indefinite delays in licensing Baker Protracted legal disputes about the legitimacy of retail outlets under state law combined with tremendous uncertainty about the federal response led to the slow development of medical marijuana markets throughout many states during the early legislative era, which helps explain why many studies evaluating MMLs from this period find insignificant effects on prevalence of marijuana use Anderson et al.
Whereas norms may have been changing in essays on marijuana legalization to these laws, direct access through markets was not necessarily increasing Smart Yet, two studies making use of data from only this time period find a significant positive effect of MML enactment on use among specific high-risk populations ChuPacula et al, essays on marijuana legalization.
Making use of quarterly data from the — Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring ADAMPacula et al. Chu similarly found significant positive effects of MML policies on marijuana possession arrests and marijuana-related treatment admissions, though the results are sensitive to model specification. These studies may indicate that increased medical marijuana supply in an uncertain policy environment primarily affected marijuana consumption among an at-risk population of heavy users.
However, the results are also consistent with endogenous responses by police enforcement or treatment facilities and may not reflect actual changes in use. The clarification of the federal position dramatically changed the regulatory structure of state medical marijuana supply channels, essays on marijuana legalization.
The Consequences of Marijuana Legalization - Ricardo Baca - TEDxMarin
, time: 14:39Medical Marijuana and Marijuana Legalization
Jan 13, · In the end, marijuana use is not completely harmless and the legalization of it is not without risk; however, the harm associated with marijuana use and legalization pales in comparison to prohibition. The Marijuana Justice Act would make good policy and would ultimately be beneficial to the criminal justice system Sep 23, · The law allows New Yorkers to possess up to 3 ounces of cannabis for recreational use. People with certain marijuana-related convictions will have their records expunged immediately Apr 26, · Around nine-in-ten Americans favor some form of marijuana legalization, according to an April Pew Research Center blogger.com overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (91%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use (60%) or that it should be legal for medical use only (31%).Just 8% say the drug should not be legal in any form
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