Subject: NORML news, July 14
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NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE REFORM OF MARIJUANA LAWS
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. . . a weekly service for the media on news items related to Marijuana Prohibition.
by Rob Kampia, Chapter Coordinator of NORML
July 14, 1994
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY DOES MAJOR STORY ON MARIJUANA PROHIBITION
The August 1994 issue of The Atlantic Monthly features a 14-page story that enumerates the harmful effects of Marijuana Prohibition both on individuals and on society. "Reefer Madness" is the first part of a two-part article. The second part, which will be published next month, describes the ruling on NORML's 22-year-old medicinal marijuana case and the perverse consequences of a legal regime that decrees mandatory-minimum sentences. Some interesting excerpts from this month's article include:
- "Marijuana has not been de facto legalized, and the war on drugs is not just about cocaine and heroin. In fact, today, when we don't have enough jail cells for murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals, there may be more people in federal and state prisons for marijuana offenses than at any other time in U.S. history."
- "How does a society come to punish a person more harshly for selling marijuana than for killing someone with a gun?"
- "In New York state possessing slightly less than an ounce of marijuana brings a $100 fine, rarely collected.
- In Nevada possessing any amount of marijuana is a felony."
- "Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, implying that it has a high potential for abuse, no officially accepted medicinal uses, and no safe level of use under medical supervision.
- Cocaine and PCP are listed in Schedule II, allowing doctors to prescribe them."
- "Oddly enough, the more potent strains of marijuana may prove less dangerous, since less of them needs to be smoked."
- "People who use marijuana as medicine must either buy it from drug dealers or grow it themselves".
- "The first American law pertaining to marijuana, passed in 1619, required every farmer to grow it."
- "In 1977 the DEA had acknowledged that decriminalization was a policy worth considering; three years later it called marijuana the most urgent drug problem facing the United States."
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS GIVES LIGHTER SENTENCE FOR HARVESTED MARIJUANA THAN FOR CONFISCATED PLANTS
In a ruling that has wide-reaching implications for the length of sentences given to defendants convicted of cultivating marijuana, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a defendant convicted of conspiring to grow marijuana should be sentenced according to the weight of the harvested marijuana rather than the number of plants involved in the conspiracy.
The case in question involved a man who was arrested with less than one kilogram of marijuana, which was part of the 100 to 300 kilograms he bought from a marijuana grower over a period of 5 years. The marijuana grower said he had raised thousands of plants over the years.
At sentencing, the judge sentenced the defendant who bought the marijuana by using a formula that equates one plant to one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of marijuana, instead of using the weight of harvested marijuana involved in the conspiracy. Hence, the defendant was sentenced to 17.5 years because it was assumed that he had been involved in a conspiracy to grow thousands of plants.
The defendant appealed the sentence, and the U.S. Court of Appeals agreed, saying that "a sentencing judge is not to levy the sentencing by calculating the number of plants 'involved' in producing the x marijuana." The court sent the case back for resentencing at the lower figure. This case is significant because earlier this year NORML, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), and other organizations testified before the U.S. Sentencing Commission in favor of an amendment to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that would change the ratio of grams/plant that federal judges are forced to use when sentencing defendants convicted of cultivating marijuana. (The U.S. Sentencing Commission did not act on the amendment this year; the issue will be revisited next spring.)
Judges now use a 1 kilogram/plant ratio, even though it is almost botanically impossible to yield a kilogram (1,000 grams or 2.2 pounds) of smokeable material from a marijuana plant. NORML, FAMM, and others argued that using either a more realistic ratio (100 grams/plant) or the weight of the actual yield would give more accurate-although still unfair-sentences. Apparently, the Sixth Circuit agrees with such a change.
MEDICINAL MARIJUANA RESOLUTIONS PASS IN COLORADO AND CALIFORNIA
On July 5, after hearing 2 hours of testimony from a sympathetic and supportive crowd, the Frisco Town Council unanimously passed a resolution urging the state of Colorado to "reactivate the research program on the use and dispensing of marijuana for medical purposes."
The resolution goes on to say, "Whereas, upon the legislative report of findings establishing the effective use of marijuana as a therapeutic drug, the Town of Frisco strongly encourages the State of Colorado and the federal government to legalize the dispensing of marijuana for medical purposes pursuant to federal and state guidelines."
Frisco is the second town in Colorado to publicly address the ban on medical access to marijuana.
In April, residents of Breckenridge voted 261-213 in favor of an ordinance ordering the police chief and district attorney to make the arrest and prosecution of those using or cultivating marijuana for medical purposes their lowest priority.
On July 12, the Alameda Board of Supervisors passed a resolution urging the California state legislature to pass-and the Governor to sign-Senate Bill 1364 which would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance, thereby making it available for use by prescription.
Alameda County joins almost a dozen other locales in California as going on record as favoring legal medical access to marijuana.
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE EMBARKS ON ANOTHER DIATRIBE AGAINST NORML
On June 15, U.S. Representative Gerald Solomon (R-New York) addressed the floor of the House of Representatives on the topic of "drug legalization":
"Mr. Speaker, over the next few months the American public is going to become much more aware of the people and organizations who are behind the movement promoting the legalization of drugs. The worst of these organizations is the sinister Drug Policy Foundation and the wacky but dangerous National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws."
At this time, Mr. Speaker, I would insert an excellent work done by the chairman of the International Drug Strategy Institute, Dr. Voth, which outlines the arguments against drug legalization."
Although the document that Mr. Solomon inserted into the Congressional Record was riddled with errors, inaccuracies, and outright lies, one statement in particular should resonate as being particularly spurious, rabid, and inflammatory: "In the Netherlands, one of the repercussions of legalization has been addicts flocking in from other countries. One must also seriously question that country's viability in the world."
NORML will be forwarding Dr. Voth's document, as well as a transcript of the Congressional Record, to officials in The Netherlands.
D.C. CITY COUNCIL HOLDS HEARING ON REVISING U.S. DRUG LAWS
On July 8, the Council of the District of Columbia held a public hearing on proposed legislation entitled "Federal Commission on Drug Policy Resolution of 1994," which is commonly know among drug law-reform advocates as the "Hoover Resolution." The resolution would recommend that the President and Congress establish an objective commission to recommend the revision of drug laws in the United States.
The resolution reads in part, "Therefore, be it resolved that our society must recognize drug use and abuse as the medical and social problems that they are and they must be treated with medical and social solutions."
NORML strongly supports the establishment of such an objective commission because it is likely that it would recommend what every other government commission has recommended - that marijuana at least should be decriminalized. -- end --
