POT: THE SINA QUA NON OF A DRUG WAR

SAM SMITH, PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - The war on drugs was the first major
test by the country's elite to see if Americans would willingly
surrender their constitutional rights. It turned out that they would and
so for the past twenty years invasions of civil liberties increased,
America threw more and more of its young people into prison, while
exploding drug war budgets did nothing to stem the growth of the drug
industry. Further, the drug war was a useful testing ground for
repressive measures instituted following September 11.

But to make all of this work you need a sufficient quantity of drugs,
they had to be easy to find and a sufficient number of people had to use
them. This is where marijuana came in. Although marijuana is far less
dangerous than just legal drugs as cigarettes and alcohol and, even as a
medical prescription, far less hazardous than ones routinely given out
by doctors, it had the constituency, physical bulk and ubiquity to make
it just the thing for adding to police budgets and taking away from
human rights.

The war on drugs will undoubtedly be regarded by historians as a crucial
precursor of the end of the First American Republic. It tested the
waters of repression and found Americans willing to accept it. Even
liberals outside of strong civil liberties advocates proved disastrously
indifferent to what was going on.

A new report from the Sentencing Project tells part of the story as it
relates to marijuana:

- Of the 450,000 increase in drug arrests during the period 1990-2002,
82% of the growth was for marijuana, and 79% was for marijuana
possession alone;

- Marijuana arrests now constitute nearly half (45%) of the 1.5 million
drug arrests annually;

- Few marijuana arrests are for serious offenses: of the 734,000
marijuana arrests in 2000, only 41,000 (6%) resulted in a felony
conviction;

- Marijuana arrests increased by 113% between 1990 and 2002, while
overall arrests decreased by 3%; 1 Cooper, G. (2001, August 20).

- New York City experienced an 882% growth in marijuana arrests,
including an increase of 2,461% for possession offenses;

- African Americans are disproportionately affected by marijuana
arrests, representing 14% of marijuana users in the general population,
but 30% of arrests;

- One-third of persons convicted for a marijuana felony in state court
are sentenced to prison;

- An estimated $4 billion is spent annually on the arrest, prosecution
and incarceration of marijuana offenders.