Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed and learn how to get involved!

write us:

RICIMP
PO Box 2602
Providence, RI
02906

info
@
rimarijuanapolicy.org

Prohibition: A Failed Policy

Prohibition is the current marijuana policy in Rhode Island and across most of the U.S. Under prohibition, the possession of any quantity of marijuana is illegal and punishable by criminal penalties.

Usually, support for marijuana prohibition stems from a desire to reduce its use. While this a worthy goal, criminalization and eradication is not necessarily the best way to achieve it. The best policy can only be chosen after a careful cost-benefit analysis, and available evidence shows that prohibition has exorbitant costs and negligible benefits. Policies that fare much better in this analysis are outlined on the alternatives page.

Penalties for marijuana offenses
Costs of marijuana prohibition
     Fiscal costs
     Social costs
     Opportunity costs
Effectiveness of marijuana prohibition

Penalties for marijuana offenses

The following table shows the current penalties for marijuana offenses in Rhode Island:

Costs of Marijuana Prohibition

Fiscal costs

In his 2009 report, Marijuana in Rhode Island (pdf), drug policy researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D., uses a method provided by the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy to estimate the following direct, fiscal costs of marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island for the year 2006:

Meanwhile, Rhode Island's budget deficit is approaching $200 million and growing (Associated Press: November 11, 2009).

Social costs

The state's policy of locking up marijuana users carries many social costs as well. The primary social cost of marijuana prohibition stems for its negative effect on disadvantaged, underpriveliged communites. Marijuana arrests disproportianately impact young males and minorities. Although young adults use more marijuana than older adults, blacks are three times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana in Rhode Island. Such a large discrepancy cannot be explained by the small difference in use between the two groups.
Source: Marijuana in Rhode Island (pdf)

Marijuana prohibition plays a large role in the cycle of incarceration and criminality that many of Rhode Island's least privileged citizens find themselves trapped. Even in cases that result in probation instead of incarceration, our state's draconian criminal justice system inflicts irrevocable harm on the accused. Their criminal record stays with them, making it difficult to find a job with a livable income. Additionally, they live with a cloud over their heads for the entirety of their probation. We have the lowest possible standard of proof in probation violation hearings, making it easier than in any other state to be sent to prison from probation. If the accused is at all connected with a criminal investigation, even if the evidence in question is thrown out of court, or consists only of hearsay, the probabor is likely to end up in the ACI. The reality of these policies, combined with marijuana prohibition, is that numerous lives are ruined every year for simple possession of marijuana.

Other costs of marijuana prohibition are the result of law enforcement strategies used to combat marijuana sales and use. Unlike other crimes, marijuana offenses typically do not leave behind a victim to report the crime. Therefore, law enfocement must use intrusive techniques in order to enforce prohibition, creating a climate of fear and mistrust of the government. Because extreme measures are necessary to stop responsible adults from using marijuana, prohibition encourages the erosion of basic rights such as the right to privacy.

Opportunity costs

Most crimes are left unsolved in Rhode Island. In 2007, the clearance rate - the percentage of cases that are solved - was 22.5% for serious crimes, well under the national average. Less than half of our state's murders and assaults, less than one-third of rapes, and less than one in five robberies are solved. Only 6% of vehicle thefts were cleared in 2007. Keeping marijuana illegal means that limited law enfocement resources are spent investigating marijuana offenses rather than more serious crimes. We should be sending police after serious criminals instead of arresting nonviolent drug users.
Source: Marijuana Policy Almanac (compiled from Uniform Crime Reporting data)

Effectiveness of Marijuana Prohibition

Despite the millions of dollars spent (billions nationwide) in the attempt to limit marijauna use, more than one in ten Rhode Islanders use marijuana at least once a month. In 2007, 18.6% of Rhode Islanders ages 12-17 and 44.3% of those ages 18-25 used marijuana in the past year. Those rates place Rhode Island first among U.S. states in both age groups.

Nationwide, over 80% of 12th graders, 70% of 10th graders, and 40% of 8th grades said that marijuana is "very easy" or "fairly easy" to obtain. Since more youth use marijuana in Rhode Island than other states, it is likley those rates would be higher when limited to Rhode Island.

This discrepancy between marijuana availability and use among youth suggests that availability is rarely a limiting factor in the decision whether or not to use marijuana. Prohibition is not a succesful policy at reducing marijuana use among youth.
Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Monitoring the Future (pdf)

A study published in the American Journal of Public Health (pdf) compared patterns of marijuana use in the United States to those in the Netherlands, where marijuana is de facto legal. The investigators found "no evidence to support claims that criminalization reduces [marijuana] use."

Prohibition Timeline

1914
New York City passes legislation prohibiting opiates and cocaine. Although there are few marijuana users in the city, it is feared that as other drugs become harder to obtain, users will switch to marijuana. The city Board of Health adds marijuana to the list of prohibited substance in June.
1918
Following New York's lead, Rhode Island passes legislation prohibiting marijuana sale and possession. Little attention was paid to the issue, and no study or inquiry was conducted.
1920
The Eighteenth Amandment to the U.S. Constitution goes into effect, and alcohol becomes illegal across the nation. Rhode Island is one of twelve states not to ratify the amendment.
1920 - 1933
As alcohol prohibition continues, criminal organizations grow in power and respect for the law decreases. Despite high government expenditures, alcohol remains easily available and crime levels increase. Former prohibitionists begin to advocate for repeal of the law.
1933
In recognition of the inefficacy and unintended consequences of prohibition, the Twenty-first amendment is ratified, ending alcohol prohibition. Across the country, criminal organizations shrink or dissappear, and tax revenues increase. Crime gradually returns to pre-prohibition levels.
1933 - 1937
The Federal Bureau of Narcotics pushes the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act on state legislatures in an attempt to standardize state drug laws. Little attention is paid to the Act and public concern over marijuana use is minimal. The Providence Journal, for example, only refers to the Uniform Act once and makes no mention of marijuana.
1937
With the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act, marijuana becomes illegal across the United States. At the congressional hearings on the act, only one witness opposes the act, a representative of the American Medical Association.
1956
New national legislation increases the penalties for marijuana possession by a factor of eight. By this time, evidence against claims that marijuana caused insanity, criminality and death has surfaced. Instead, arguments for increased penalties focus on the gateway theory, the idea that mairjuana causes users to be more likely to try other drugs.
1970
Congress passes the Controlled Substances Act, creating five Schedules. Marijuana is listed as a Schedule I substance, reservered for drugs with a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use, and "a lack of accepted safety for use... under medical supervision."
1972
The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, created by President Nixon, reports to Congress, recommending legalizing the possession and sale of small quantities of marijuana. Their advice is ignored.
1996
In California, Proposition 215 legalizes marijuana for medical purposes.
2001
The National Research Council Committee on Data and Research for Policy on Illegal Drugs publishes its findings, critizing the government for not examining the effects of its drug polcies. After policymakers ignore the report, the Committee Chair remarks that "the drug war has no interest in its own results."
2003
The Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition is founded, with the goal of passing medical marijuana legislation in Rhode Island.
2006
The Rhode Island House of Representatives overrides Governor Carcierri's veto to pass the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act, making it legal to grow, possess, and use marijuana for medical purposes.
2007
RI's Medical Marijuana Act becomes permanent, despite another veto by Carcierri.
2008
Massachusetts votes yes on Question 2, replacing the criminal penalties for possession of an ounce or less of marijuana with a civil citation and $100 fine.
2009
In June, the RI House overrides yet another veto to pass legislation beginning a licensing process for compassion centers, locations where medical marijuana cardholders can safely purchase their medicine. Also in June, the Rhode Island Senate passes a resolution creating the Marijuana Prohibition Study Commission. The commission is tasked to research the effectiveness, cost, and consequences of marijuana prohibition and evaluate alternative policies. In August, the Rhode Island Campaign for Informed Marijuana Policy is founded and begins assembling a network of activists and reformers dedicated to ending marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island.
Sources:
The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition, Virginia Law Review
Alcohol Prohibition Poster
Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, The Report of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse,
Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs: What We Don't Know Keeps Hurting Us, Committe on Data and Research for Policy on Illegal Drugs
Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition: About us!

Visit our alternatives page for discussion of other options for marijuana policy.

home · about us · prohibition · alternatives · join us · archives · links

RICIMP | PO Box 2602, Providence, RI 02906 | info[at]rimarijuana.org | Copyright 2009