If only the 800,000+ people arrested for marijuana-related charges last year had all also been white and won Olympic gold medals, we wouldn't have a problem, now would we? This idiocy has to stop. And BTW, contrary to another Join Together report earlier this week, three former Latin American heads of state did not call for "studying" the legalization of marijuana last week. They don't need no more steenkin' studies. (After all, we've studied this to death, as far back as the British commission on the "Indian problem" a century ago. The conclusions have always been the same, as has the non-response.) They know that the costs of marijuana prohibition have far outweighed the benefits since the beginning of this racist war on "illegal smiles". They called for legalization -- now. (For the drug warriors here, legalization does not mean license. But all y'all should know that by now.)

If you could charge someone for a picture then half of Myspace and Facebook would be under arrest for everything from drug use to underage drinking. And no matter what the legalizers want you to believe people aren't going to prison for smoking a joint. Unless they already have 3 strikes or are on probation. It's their turn to try using "scare tactics" on America.

Bernie: Comments on the Latin America study properly belong on that page, not this one. However, the Reuters article we summarized clearly framed the story as a call for debate, not a call for legalization, and the ex-presidents document itself states, "The way forward lies in acknowledging the insufficient results of current policies and, without dismissing the immense efforts undertaken, launching a broad debate about alternative strategies." Our summary never used the word "study" to describe the presidents' call for change.

How come we adults are holding A-Rod (baseball) and Phelps to such different standards?

Of course Bernie is correct. Marijuana prohibition, like alcohol prohibition of the 1920s, has caused (and continues to cause) far greater damage to society than can be caused by marijuana. During the last three decades, cigarette sales/consumption in the US declined 40% (largely due to cigarette tax hikes, smokefree workplace policies, lawsuits against cigarette companies, marketing restrictions to reduce youth use) without cigarette smokers being fired from their jobs, entrapped, arrested, convicted, imprisoned, cajoled into abstinence only treatment with lots of pee tests, paroled, financially destroyed, made unemployable or an unfit parent. Can anyone imagine the similar horrors that would have occurred to the nation's 45 million smokers if cigarettes had been banned like marijuana? Marijuana should be decriminalized by Congress, and states should enact laws that regulate it similar to far more addictive and deadly cigarettes (i.e. high excise tax, sales limited to adults).

Robert, JTO confused what the three ex-presidents said w/ what the commission report stated. They are different. (CNN) Former presidents called . for . decriminalization of marijuana . and a change in (drug war) tactics . Ex-presidents . made their announcement at a meeting . of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy.. "The problem is that current policies are based on prejudices . and not on results," Gaviria said (when) the commission's recommendations were presented.. "In many US states, . they have begun to change . policies with regard to tolerating marijuana for therapeutic purposes. In Washington there's some consensus that the current policy is failing," Gaviria (said). Cardoso said the group called for only (marijuana decrim) . Marijuana was chosen because it is grown in all countries in the region and because it is "less harmful." The decades-old criminalization of personal consumption has failed to stop the plant's cultivation ., the group said. The commission urged that all current criminal prosecution be aimed at . organized crime and not marijuana smokers." http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/11/brazil.marijuana/index.html?iref=hpmostpop

In response to Give Me A Break, the leading cause of revocation of probation/parole (and a swift ride to prison) is a dirty urine. Most of those dirty urines test positive for marijuana. When I myself was locked up in a federal Bureau of Prisons facility, my fellow inmates said that that's why many felons turn to cocaine, meth, heroin and prescription drugs (after their conviction) to get high. They could use those other drugs on Friday night and test clean on Monday. With marijuana, they might test positive for two weeks or more after a single use. Give us ALL a break, please.

Bernie: You just connected marijuana use with addiction: those inmates couldn't go without getting high.

No, Jason, I just connected marijuana use by probationers and parolees as the leading cause of a return to prison which, in turn, motivated those among that sub-group who wanted to keep using drugs to turn to much more hazardous substances which were less detectable. In this particular instance (only), I would admit that past marijuana use was a gateway to more hazardous substances for that sub-group. Some of the folks I heard this from were back "inside" because they preferred the more benign effects of marijuana to what harsher and more hazardous drugs did to them, which caused them to test dirty for pot and be returned to lock-up. BTW, perhaps 80% of my fellow inmates had prior serious alcohol and drug abuse problems so 1) their experiences would not be representative of the general population and 2) they really needed access to AA, NA and other 12-Step programs but they were prohibited from participation in those programs by the facility we were in. That is why I set up a 12-Step program while I was inside, which was constantly interrupted and otherwise disrupted by the facility's "counselors". Go figure.

response to the responses etc. We are told that only 23 to 25% of Americans smoke. I teach relapse prevention classes and When I ask for a show of hands in my groups of drug and alcohol addicts, I usually get about a 95 to 100% response to the question, How many of you have been smokers either now or in the past? It's obvious to me, at least, that the number one "gateway drug" is tobacco. It also kills more people than all the other drugs and alcohol put together. Let's focus on that drug.

It's very sad how Phelps and A-Rod are being held to such different standards.

Bernie: Often, the argument is used that there are more whites than people of color in jail for marijuana (and other crimes) to point out that it's not just the latter who are criminals. Therefore, please don't inject the race card into these discussions. You are turning back the clock, which contributes to hate-crimes.