Americans are ready to say goodbye to marijuana prohibition.
According to a new Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans think that marijuana should be legal, including 55 percent of Republicans. Thirty-eight states, three territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. And Ohio, a traditionally conservative state, just voted to legalize recreational marijuana, making it the 24th state to do so since 2012.
It’s about time. Other lawmakers at the state and federal levels must take advantage of this changing landscape to push for further marijuana reforms to keep communities safe and families together.
For decades, we have relied on a heavy-handed, top-down, criminal justice-based approach to drug use that has robbed countless individuals of their ability to contribute to their communities and families.
The so-called “war on drugs” has cost American taxpayers more than $1 trillion while doing little to curb drug addiction or overdose deaths, which hit a record high in 2021. It’s clear the criminal justice system is not fit to handle these problems — it only exacerbates them by criminalizing what shouldn’t be a crime and punishing instead of treating.
Marijuana offers a clear example. Of the 106,699 overdose deaths in 2021, marijuana accounted for none. It never does. Yet, under federal law it is treated the same as a much more dangerous substance like heroin. Taxpayers shell out an estimated 7.6 billion annually to enforce anti-marijuana laws. But many of the costs are immeasurable.
I know from experience. At 23 years old, I was an up-and-coming producer and musician working with Snoop Dogg and 2Pac’s rap group, among others. More importantly, I was the father of two young boys. To make ends meet while waiting for my music career to take off, I sold small amounts of marijuana on the side.
My life changed forever when I was arrested for selling $300 worth of marijuana to a government informant. My punishment upon conviction was preordained and draconian: a mandatory prison sentence of 55 years. It was so obscene that even the judge – a conservative, tough-on-crime George W. Bush appointee – described my sentence as “cruel, unjust, and even irrational.”
Thankfully, I had people in my corner who kept fighting for me, and I was released from prison after 13 years when a federal court reduced my sentence. But I will never get that time back with my sons and family.
Sentences like mine are no longer common. After my release, I worked with both political parties to help change the laws that led to my brutal sentence. And for the past two administrations, the Justice Department has declined to prosecute federal marijuana violations in states that have legalized it. But those laws are still on the books, and federal prohibition is often cited to justify continued state marijuana bans.
The federal government should move to fully decriminalize marijuana and allow states to make their own decisions on prohibition, just as Ohio did. The Buckeye State has always been a political bellwether, so we should expect more states – including red states – to follow Ohio’s lead.
For their part, members of Congress from GOP strongholds like Ohio, Missouri, Florida, Montana, and South Carolina have spoken out in favor of ending federal marijuana prohibition. They reflect the changed attitudes surrounding marijuana, even in the most conservative areas of the country.
They also reflect the impact that ending marijuana prohibition would have on reducing violent crime, a key GOP talking point. State and local law enforcement agencies are chronically understaffed and overworked, resulting in more violent crimes going unsolved and fewer victims receiving justice. Ending marijuana prohibitions can free up precious police time and resources to focus on more serious crimes.
It now falls upon us to unwind decades of ineffective and harmful marijuana policy. By lifting the federal marijuana ban, states will gain a new and important freedom to shape their own communities. Here, America’s modern approach to alcohol and tobacco can provide a model for state and local marijuana regulation, which can be adapted to the unique needs of individual jurisdictions and supported by robust community programs with local knowledge and expertise.
Marijuana laws in Ohio will be different from those in Colorado or Massachusetts, and that’s a good thing. Lawmakers will have to listen to the input of their constituents when implementing a regulatory scheme for legal marijuana.
But this is only the first step of remedying the errors of marijuana prohibition. Government officials must also revisit existing marijuana convictions and sentences. Anyone serving time for non-violent marijuana offenses should be released from prison, and those convicted of marijuana crimes who have lived peacefully in society should have their criminal records expunged.
It’s time for public policy that is aligned with the 70 percent supermajority that supports marijuana legalization.
Weldon Angelos is criminal justice reform advocate and founder of The Weldon Project, a non-profit organization committed to securing relief for people who are incarcerated over cannabis. He received a presidential pardon for his own federal marijuana conviction in 2020 after serving 13 years in prison.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.