Prohibition creates, sustains and handsomely rewards the illegal drug industry while pretending to fight that very same industry.
By Michael Komorn
10. The benefits of hemp are denied. Hemp can be used for paper, paneling, plastics, clothing and thousands of other useful products. The seeds are highly nutritious and can be used to make flour, cooking oil and cattle feed.
Hemp is an environmentally friendly plant that grows without herbicides, nourishes the soil, matures rapidly and offer high yields. It’s the number-one biomass producer in the world – ten tons per acre in four months. It could be a highly proficient fuel-producing crop.
Hemp, often referred to as “nature’s perfect plant,” could rain favor to suffering American farmers in addition to reducing America’s dependence on fossil fuels, which could play an integral role mitigating climate change.
9. Prohibition consumes billions that could be used to help the needy. More than 50 government agencies feed at the drug war trough. An average of $2.4 billion is spent annually in the U.S. on the War On Drugs. Food stamps and other social programs are being slashed while billions are spent trying to stop adults from using marijuana — a plant that grows naturally..
8. Prohibition is undoubtedly counterproductive. The certainty of lucrative profits for anyone on who can produce and deliver marijuana to the streets assured that even more will be produced and delivered.
7. Criminalizing marijuana is without moral justification. Real crimes require both a victim and a perpetrator. Can you imagine being tried for robbing yourself? Our government has done the equivalent by making adult use of marijuana a crime.
6. Marijuana users are not debased human beings. Billions around the commonly enjoy positive benefits from mind-altering drugs (especially from alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and marijuana).
Demonizing and criminalizing some drugs, while approving others without rational criteria, is arbitrary and ill-calculated. Why are marijuana users criminals while alcohol and tobacco users are not? Why are marijuana dealers demonized, but alcohol and tobacco dealers are not?
5. Marijuana is effective medicine. There’s overwhelming documented evidence that marijuana can safely relieve pain, nausea and vomiting caused by various illnesses. In fact, marijuana is patently and naturally safer than most commonly prescribed drugs.
4. Promising medical research is condemned. The discovery of naturally occurring marijuana-like substances in the human body that activate so-called cannabinoid receptors has opened up vast possibilities for new medicines derived from the 66 or so cannabinoids identified in marijuana. These receptors are not just in the brain, but also found in many other parts of the body including the immune, endocrine and reproductive systems.
3. Billions in potential taxes go to drug cartels. Our cash-strapped states are being cheated out of billions that could be obtained by taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol.
2. Thousands of prohibition murders occur each year. Mexico is the world’s largest exporter of marijuana (most goes to the United States). There were at least 24,000 prohibition-related murders in Mexico since 2006. Thousands more died here, also a direct result of marijuana prohibition.
1. Prohibition denies our most basic human right. Prohibition takes away our right of sovereignty over our own bodies and gives this power to government. Does any other human right make sense if we don’t have sovereignty over our own bodies?
The drug war is a futile and perpetual effort that not only furthers the very effect it seeks to diminish. Our government deprives the needy in an effort to control the masses and fuel pharmaceutical dependence.,
Despite 40 years and $1 trillion-plus of taxpayer money spent trying to stop – not robbery, not rape, not murder, not even shoplifting – but mostly trying to stop adults from using marijuana; despite draconian punishments; despite jailing millions of nonviolent Americans; despite thousands of prohibition-related murders each year, illegal drugs are cheaper, purer and more readily available than ever.
Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.
Marijuana prohibition is a trillion dollar failure.
By Michael Komorn
If you were the leader of a nation, and you were given an extra $42 billion to spend, what might you do with it? Perhaps ensure that teachers had secure jobs, for higher wages? Maybe even feed and shelter the hungry? Or maybe even provide for all of those veterans that served their country in times of war…
It would be reasonable to expect that you pay the entire $7 billion annual increase in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. And since we’re focusing on the children, how about you hire 880,000 schoolteachers at the average U.S. teacher salary of $47,602 per year. Or even given our current teachers a 30 percent raise (at a cost of $15 billion, according to the American Federation of Teachers) and use what remains to take a $27 billion whack out of the federal deficit.
Or if we want to get crazy — use all $42 billion for a massive tax cut that would put an extra $140 in the pockets of every person in the county — $560 for a family of four.
Why $42 billion you ask? Well, that’s what our current marijuana prohibition cost American taxpayers each year — $10.7 billion in direct law enforcement costs, and $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues. And there’s reason to believe that may be an underestimate on the law enforcement side.
Basing calculations mainly on U.S. government statistics, researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D. concludes that marijuana in the U.S. is a $113 billion dollar business. That’s a major piece of the economic pie that is unregulated untaxed because it’s close to entirely off the books.
By consigning a very popular and user friendly product — one that’s been used by about 100 million Americans, according to government surveys — to the criminal underground, we’ve cut legitimate businesspeople out of the market and handed a monopoly to criminals and gangs.
This might make sense if marijuana were dangerous and needed to be banned at all costs, but science revealed long ago that the opposite if the case. Compared to alcohol, for example, marijuana is astonishingly safe. For one thing, marijuana is much less addictive than alcohol, with just nine percent of users becoming dependent, as opposed to 15 percent for booze. And marijuana is much less toxic.
Heavy drinking is well-documented to damage the brain and liver, and to increase the risk of many types of cancer. Marijuana, on the other hand, has never caused a medically documented overdose death, and scientists are still debating whether even heavy marijuana use causes any permanent harm at all. And then there’s violence. Again, the scientific findings are overwhelming: Booze incites violence and aggression; marijuana doesn’t.
Yet still we arrest one American every 38 seconds on marijuana charges. And we do so at a staggering cost in law enforcement expenses, lost tax revenues, and staggering profits for criminal gangs.
The alternative is clear: Regulate marijuana just as we do beer, wine, and liquor. The only thing lacking is the political will.
But as Bob Dylan said, “The times are a changin’.”
Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.
When Will Politicians Admit We Are Losing the War on Drugs?
By Michael Komorn
Leonard Frieling, Speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,contends that our political parties’ still refuse to acknowledge the War on Drugs as a costly, wasteful enterprise. This ignorance has hurt both our Country’s citizens and its government. Frielling, like many Americans during election time, was looking for a candidate and a party that based its policy platform on concrete, realistic goals that we could achieve rather than spouting the same old tired rhetoric defending current policies that we know have failed, namely the war on drugs. The blow-back from this ongoing war is the high monetary cost (around 1 trillion dollars according to some estimates), the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, and incentivizing violence and organized crime in the drug world. Furthermore, those who have been incarcerated for drugs will forever have difficulty finding work once they are released, leading many ex-cons into recidivism, simply to pay their court fees. For more information on the high cost to our nation has incurred from the failed war on drugs, click the link below.
If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana prescribed to you as a Medical Marijuana patient under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, or would like to explore the benefit of Medical Marijuana as a natural healing solution, contact Komorn Law and ensure your rights are protected.
Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.
Marijuana Prohibition Has Failed: To Legalize or Decriminalize?
By Michael Komorn
Most people agree that Marijuana Prohibition has failed. For the first time, 50% of Americans believe Marijuana should be legalized. In British Columbia, a referendum is in the works to change the Province’s Marijuana Policy. As the article below states, since 2005, arrests for Marijuana possession have doubled in the Western Province. Citizens in B.C., like in the States, believe that the time, energy, and resources of their police force would be better spent cracking down on violent crime. Sadly, Law Enforcement and the Courts are spending tax dollars and energy to punish citizens for simple possession, sending minor offenders of an archaic policy that less than half the population supports into the criminal justice system. The question then becomes do we legalize and regulate marijuana cultivation and distribution, or do we simply decriminalize it? The main concern about the Legalization route is that the tobacco companies become the only entities permitted to cultivate and distribute cannabis. It is time for reform, and we wish the people of British Columbia the best of luck with their referendum. To read the full article, please follow the link below.
If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana prescribed to you as a Medical Marijuana patient under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, contact Komorn Law and ensure your rights are protected.
Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Jury’s, rather than the Judge, will decide whether the minimum sentence is imposed on drug offenders. Drug offenders are among the most frequent to receive at least the minimum sentencing. Of the United States’ 2,266,800 adults either in prison or jail, at least a quarter of them are in for drug offenses. Current data shows that roughly 6.8 million Americans are dealing with drug addiction/dependence, providing a fresh stock of individuals for the criminal justice system to incarcerate each year. The ruling handed down by the Supreme Court will likely see the number of offenders sent to jail or prison reduced, as more and more Americans view drug abuse as a medical issue, rather than a criminal issue. To read more about the ruling, please click here
“God is too big to be concerned about somebody smoking a joint.”
By Michael Komorn
The “war on drugs” has yet another opposition — this time, a network of pastors is speaking out against the devastating effect it has had on the black community.
Potential attendees were reminded in a press release released in advance of the conference,, that African-Americans only make up 13 percent of the U.S. population and 13 percent of drug users. Yet, they account for 38 percent of those arrested for drug law violations and 59 percent of those convicted of drug law violations.
Rev. John Jackson from Trinity United Church of Christ in Gary, Indiana, spoke on camera about his beliefs on God and weed:
“I have had several people share with me privately, ‘Reverend, I smoke weed and I know I shouldn’t.’ I say, ‘Let me stop you right there. I don’t believe the God we serve is that small or petty to be concerned about you smoking weed. I don’t think God cares about that.’ I let them know that our God is too big to be concerned about somebody smoking a joint.”
The group of black pastors has an unexpected supporter in the televangelist Pat Robertson who indicated to his predominantly conservative audience last year that he also supported the decriminalization of drugs:
“I just think it’s shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance. The whole thing is crazy.”
