Resources
Cheerful News from Colorado 2023:
Starting In January 2014 stores began to sell cannabis legally to adults for the first time since 1937. Since then, a ‘Thundering Silence’ has occurred in the Rocky Mountain State…Essentially no news worth reporting. Even the Prohibition supporters have a hard time finding attracting media attention to detail the ‘disaster’ of legalization. In 2023 – 1000+ stores are open and they sold over 2 billion dollars in cannabis products in 2022. The stores employ some 34,000 taxpaying workers.
Full Report in English at:
Cheerful News from Colorado re: Cannabis Legalization/Regulation/Taxation
French;
Grâce á un plébiscite en décembre 2012 la possession, le vente et la culture du cannabis sont devenus légaux. Malgré les sinistres avertissements de police et politiciens, la légalisation n’a pas provoque’ presque rien de nouvelles, on dit un ‘silence tonitruant.’ Début 2023 il y a 1000 + magazines qui emploient environs 34,000 ouvriers.
Les ventes ont généré plus de 2 milliards de revenus des contribuables depuis 2014.
Le Rapport en Français:
Les bonnes nouvelles du Colorado concernant la légalisation du Cannabis
German;
Bei einer Volksabstimmung im Dezember 2012 wurde der Kannabisbesitz und der Anbau für Erwachsene (21) legalisiert. In Januar 2014 konnte man zum ersten mal in 77 Jahren Kannabis für persönliche Konsum im Laden kaufen. Anfangs 2023 gibt es ungefähr 1000 Laden in Colorado mit 34,000 Angestellte.
Der Bericht auf Deutsch:
Erfreuliche Neuigkeiten aus Colorado: Bezüglich der Legalisierung von Kannabis
Spanish;
El Cannabis se legalizo’ en 2012. Las tiendas abrieron el primero de enero del 2014. En 2023 hay 1000+ tiendas vendiendo la marihuana con 34,000 empleados. Desde 2014 las tiendas han generado unos 2 billones de impuestos por el gobierno de Colorado. Más importante, hay un escaso de resultados negativos.
El Informe en Español:
Noticias Alentadoras desde Colorado: Legalización/Regulación del Cannabis.
DUI of Marijuana Arrest Procedures (or any non-alcohol, intoxicating drug (pain killers, etc)
Overview: Based on the street experience of this author (400 arrests for DUI or DUID), arresting anyone for non-alcohol related DUI follows closely the same procedures as alcohol-related DUI. The three (3) differences are that on the side of the road, there is no instrument-based test to determine the level of intoxication. The second difference is that blood should be drawn before the arrestee is put in jail. The third is the results of the blood test are not known, until after the arrestee has been released. Regardless of the court outcome, public safety is served, as the impaired driver is removed from the road.
Full report at: DUI Marijuana: 2022
Full Report at: Oregon Decrim 2021
In November 2020 Oregon voters passed a comprehensive, drug decrim initiative 58 to 42 % for personal amounts* hard drugs, over stiff opposition from the police organizations, the prosecutor’s association and the Drug Treatment Industry. Decrim signals an end to our 50 year running War on Drugs – War on the American People. Oregon voters were able to look at the Portugal experience as a guide for both ‘how to’ and the 20-year running positive results. Implementation was Feb 2021. In the first 2 years no, 0.0 reports of any major problems have come up; car searches are down about 80%, as well as tickets written by police for simple possession.
Immediate Advantages:
- Improve police-community relations by reducing arrests, searches and friction with citizens
- Reduce criminal justice costs (police, prosecutor, jail, police lab time and probation) – Focus on serious, public-safety related crimes
- Remove the down-stream problems generated by a criminal arrest – employment, etc
- Enables the community to deal with drug use/abuse issues in a medical setting
- Reduce Mass Incarceration.
*personal amount (example 2 grams of cocaine, 1 gram of heroin. 2 g of meth)
Scenario: officer finds a citizen with personal amount of an illegal drug. Officer seizes the drug and eventually puts it in the evidence room (later destroyed). The officer gives the person a ticket. The citizen can either pay a civil $100 fine or can go to a ‘Health Assessment Committee’ which would determine if the person needed treatment or not. If treatment is recommended, the citizen is given the info of where to seek treatment.
Swiss Treatment Approach (Heroin Assisted Treatment) to Heroin Addiction 1994 – 2023:
Overview: Due to the severe drug problem in Switzerland in the early 1990s, (rising number of injection drug users, visibility of open drug scenes, AIDS epidemic, rising number of drug related deaths, poor physical health, high criminality) the Swiss made a fundamental shift in approaching the problems caused by heroin addiction. The Swiss offer treatment-on-demand and life-time status as a patient (Like an alcoholism is a lifelong condition). A variety of different treatments is available, in order to treat a broad range of dependent people. Of an estimated 22-24,000 addicted people 17,500 are in treatment. 92% are given daily doses of primarily methadone (orally) at conventional clinics or via general practitioners (60%). The Swiss treat about 1600 dependent people with maintenance doses of heroin (diacetylmorphine: Di-M) or slow-release morphine tablets at 23 special clinics operating in cities and two prisons
Full Report at:
Switzerland’s Groundbreaking Approach to Heroin Treatment.
BEST REASONS TO EXAMINE MARIJUANA PROHIBITION
#1A. Public safety suffers as a result of MJ Prohibition, as officers are diverted from more important cases. The detectives flying around in helicopters looking for marijuana in your backyard are not catching the pedophiles in the internet chatrooms nor the rapists near the jogging paths. Road officers spend as much time looking for marijuana under someone’s front seat as they do drunk drivers. And what kills 11,000 Americans every year?
#1B. Personal Safety. Marijuana is safer than alcohol for the user, their family and their community. Anyone of any age who uses marijuana in place of alcohol improves the outcome of drug use i.e. no overdose deaths by drinking, far fewer homicides, suicides, rapes, assault, child/spouse abuse, car crashes, and other problems caused by drinking & not by marijuana. How many teetotalers would start using MJ, when it became legal? Not many.
#2.. Improve health care and lower costs. Marijuana is the best medicine in some cases and certainly it is the least expensive. Unrestricted use by adults would improve their health, as it has few side effects, low addiction qualities and titration (dosing) improves. Since it could be grown privately for nearly free or purchased at price approaching aspirin per dose, families could save on drug costs. That is THE reason drug companies fear marijuana as a competitive product.
#3. Prohibition causes disrespect for all laws. Everyone sees the hypocrisy of marijuana being illegal, while cigarettes, alcohol, Valium & Prozac are legal. Young adults who have their cars or persons illegally searched by over-zealous police become bitter and don’t respect the law.
#4A. Human costs. Tuition costs at colleges are much higher, as states build more prisons, instead of properly funding higher education. Thus fewer young people can attend or they are burdened with huge debts upon graduation. Prohibition increases the contact that marijuana consumers have with dealers who offer harder drugs for sale.
Prohibition sucks our kids into criminality, when they become sellers of pot. This can end up with them in prison or dead. Pot’s illegality creates glamour and rebellion factors, drawing youth to it like moths to a flame. Per federal studies, marijuana has been easier for young teens to buy than alcohol for 30 years. Per the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) “drugs are readily available to America’s youth.” How could it become worse?
#4B. Financial costs. Enforcement costs are conservatively 11 billion per year. Taxed at a dollar per dose (.8 grams), 5 billion could be added to budgets across the nation. At 30,000 per year per prisoner, those in prison for sale or probation violation chew up billions of tax dollars.
#5. Marijuana use does NOT increase use of harder drugs. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (division of the National Institute of Health) concluded, “There is no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone [to other drugs] on the basis of its particular physiological effect.”
The American College of Physicians noted in February 2008, “Marijuana has not been proven to be the cause or even the most serious predictor of serious drug abuse.”
FYI
“Conviction without action is Worthless” – Author unknown.
Howard Wooldridge is available to speak to your organization, business or classroom. He is experienced in speaking on any aspect of current prohibition polices from its impact on public safety, to how it hurts our economy, to national security. His anti-prohibition message is clear, simple and easy to understand.
Sample of Howard speaking to a Rotary: (8400 views so far)
Local Congressional offices make appointments and they will give you 15-30 minutes of an aide’s time to express yourself. A face to face meeting is the gold standard of impact on a Member.
