A record nine states will have marijuana referenda on their ballots this fall. Voters in five of those states, Arizona, California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine, will face the question of whether they want to legalize it for recreational use.
It’s a bad idea. And voters should keep in mind first to put no faith in the promises that pro-legalization campaigners make.
Part of the reason this will appear on ballots in swing states is that Democrats feel it will bring out more of their voting base. (Perhaps Libertarians feel that way, too). But aside from any cynical political angles, the results from the first states to legalize marijuana are discouraging.
Promises made by the backers of legalization during the Colorado’s 2012 referendum have gone mostly unfulfilled in the time since recreational cannabis was formally permitted for adults in January 2014.
For example, one promised result was that there would be less crime, since the drug trade could operate legitimately instead of in black markets regulated by violence. But according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the annual number of drug- and gang-related murders has increased since legalization. More broadly, the overall numbers of murders, rapes and robberies in 2015 were all either even with or slightly up from levels before legalization.
Many people discuss drug legalization as a potential means of ending mass incarceration. But this hasn’t been the effect in Colorado, either. In 2013, right after Amendment 65 passed, the number of adult arrests for drugs fell sharply and dipped below 10,000 for the first time in years. But in 2014, the first year weed was actually legal, adult arrests for drug violations began to climb again, and it jumped by 15 percent in 2015. It appears to be returning to pre-legalization levels. This also suggests that state and local government budgets have not benefited from significantly lower expenses for drug enforcement.
The number of juvenile drug arrests has not changed dramatically, either, hovering in the range of 3,000 to 3,300 per year. But one thing that has changed is the rate at which black juveniles are arrested for marijuana. Contrary to what you might expect, that rate has sharply increased in Colorado since legalization, rising by 58 percent in the first year the drug was legal. This is despite studies that suggest marijuana use by Colorado teenagers, already quite high compared to other states, did not significantly increase after the drug was legalized.
Meanwhile, legalization has not made marijuana any less harmful to the brain development of teens and even young adults. Some studies show that its use impedes brain development, causes a loss of intelligence, and affects memory and impulse control. In some teens with genetic predispositions, it may even hasten or cause the onset of schizophrenia.
It is bitterly ironic that a state should plan to fund education by legalizing a drug so harmful to brain development in the young.
Another issue in Colorado is that law enforcement authorities have not figured out a reliable way to measure or punish intoxication by marijuana in drivers that will hold up in court. After all, the drug can remain in people’s systems for days after the high is gone. This means that the wider availability of pot puts another hazard on the road that cannot be effectively policed.
No one is terribly enthusiastic about the way drug enforcement works today in many states. The idea that someone caught with a bit of weed should face felony charges, long sentences and permanent career damage is not one we endorse. But that doesn’t mean outright legalization of a harmful drug for recreational use is the answer.
