Opinion Piece - Life for Pot
On the first day of market trading for the New Year,
CNBC interspersed programing with positive stories of the new California
cannabis businesses. They covered a
broad range of the issues startups would face, but the common theme was
prosperity and hope. Sam Masucci talked
about the new marijuana ETF, Marcus Lemonis explored the marijuana business in
Humbolt County for The Profit.
I was ushering in the New Year trying to give hope
to people serving life in prison for selling marijuana while Jane Wells, Kate
Rogers and Aditi Roy were convincing listeners that California’s cannabis
commerce would bring promised affluence.
As the day wore on, the juxtaposition was as incredible as my conclusion
– today’s cannabis business plan is yesterday’s marijuana conspiracy. Life without parole is death by
imprisonment. The people I advocate for,
nonviolent marijuana lifers will die in prison while a “new industry” in
cannabis takes root.
We hoped that this category of nonviolent prisoner
would all receive commutations at the end of the last administration, but they
did not. They are aging in Federal
Prisons around the country while they watch the product they are incarcerated
for become a main stream commodity and a source of profit for individuals as
well as local and state governments.
Part of the conundrum and the most interesting
aspect is marijuana remains on the federal Controlled Substance Act of 1970 as
a Schedule 1 Drug. The characteristic of
a Schedule 1 drug are: 1. The drug has a high potential for abuse. 2. The drug
has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. 3.
There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision.1.
This antiquated Schedule ranks marijuana as
more dangerous than OxyContin or Fentanyl.
When criminal law cynically ignores the cultural reality, it can only
lead to disrespect for the law and those who attempt to enforce it. According
to Federal Code, All Cannabis Business Enterprises are Criminal.
Marijuana prohibition costs 42 billion dollars per
year to enforce. 2. There are
up to 500,000 arrests per year by local, state and federal law
enforcement. This is an enormous government
program. 3. Billions of tax dollars are wasted every year
on an incoherent policy that could repair a lot of failing bridges. The fix isn’t complicated. Removing marijuana from the Controlled Substance
Act’s Schedule and allowing it to be regulated like alcohol is the answer. States are moving in this direction regardless
of federal law.
The marijuana prisoners I advocate for are serving
life because they were charged with “conspiracy” and became accountable for
drugs sold by others, even people they had never met or known. Conspiracy
charges hold them responsible for acts that occurred over a period of years and
involve many people. Another common
thread is they didn’t plead guilty and chose to exercise their right to a
trial. Legal experts call it the trial
penalty. Key witnesses are usually
co-defendants who accept a plea and receive less prison time, government
agents, and even witnesses that are testifying for a fee.
These marijuana prisoners all have names and life
stories. They have mothers and fathers,
wives, husbands, siblings and children who all have suffered and wonder why
there is no mercy. Their family time is
spent traveling to a Federal Prison, being searched and processed, sometimes
drug tested, then sitting in a large visiting room with only two hugs allowed
and lunch from a vending machine. We are
paying dearly for this in federal treasure and human dignity. I would like to tell them that they will have
a chance to be home with their family before they die. They have been entrapped in a gigantic failed
social experiment and their release would bring it all to a harmonious
conclusion.
These sentences are not fiscally responsible and are
not compatible with our sense that we are a nation of compassion, mercy and
justice. These nonviolent marijuana
offenders with life need sentencing relief either through executive clemency or
retroactive legislation.
