Legalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States

[6] Eggemeier was defended by James R. White, an attorney who had not taken a drug case before nor was he much familiar with cannabis, but took interest in the matter as a devoted civil libertarian (describing himself as "to the right of Barry Goldwater").

[10][16] Though the act still imposed significant penalties for cannabis (up to a year's imprisonment for possession of small amounts), the change from a felony offense marked a notable liberalization in federal policy.

[6] The report also advised that harsh laws against cannabis did more harm than good, and recommended the removal of criminal penalties for possession and distribution of small amounts of the drug.

[22] The ruling stemmed from the 1972 arrest of Irwin Ravin, an Alaska resident who allowed himself to be caught possessing cannabis in order to challenge state law.

[6] NORML was actively involved in these efforts, lobbying in support of legislation and paying for proponents of decriminalization (including members of the Shafer Commission) to travel to various states to testify.

[25][26] Additionally, San Francisco residents approved Proposition W in 1978, a non-binding measure directing city law enforcement to "cease the arrest and prosecution of individuals involved in the cultivation, transfer, or possession of marijuana".

[6] By March 1978 Stroup's anger had reached a boiling point, as Bourne and the administration continued to support paraquat spraying in the face of growing public opposition to the practice and emerging evidence that it posed a serious health risk.

[6][30] Stroup decided to take matters into his own hands, contacting reporter Gary Cohn and informing him that Bourne had used cocaine at the annual Christmas party hosted by NORML a few months earlier.

Stroup's role in the scandal proved to be a major embarrassment for NORML, and by December 1978 led to his resignation, due to the anger and distrust that his actions had caused.

A movement of anti-drug parent activists was on the rise, driven by a spike in adolescent drug use and the wide availability of paraphernalia products for sale (some of which resembled children's toys).

[34][35] These laws imposed mandatory driver's license suspensions of at least six months for committing any type of drug offense (regardless of whether any motor vehicle was involved) including the simple possession of cannabis.

Seeking to clarify, the Justice Department issued the Cole Memorandum in August 2013, which specified eight conditions under which enforcement of federal law would be prioritized (such as distribution of cannabis to minors or diversion across state borders).

[101] In Colorado and Oregon, the most common use for marijuana is pain, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, nausea, posttraumatic stress disorder, cancer, epilepsy, cachexia, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, and degenerative neurological conditions.

[107][112] In 1988, Michael Aldrich and Tod Mikuriya published "Savings in California Marijuana Law Enforcement Costs Attributable to the Moscone Act of 1976" in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

[127][128] California Secretary of State's office said that on September 7, 2010, the beer lobby donated $10,000 to Public Safety First, a group which opposed the passage of Proposition 19 to legalize cannabis.

Studies acknowledge that cannabis can in rare cases cause adverse reactions, but is generally safer than any commonly consumed drug such as alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals.

[131][137] A 1933 report by the U.S. Army, titled Mariajuana Smoking in Panama, found that "There is no evidence that mariahuana as grown here is a 'habit-forming' drug in the sense in which the term is applied to alcohol, opium, cocaine, etc., or that it has any appreciably deleterious influence on the individuals using it.

[153] The ACLU takes a firm position that decriminalizing cannabis will keep tens of thousands of people from entering into the criminal justice system[154] as police efforts result in both unnecessary arrests and the enforcement of marijuana laws wastes billions of tax payers' dollars.

[154] One of the reasons that the ACLU has been such a strong supporter of drug decriminalization is that according to their research drug-related arrests have largely driven America's incarceration rate to unacceptable levels.

[161] There are claims of historical evidence showing that a significant reason for the marijuana ban by the US government was political and racist in nature, aimed to suppress black and Mexican minorities.

[181] In 1985, Gabriel G. Nahas published Keep Off the Grass, which stated that "[the] biochemical changes induced by marijuana in the brain result in drug-seeking, drug-taking behavior, which in many instances will lead the user to experiment with other pleasurable substances.

[184] However, an article published in The Activist Guide by John Morgan and Lynn Zimmer entitled "Marijuana's Gateway Myth", claims CASA's statistic is false.

[191] Paul Armentano, policy analyst for NORML, claimed because the rats were given THC at the young age of 28 days, it is impossible to extrapolate the results of this study to humans.

Kleiman entitled "Substance Abuse Policy from a Crime-Control Perspective" found the "high" from cannabis is unlikely to trigger violence and concluded:[197] Making marijuana legally available to adults on more or less the same terms as alcohol would tend to reduce crime, certainly by greatly shrinking the illicit market and possibly by reducing alcohol consumption via substitution if smoking marijuana acts, on balance, as a substitute for drinking alcohol rather than a complement to it since drinking seems to have a greater tendency to unleash aggression than does cannabis use.In 2004, a study by Scott Bates from the Boreal Economic Analysis & Research center entitled "The Economic Implications of Marijuana Legalization in Alaska", was prepared for Alaskans for Rights & Revenues.

[203] In a Huffington Post interview, Mark Kleiman, the "Pot Czar" of Washington state, said he was concerned that the National Cannabis Industry Association would favor profits over public health.

[186] In 2001, the New Mexico state-commissioned Drug Policy Advisory Group stated that decriminalizing cannabis "will result in greater availability of resources to respond to more serious crimes without any increased risks to public safety.

The measure requests the Santa Cruz City Clerk send letters annually to state and federal representatives advocating reform of cannabis laws.

[209] Ron Paul, a former Texas Congressman and 2008 Presidential Candidate, stated at a rally in response to a question by a medical cannabis patient that he would "never use the federal government to force the law against anybody using marijuana.

Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska and 2008 presidential candidate, responded to a caller on a C-SPAN program asking about cannabis and the drug war, he stated "That one is real simple, I would legalize marijuana.

[217] For instance, Revered Samuel Rodriguez of National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conferences stated that "laws that prohibit marijuana affect the minorities significantly and hence should be reconsidered."