AlterNet: The War on Pot Is a War on Young People

[marmar]

The War on Pot Is a War on Young People

By Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted October 17, 2008.

74% of all Americans busted for pot are under 30 -- it's long past time for young people to join ranks and help end this drug war.



Paul Armentano delivered this speech at NORML’s 2008 National Conference, "It's Not Your Parents' Prohibition" in Berkeley, Calif.

Young people, in many cases those under 18 years of age, disproportionately bear the brunt of marijuana law enforcement.

Demographically speaking, the above statement is a "no-brainer." Yet this is hardly a fact that we as a reform community like to admit or emphasize. Instead, you'll hear reformers argue that the war on pot is a war on patients -- and at some level, it is. Or you'll hear advocates proclaim that marijuana enforcement disproportionately impacts African-Americans and Hispanics -- and to some degree, it does. Attend enough of these conferences and you'll inevitably hear that our movement needs better representation from women and minorities, both of whom face unique hardships because of the drug war, and that criticism is appropriate too. But, one thing you'll most likely never hear is that our movement needs greater involvement from teenagers and young adults.

But we should -- because for the young people in the audience, the war on pot smokers is really a war on you.

According to a 2005 study commissioned by the NORML Foundation, 74 percent of all Americans busted for pot are under age 30, and 1 out of 4 are age 18 or younger. That's nearly a quarter of a million teenagers arrested for marijuana violations each year. To put this bluntly, we now have an entire generation that has been alienated to believe that the police and their civic leaders are instruments of their oppression rather than their protection.

And the sad fact is: They're right!

Why is this the case? And why, as a community, don't we talk about it? .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/103513/the_war_on_pot_is_a_war_on_young_people/

[glowing]

1. At the end of the day, its a $ problem.. We have a financial crisis on our hands.

Do we want to continue throwing money down a bottomless pit in the war on Marijuana.. the cost to community and tax payers is huge.... #1. it costs money to use police to bust up a kid getting high. #2. jail time or court hearings are tax payers money. #3. any young adult stuck in juvie or jail is less likely to become a productive member of society when they are locked away in jail along side really dangerous criminal elements.

Its something we just don't have the money for. Its the reason why state after state and city after city is making mandates to NOT look into smoking or possessing a certain amt of marijuan.

Its stupid... this war on a weed has lead to a loss of money that could pay for education.. and a loss of hemp, though not the weed smoked, is a loss of a productive industry that could renue an entire textile industry, an entire paper industry, a fuel source, a natural source for nutrition (hemp milk is one of the best milks for the body).

So, hopefully, someone get's their heads out of their asses and stops the non-sencical war on the weed.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. It's a $$$ problem for the Prison Industrial Complex. End the war on drugs and the PIC goes out of

business.

[Fumesucker]

5. Just as only Nixon could go to China..

Only conservatives can end the drug war.

If a Democrat were to suggest such a thing they will get the Kucinich treatment, they will be called kooky and weak on crime, something Dems, almost to a man, cannot bear.

But conservatives will not even suggest this, pot is the drug of the Dirty Fucking Hippies and conservatives hate no one more than the DFHs.

Biden is probably the single Dem most supportive of the drug war, he coined the term "Drug Czar", I don't think Obama will touch decrim with a ten foot pole and outright legalization is totally out of the question.

There are entirely too many people making entirely too much money off the drug war, Law Enforcement organizations strongly support the drug war, the cops know which side of the bread is buttered. Judges, lawyers, prison guards, drug testing labs, rehab clinics, they all stand to lose a great deal of income and a great many jobs.

So, as it is said on a smallish blog I read from time to time, Na Ga Ha Pen.. (not gonna happen)

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. It's also a war on sick people

Pot has many documented medical uses.

[dysfunctional press]

3. i think that depression.1 might change that thinking.

plese- LET US PAY TAXES!

http://www.druglibrary.org/taxes/

[RadiationTherapy]

6. This is delicate PR work. Teenagers as a group have been framed as needing to be sex-less,

drug-less, and always focused on college and career. It would take a major paradigm shift in order for the idea of recruiting teens and young adults into a pot legalization movement would result in anything other than a PR train wreck.

I think this is a bad idea.

[crickets]

7. Kick -nt