● Relatively few Americans had even heard about marijuana when it was first

federally prohibited in 1937. Today, 52% of Americans admit to having tried it,1 and
22.2 million say they have used it in the past month.2

● According to government-funded researchers, high school seniors consistently report

that marijuana is easy to get, despite a decades-long drug war. From 1975-2012, 80-
90% of 12th graders consistently reported that marijuana was “fairly easy” or “very
easy” to obtain. For the first time since the survey began 40 years ago, high school
seniors’ perception of marijuana’s availability has dipped below 80% — after states
began to legalize cannabis. As of 2018, 79.7% of high school seniors perceived
marijuana as “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain.3

● Government data has shown that reforming marijuana laws, including by legalizing
marijuana for adults 21 and older, has not resulted in teenagers using more
marijuana.4

● There have been more than 15 million marijuana arrests in the United States since
1995, including an estimated 659,700 in 2017 — significantly more than for all
violent crimes combined. One person is arrested for marijuana every 48 seconds.
More than 90% of marijuana arrests are for possession, not manufacture or
distribution.5

● Every comprehensive, objective government commission that has examined

marijuana use and its prohibition throughout the past 100 years has recommended
that adults should not be criminalized for using marijuana.6

● In 2012, the last year for which data is available, federal government figures
indicated there were more than 40,000 Americans in state or federal prisons on

1 Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. Yahoo News/Marist Poll: Weed & The American Family,
April 17, 2017. Available at: http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/Yahoo
News/20170417_Summary Yahoo News-Marist Poll_Weed and The American Family.pdf
2 NSDUH. What is the scope of marijuana use in the United States? Updated June 2018. Available at:
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/what-scope-marijuana-use-in-united-
states
3 Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2018. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social
Research, The University of Michigan, Table 17. Available at:
http://monitoringthefuture.org/data/18data/18drtbl17.pdf
4 For the results of every before-and-after survey, see MPP’s “Teens’ Marijuana Use Does Not Increase
Following Marijuana Policy Reforms.” Available at: http://www.mpp.org/issues/legalization/teen-
marijuana-use-does-not-increase/
5 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States annually.
6 For example, Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894; The Panama Canal Zone Military
Investigations, 1925; The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York (LaGuardia Committee Report),
1944; Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding (Nixon-Shafer Report), 1972; An Analysis of Marijuana
Policy (National Academy of Sciences), 1982; Cannabis, Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy
(Report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs), 2002, and others.
 marijuana charges, not including those in county jails.7 That’s more than the number
imprisoned on all charges combined in eight European Union countries.

● A federal survey found that 4.4% of former state prison inmates had been sexually
victimized the last time they were incarcerated. Females were almost twice as likely
to be victimized by other inmates than males.8

● Civil forfeiture laws allow police to seize the money and property of suspected
marijuana offenders — charges need not even be filed. The claim is against the
property, not the defendant. The owner must then prove that the property is
“innocent.” Enforcement abuses stemming from forfeiture laws abound.9

● A sample estimate from the Congressional Research Service estimated that replacing
marijuana prohibition with regulation and imposing a $50 per ounce tax nationwide
would generate $6.8 billion in excise taxes alone.10 The estimate did not count new
sales taxes or income taxes that would be generated by taking sales off the criminal
market.

● Colorado and Washington have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue

by taking marijuana sales off of the illicit market and regulating it. Colorado
generated $250 million in adult-use marijuana taxes in 2018,11 while Washington
collected more than $430 million that year.12

● Many patients and their doctors find marijuana to be a useful medicine as part of the
treatment for chronic pain, the side effects of chemotherapy, AIDS-related wasting,
seizures, and other ailments. Yet, the federal government allows only three patients
in the United States to use marijuana as a medicine, through a program now closed
to new applicants. Federal laws treat all other patients currently using medical
marijuana as criminals. Doctors are presently allowed to prescribe opiates and
morphine — but not marijuana.13

● Organizations that have endorsed medical access to marijuana include the American
Public Health Association, AIDS Action Council, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,
American Academy of HIV Medicine, American Nurses Association, the Epilepsy
Foundation, Lymphoma Foundation of America, National Association of People

7 Caulkins, J. P., Hawken, A., Kilmer, B., & Kleiman, M. (2012). Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone
Needs to Know, OUP USA.
8 Beck, A. J., Berzofsky, M., Caspar, R., & Krebs, C. (2013, May). Sexual Victimization in Prisons and
Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011-12. Retrieved September 2016 from
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112.pdf
9 U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, Forfeiting Our Property Rights: Is Your Property Safe From Seizure? Cato
Institute, 1995.
10 Jane Gravelle and Sean Lowry, “Federal Proposals to Tax Marijuana: An Economic Analysis,”
Congressional Research Service, November 13, 2014.
11 https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data
12 Monthly excise tax data: https://www.502data.com/
Monthly sales tax data: https://dor.wa.gov/about/statistics-reports/recreational-and-medical-marijuana-taxes
13 Grinspoon, Lester, M.D., and Bakalar, J.D., “Marijuana as Medicine: A Plea for Reconsideration,”
Journal of the American Medical Association, June 21, 1995.
 With AIDS, the state medical associations of Maryland, California, and Rhode
Island, and many others.

● A handful of the many editorial boards that have endorsed replacing marijuana
prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation include: The New York Times,
Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Denver Post, The Chicago Sun-Times, The
Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, Charleston Gazette-Mail, Orange County
Register, and the Miami Herald.

● Since 1996, 33 states’ voters or lawmakers have approved measures to remove

criminal penalties for seriously ill people who possess and safely access medical
marijuana.

● A 2018 Gallup poll found 66% of Americans believe marijuana use should be legal
for adults.14 Several other polls, including Pew Research, have also found 60% or
greater support. Support for legal access to medical marijuana has been consistently
strong (e.g., 94% support according to a Quinnipiac University poll in April 2017).15

● Eleven states have made marijuana legal for adults 21 and older — Alaska,
California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan Nevada, Oregon,
Washington, and Vermont. In all of those cases except Vermont, the states have
replaced prohibition with taxed and regulated systems. In Vermont and Washington,
D.C. adults may possess and cultivate marijuana, but the jurisdictions do not yet
allow, tax, or regulate adult-use marijuana sales.

● In Colorado, the first state where retail sales began for adults’ use, taking marijuana
off the criminal market and regulating it has created many thousands of jobs. More
than 40,000 occupational licensees are active for jobs created directly by Colorado’s
cannabis industry.16

● In addition to the 11 states where marijuana is legal for adults, 15 states have
removed the possibility of jail time for possession of modest amounts of marijuana
for personal use under most circumstances. Fines may be issued (somewhat similarly
to traffic tickets), but there is typically no arrest, incarceration, or criminal record.17

● Decriminalization saves a tremendous amount in enforcement costs. California saved

an estimated $857 million in 2006 alone.18

14 Gallup poll, “Two in Three Americans Now Support Legalizing Marijuana,” October 22, 2018; Pew
Research Center, “About six-in-ten Americans support marijuana legalization,” (finding 62% support)
October 8, 2018; CBS, “Marijuana legalization support at all-time high,” updated May 16, 2017 (61%).
15 Malloy, T. “Voter Support For Marijuana Hits New High; Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; 76
Percent Say Their Finances Are Excellent Or Good.” Quinnipiac University, April 20, 2017,
https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2453
16 MED Resources and Statistics, January 2, 2019: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/enforcement/med-
resources-and-statistics
17 The states are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska,
New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and Rhode Island.
18 Gettman, J. “Marijuana Arrests in the United States (2007),” The Bulletin of Cannabis Reform,
November 2009.
 ● In 2001, a National Research Council study sponsored by the U.S. government
found “little apparent relationship between the severity of sanctions prescribed for
drug use and prevalence or frequency of use, and ... perceived legal risk explains
very little in the variance of individual drug use.” The primary evidence cited came
from comparisons between states that have and have not decriminalized marijuana.19

● “Zero tolerance” and “per se” policies against “drugged driving” can result in “DUI”
convictions of drivers who are not intoxicated at all. Trace amounts of THC
metabolites detected by commonly used tests can linger in blood and urine for weeks
after any psychoactive effects have worn off. This is equivalent to convicting
someone of “drunk driving” days or weeks after he or she drank one beer.20

● The arbitrary criminalization of tens of millions of Americans who consume

marijuana results in a large-scale lack of respect for the law and the entire criminal
justice system.

● Marijuana laws have been enforced unequally: A review of the data by the ACLU
found that African Americans are 3.73 times as likely as whites to be arrested for
marijuana possession, despite similar marijuana use rates.21

● Marijuana prohibition subjects users to added health hazards:

o Adulterants, contaminants, and impurities: Marijuana purchased through

criminal markets is not subject to the same quality control standards as are legal
consumer goods. Illicit marijuana may be adulterated with much more damaging
substances; contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers; and/or
infected with molds, fungi, or bacteria.

o Inhalation of hot smoke: One well-established risk of marijuana consumption is

the fact that smoke is bad for the respiratory system. Laws that prohibit the sale
or possession of paraphernalia reduce the use of vaporizers, which are proven to
reduce these risks.22

● Because vigorous enforcement of marijuana laws forces the toughest, most

dangerous criminals to take over marijuana trafficking, prohibition links marijuana
sales to violence. According to the Congressional Research Service, more than
80,000 people lost their lives between 2006 and 2015 in Mexican drug cartel-related
violence.23

19 National Research Council, “Informing America’s Policy on Illegal Drugs: What We Don’t Know
Keeps Hurting Us,” National Academy Press, 2001; pp. 192-93.
20 Barry Logan, Ph.D., et al., “An evaluation of data from drivers arrested for driving under the influence
in relation to per se limits for cannabis,” AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, May 2016.
21 ACLU, “The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased
Arrests,” 2013.
22 Abrams D.I., et al., “Vaporization as a Smokeless Cannabis Delivery System: a Pilot Study,” Clinical
Pharmacology and Therapeutics 82(5): 572-8, November 2007.
23 June S. Beittel, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations (CRS Report No.
R41576)
(Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2015).
 ● Since states began legalizing marijuana, cartels’ marijuana business has plummeted.
Seizures at U.S. ports of entry have dropped from 2.4 million pounds of marijuana in
2013 to 861,231 pounds in 2018.24

● There is no government tracking of the number of lives lost related to cannabis

prohibition, but individuals have died while being incarcerated on possession
charges, cannabis sellers have been killed during armed robberies, and young adults
found with cannabis have been killed after being coerced into becoming police
informants.25

● The underground, unregulated marijuana market leaves cannabis workers vulnerable

to wage theft, sexual exploitation, and other predatory behavior.26 It also leaves them
at risk of felony charges and deprives them of access to standard labor protections.

● Prohibition invites corruption within the criminal justice system by giving officials
easy, tempting opportunities to accept bribes, steal and sell marijuana, and plant
evidence on innocent people.

● Because marijuana is typically used in private, trampling the Bill of Rights is a

routine part of marijuana law enforcement — e.g., use of drug dogs, urine tests,
phone taps, government informants, curbside garbage searches, military helicopters,
and infrared heat detectors.

24 “With U.S. competition hurting its marijuana business, Mexico warms a little to legalization,” Los
Angeles Times, January 27, 2018.
25 See: Colbert I. King “How (and Why) Did Jonathan Magbie Die?,” Washington Post, October 30, 2004;
Nick Wing “Homeless Man Dies In Jail After Being Locked Up For Marijuana Possession,” Huffington
Post, March 17, 2016; Associated Press, “Life in prison for man who shot marijuana dealer in holdup;”
Paige Gross, “College student guilty for her role in murder of marijuana dealer,” NJ.com, September 13,
2018; December 21, 2016; Jack Bouboushian, “Did Detroit Area Cops Send Transgender Teen to her
Death?,” Alternet, February 20 2013.
26 See: Shoshana Walter, “In secretive marijuana industry, whispers of abuse and trafficking,” Reveal
News, September 8, 2018.