{"id":143867,"date":"2014-01-19T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-01-19T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=143867"},"modified":"2014-01-17T15:51:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T20:51:21","slug":"legalizing-weed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/01\/19\/legalizing-weed\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Just Legalizing Weed Doesn’t Go Far Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Legalize<\/p>\n

The Article:<\/strong> Don’t just legalize marijuana, free prior offenders<\/a> by Matthew Fleischer in The LA Times.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> With pot now legally for sale in Colorado, and Washington state gearing up to follow suit, marijuana legalization activists across the country are pushing hard to replicate these political successes in other states. Voters in Massachusetts could ratify legalized marijuana as early as 2016.<\/p>\n

This is undoubtedly a sign of progress. Our nation has capriciously squandered far too many precious national resources combating a green weed that makes people feel good.<\/p>\n

As welcome as a more widespread regulated marijuana industry would be, however, one thing that no one seems to be considering is what to do with those already convicted of marijuana crimes. It\u2019s estimated that 750,000 people are arrested every year on marijuana-related charges and up to 40,000 are currently in prison for marijuana crimes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When Colorado legalized marijuana via its 2012 ballot initiative, it made no stipulation about the fate of those already convicted of marijuana crimes. If you were sitting in prison for selling pot, you\u2019re still there. If you were ever convicted of a felony marijuana charge, it\u2019s still on your record \u2014 and your prospects of getting a decent job are likely still daunting.<\/p>\n

The decision by activists not to include leniency for previous offenders in the Colorado marijuana ballot initiative (even if it would have been good policy) made perfect political sense. It\u2019s far easier to sell voters on the financial benefits of creating a lucrative new marijuana industry than it is to persuade them to open up the prison gates and set convicts free.<\/p>\n

In most of the world, however, no such political calculus is required.<\/p>\n

According to a 2012 report by the Human Rights and Criminal Sentencing Reform Project for the University of San Francisco School of Law, the United States is one of only 22 countries that doesn\u2019t guarantee what\u2019s called \u201cretroactive ameliorative relief\u201d in sentencing. Which means that when a law such as one legalizing marijuana is passed in America, those already convicted of marijuana crimes don\u2019t automatically have their sentences relaxed. This puts us in the company of such bastions of social justice as Pakistan, Oman and South Sudan.<\/p>\n

If Germany were to legalize marijuana, on the other hand, those convicted of weed crimes would see their sentences commuted, according to the USF report.<\/p>\n

With 55% of Americans supporting marijuana legalization, the tea leaves aren\u2019t exactly difficult to read: Legalized marijuana in America is a matter of when, not if.
\nBut if we\u2019ve wised up to the fact that marijuana prohibition is either immoral, wasteful or both, then we also need to recognize the moral and financial imperative to ease the punishments on those already convicted. Because America does not guarantee retroactive ameliorative relief in sentencing, this won\u2019t happen without a fight.<\/p>\n

As more and more states attempt to amend their harsh marijuana laws, the issue of what to do with the previously convicted needs to be addressed by advocates and policymakers. As support for legalizing marijuana soars, surely the majority of us can agree that wasting the criminal justice system\u2019s time and money by continuing to penalize those convicted under the old, misguided drug laws is equally bad policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: Don’t just legalize marijuana, free prior offenders by Matthew Fleischer in The LA Times. The Text: With pot now legally for sale in Colorado, and Washington state gearing up to follow suit, marijuana legalization activists across the country are pushing hard to replicate these political successes in other states. Voters in Massachusetts could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Just Legalizing Weed Doesn't Go Far Enough<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If we legalize marijuana, we should also free prior offenders for possession.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/01\/19\/legalizing-weed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Just Legalizing Weed Doesn't Go Far Enough\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If we legalize marijuana, we should also free prior offenders for possession.\" \/>\n<meta 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