Civil Penalties for Marijuana Possession Fact Sheet

Compiled by Drug Policy Alliance. March 2001.

Over the past century, numerous reports from independent, government-sponsored commissions have concluded that replacing criminal sanctions with civil penalties causes no increase in marijuana use, and have recommended the elimination of criminal sanctions for marijuana consumption-related offenses.

The New Mexico legislature, following in the steps of other state legislatures, outlawed marijuana in 1935. (1)

  • 65% of New Mexicans support making the possession of small amounts of marijuana a civil infraction with no arrest or jail time. (2)
  • Between 1973 and 1978, 11 states reduced the offense of possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana to a civil violation, with a maximum penalty of a $100 fine. Studies concluded that this had no significant impact on rates of use, but substantially reduced the social costs associated with the enforcement of marijuana laws. (3)
  • In 1999, 46 percent of the 1,532,200 total arrests for drug abuse violations were for marijuana-a total of 704,812. Of those, 620,541 people were arrested for possession alone. (4) Marijuana arrests have doubled in the last ten years.
  • In 1996, 5,358 New Mexicans were arrested for a marijuana violation. (5)
  • Over 76 million Americans have admitted to trying marijuana. (6) This is approximately a third of the adult population.
  • A 15-year John Hopkins University study published in May 1999 found "no significant differences in cognitive decline between heavy users, light users, and non-users of cannabis." (7)
  • In 1999 the congressionally-chartered Institute of Medicine examined the "gateway theory" and determined, "There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs." (8)
  • In examining the relationship between marijuana and violent crime, President Nixon's National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (the "Nixon-Shafer Report") concluded, "Rather than inducing violent or aggressive behavior . . . marijuana was usually found to inhibit the expression of aggressive impulses." (9)
  • The same Presidential commission also found, "A careful search of the literature and testimony of the nation's health officials has not revealed a single human fatality in the United States proven to have resulted solely from ingestion of marijuana . . . This is in marked contrast to other substances in common use, most notably alcohol and barbiturate sleeping pills." (10)
  • Since 1969, government-appointed commissions in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, and the Netherlands concluded, after reviewing the scientific evidence, that marijuana's dangers had previously been exaggerated, and urged lawmakers to drastically reduce or eliminate penalties for possession. (11)
  • The Netherlands, which has permitted the possession and retail sale of marijuana since 1976, ranks lower than the United States in the percentage of people who have ever used marijuana in every age category, has a higher age of initiation among those that do try marijuana, and fewer adolescents in the Netherlands than in the United States use other illegal drugs. (12)
  • In 1972 the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded, "The Commission is of the unanimous opinion that marihuana use is not such a grave problem that individuals who smoke marihuana, or possess it for that purpose, should be subject to criminal procedures." (13)

NOTES:

1. New York Times, April 14, 1935

2. Research and Polling, Inc., February, 2001

3. Single, E., The Impact of Marijuana Decriminalization: An Update, Journal of Public Health Policy, Winter, 1999.

4. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1999 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 2000).

5. Gettman, J. (2002) "US Marijuana Arrests. Part One-County Level Data", Washington, D.C., National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

6. SAMHSA, Summary of Findings from the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (Rockville, MD: Department of Health and Human Services, 2000)

7. Lyketsos, C., Garrett, E., Liang, K., and Anthony, J. (1999). "Cannabis Use and Cognitive Decline in Persons Under 65 Years of Age," American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 149, No. 9.

8. Joy, J., et al.., Marijuana and Medicine; Assessing the Science Base, Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999).

9. Shafer, R., et al, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, Chap. V, (Washington, DC: National Commissions on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, 1972)

10. Shafer, R., et al, Chap. V.

11. Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence, Cannabis (London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1969); Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry, The Non-Medical Use of Drugs (Ottawa, Canada: Information Canada, 1970); The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding, (Nixon-Shafer Report) (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1972); Werkgoep Verdovende Middelen, Background and Risks of Drug use (The Hague, The Netherlands: Staatsuigeverij, 1972); Senate Standing Committee on Social Welfare, Drug Problems in Australia-An Intoxicated Society (Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1977).

12. Zimmer, Lynn and Morgan, John P. Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, The Lindesmith Center, New York, 1997.

13. Shafer, R., et al, Chap. V