With a devastating economic downturn and increasing violence associated with criminal drug syndicates, DPA Network believes it is time for an honest debate about our marijuana laws – and about changing them. We are a leading advocate of efforts to regulate marijuana in California (such as Assembly member Tom Ammiano’s AB 390) and to highlight the wasteful, punitive, racist effects of marijuana prohibition.

Limiting Government Waste

California wastes hundreds of millions of dollars a year trying to enforce unenforceable marijuana laws. More people are arrested for marijuana offenses every year (nearly 75,000 in 2007 alone), the vast majority for simple possession. Even though marijuana was decriminalized for personal use over 30 years ago, more resources are being squandered on marijuana prohibition than ever before - resources that could be directed to drug education and treatment and to far more serious offenses.

Capturing Tax Revenue

California is suffering the worst financial crisis in its history, and many lawmakers continue to deny the existence of the state's largest cash crop. Taxing marijuana sales could earn California billions in new revenue.  The longer we wait to tax and regulate marijuana, the larger and more lucrative the black market becomes.

Encouraging Responsible Use

Millions of Californians have tried marijuana, and hundreds of thousands use it regularly.  Like alcohol users, the vast majority of adults who use marijuana use it responsibly - in moderation and in the privacy of their homes. Marijuana prohibition makes them all criminals. Regulating marijuana means encouraging responsible use, and allowing addiction to be treated as a medical rather than criminal problem.

Restricting Youth Access

Despite prohibition, marijuana remains the most commonly used substance among high school students after alcohol. Marijuana is also easier to obtain, more widely used, and more prevalent on school property than cigarettes. Regulating marijuana means making it harder -not easier - for teenagers to get it. Regulation means restricting access to adults over the age of 21 and imposing serious penalties for sales to minors and for driving under the influence.

Reducing Violence and Corruption

Ending marijuana prohibition will take money directly out the hands of dangerous criminal cartels on both sides of the border. Just like alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s, marijuana prohibition has helped guarantee that the dangerous black market in illegal drugs remains profitable and powerful. Bringing the market for marijuana into the open will hamstring the Al Capones and Pablo Escobars of today by taking away their most lucrative product.

Letting Californians Decide for Themselves

The Supreme Court of the United States has made it clear that California has the right to define and enforce its own laws regarding the availability of medical marijuana, free from federal interference. The right to decide whether and how marijuana should be available for personal, non-medical use is no different. The people of California have the right and the obligation to take responsibility for their own health and their own bodies.

More Resources

• Fact Sheet: Taxing and Regulating Marijuana in California
• Fact Sheet: Marijuana and Health 
• Chart: Marijuana Arrests in California 
• Op Ed: The Racism of Marijuana Prohibition
• Take Action!