Spoken Testimony of Robert D. Kampia before the U.S. Sentencing Commission
March 14, 1995
Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project in support of amendment #37.
First, I would like to explain why marijuana plants should be considered to weigh no more than 100 grams each for sentencing purposes, regardless of the number of plants involved.
The Marijuana Policy Project works to devise and promote policies to minimize the harm associated with marijuana. We support realistic regulations and restrictions designed to reduce the hazardous effects that marijuana may have on individual marijuana consumers and on society. We oppose any and all marijuana policies that cause more harm than good.
The kilogram-per-plant ratio used to determine the sentencing level for individuals convicted of growing 50 or more marijuana plants is a prime example of a policy that causes more harm than good. This ratio is unreasonable, arbitrary, and results in excessive prison sentences.
First of all, as marijuana horticulture expert Ed Rosenthal will soon testify, marijuana plants do not produce one kilogram each. In fact, they generally produce less than one-tenth of that amount. This is accurately reflected in the 100 grams-per-plant ratio used for people convicted of growing 49 or fewer plants.
As you know, 50 is presently a magic number: If a person is convicted of growing 50 or more plants, all of the plants--including numbers 1 through 49--are considered to each weigh one kilogram, which is 1,000 grams.
To demonstrate how outrageous this kilogram-per-plant ratio is, my colleague and I brought 50 marigold seedlings and 50 kilograms of grazing grass with us today. Unfortunately, we were informed yesterday that security would not allow us to bring this display into the building, so it is presently set up outside. I urge the Commissioners to take a look at the display, if you haven't already.
The simple fact is that 50 marijuana plants would not produce anywhere near 50 kilograms of marijuana. First and foremost, even under very good conditions, a marijuana plant just does not produce one kilogram of usable material. Furthermore, home-growers are not botanists. They are marijuana users, perhaps abusers, trying to save a buck. They don't know how to produce large yields from marijuana plants. They're lucky if half of the plants survive. It is usually because of their inadequate horticultural skills that they grew so many plants in the first place. Many users just figure, "Oh, I'll just poke a bunch of seeds into the dirt and see what happens."
So fifty plants would typically produce at most five kilograms--probably much less. For a heavy user, that's about a year's supply. In addition, people can freeze their marijuana so that it lasts for decades. It's a marijuana consumer's equivalent to having a wine cellar.
Home-growers are usually just marijuana users--not commercial drug dealers. Some people prefer to grow their own tomatoes, and some people prefer to brew their own beer. These people grow their own marijuana.
They don't want to support or interact with the criminal underground drug market. They don't want to waste their money on prohibition-inflated prices, or have to start selling marijuana to others to cover their costs. They don't want to risk purchasing adulterated or contaminated marijuana. They don't want to buy marijuana from the same people who are also selling cocaine and heroin.
I should also point out that many patients need to illegally grow their own marijuana for medicine, since the federal government allows only 8 people in the United States to legally use medicinal marijuana. A healthy, financially secure 25-year-old recreational user could afford to buy a bag of marijuana on the street. An 80-year-old glaucoma or cancer patient on a fixed income has no choice but to grow their own marijuana.
Yes, growing marijuana is currently a crime. But home-growers should not be punished as severely as people who possess many kilograms of harvested material. Growing a few plants is not the same as possessing 50 kilograms, which is 110 pounds of marijuana. People who are arrested with 110 pounds of marijuana are well-connected in the distribution chain.
And the severity of the penalties gets even more extreme as more plants are grown. A person who grows 75 plants must serve between 41 and 51 months in federal prison. A person who grows 99 plants must serve between 51 and 63 months in federal prison. Five years for 99 plants--even seedlings! That's the median sentence for kidnapping and hostage-taking.
Ah, but if someone grows 99 plants, aren't they manufacturing it to sell? Not necessarily. Many people, especially heavy marijuana users and medicinal users, use a "sea of green" method. They are not concerned with quality or bulk-quantity, but instead want a constant, steady supply. They don't plan to let most of the plants survive to maturity. Instead, they start plucking off and smoking plant parts from the time the plants get a few inches tall.
Nevertheless, let me stress again: Even if it were intended for sale, 99 plants would typically produce less than 10 kilograms of marijuana. Yet someone who grows 99 plants would be subject to the same sentence as someone who possessed 99 kilograms--that's 218 pounds--of harvested material! This inequity should be resolved.
The kilogram-per-plant ratio is also unjust for another reason: It results in a "sentencing cliff," whereby an individual convicted of growing 50 plants must receive a prison sentence disproportionately longer than an individual convicted of growing 49 plants, as this chart illustrates.
An individual convicted of growing 50 plants can be incarcerated for more than four times as long as someone who grew 49 plants. That's more than two extra years in federal prison for one plant!
When policies like the federal sentencing guidelines punish home-growers more severely than people who possess more than a hundred pounds of packaged marijuana, the illicit drug trade flourishes. The arbitrarily chosen kilogram-per-plant ratio that is currently in use is not only unfair, unreasonable, and excessive for the convicted cultivators, but it is devastating to society.
The Marijuana Policy Project encourages the Sentencing Commission to promulgate amendment #37. That is, the Marijuana Policy Project requests the following: If a defendant is federally convicted of growing marijuana plants, each plant should be considered to weigh 100 grams for sentencing purposes, regardless of the number of plants.
Thank you for your time and your concern.
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Reforming federal sentencing guidelines for marijuana cultivation
