Marijuana Policy Project

The Free Press, in its opposition to the Vermont Senate bill decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana (“Marijuana bill headed in wrong direction,” Feb. 17), presents the usual panoply of misguided, emotionally overcharged red herrings.

It then concludes by parroting the challenge from Attorney General William Sorrell, declaring that the key element missing from the discussion is honesty, and that “If the aim of the bill is a move toward making marijuana a legal recreational drug, then supporters need to say so, so the issue can be debated on its real merits.”

Fine. Let’s do that. Bring it on. But while we’re discussing this, let’s also discuss Vermont’s incarceration rate for black and Hispanic offenders — currently second-highest in the entire United States vis-a-vis white offenders, and a proper disgrace. And let’s discuss the disparate treatment under law of this nation’s most prevalent gateway drug — alcohol.

But let’s get back to the issue of honesty — or lack thereof. How about addressing the real costs of surveillance, investigation, interdiction, arrest and charge? Why have no law enforcement officials addressed this issue? And if almost no one these days is incarcerated for simple possession, why then are we wasting all of this money in police work?

Law enforcement officials claim that they must preserve the criminal option. Preserve it for whom? The black and Hispanic offenders that Vermont incarcerates at over 10 times the rate for white offenders? The U.S. Sentencing Project, a nonprofit, independent study group, ranks Vermont second in the U.S. (behind Iowa) in the rate at which it incarcerates defendants of color. Could it just be that a white lawyer with two pounds of marijuana in her possession and numerous plants growing on her property gets a free pass, while a black or Hispanic teenager with 3 ounces is imprisoned?

And then there’s that tired, lame canard “We have to protect the children.” Is that how it’s done — by keeping marijuana away from adults? Wouldn’t this same argument hold for alcohol? Is this a backhanded argument for the return of Prohibition? I defy any law enforcement official to substantively distinguish marijuana from alcohol, and to justify their disparate treatment under the law.

I’m all for having this debate. But let’s include the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which would impartially investigate the strange manner in which justice is administered in the state of Vermont. Let’s have the Department of Justice fully investigate the law enforcement establishment in Vermont.

You want honesty? Fine and dandy, but let’s make it a two-way street.