The Drug Report
The Drug Report
Challenging Marijuana Myths: Imprisonment Realities and Health Risks
Can marijuana legalization really dismantle our overcrowded prisons? Find out in today's episode as we unravel the myths and misconceptions about marijuana possession and imprisonment. We begin by examining the widely held belief that legalizing marijuana will significantly reduce prison populations. Using President Biden's historic federal pardons as a case study, we expose the reality: no one was serving federal prison time for simple marijuana possession and the impact of these pardons was far less extensive than most believe.
In the second half, our focus shifts to the real data behind marijuana-related imprisonment in states like Michigan and Florida, revealing that very few people are incarcerated solely for minor marijuana offenses. We also bring to light the health risks associated with regular marijuana use, with a significant study from the University of Southern California showing a three to five-fold increased risk of developing head and neck cancers among daily users. As we draw parallels to the historical impact of tobacco, we stress the importance of informed public awareness to prevent a similar health crisis. Stay informed, stay engaged, and thank you for your continued support.
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Speaker 1:Hello everyone, this is Luke Niferatis. I am your host of the Drug Report podcast. Special thanks to SAM Smart Approaches to Marijuana and FDPS, the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions our two organizations that make this podcast possible of all of the drug policy news that you really want to be reading. If you're interested in the field of drug policy, go to thedrugreportorg and you can check out our website. See the articles that we are putting together there as well, as we had an excellent op-ed I was talking about last week I encourage you to check it out if you haven't from Dr Stu Gitlow from the American Medical Association. He gave much more clarity on their stance on decriminalization. For those of you following drug policy probably saw the big policy shift at the AMA, where they essentially endorsed drug decriminalization, but it wasn't what the headlines made it out to be, as is so often the case. And Dr Gitlow gave the Drug Report an exclusive editorial that details why. So I will leave it at that. Check it out. It's a great piece. I was grateful he submitted it to our fledgling media publication online. So again, thedrugreportorg check it out.
Speaker 1:Today I want to talk about just you know, rather briefly about two different stories that are driving the news here early this week, and the first one touches on an issue that every state we go to we are asked about. This is an issue that you hear frequently referred to in the debate around marijuana legalization, and that is this idea that our prisons are overflowing with people who are locked away for having a joint in their pocket or having small possession, and it basically comes with this idea that law enforcement are out there wasting their time on these small, no big deal cases. And if we just legalized marijuana, then we would get rid of this waste of their time, we would get a lot of people out of prison for marijuana possession and all of a sudden we would just save all this money and law enforcement have all their time back. Well, as ridiculous as that sounds, it is truly ridiculous in practice, and we've seen that from state to state and from the federal level and beyond. So just looking at the federal level, many of you probably know if you've been following this field for the last couple of years President Biden issued historic pardons for the possession of marijuana at the federal level and when he issued these pardons which, by the way, sam Smart Approaches to Marijuana our organization endorsed that move by President Biden when he did that. It was reported that same day that the pardons got nobody out of prison because there was no one serving time in federal prison for simple marijuana possession and for the. I think it was around 50,000 people or so who were impacted by this decision by President Biden. It was only 50,000, which is still a decent number of people, but 50,000 over several decades worth of time that were impacted by this. So a very small, small percentage of the arrest and imprisonment activity that has gone on over the last 30 to 50 years has gone on over the last 30 to 50 years. So really important to understand how small of a number we're talking about, how little of a priority marijuana possession is at the federal level.
Speaker 1:Then you go to the state level and we have seen time and again and what comes to mind for me is we led the fight against legalization in Michigan and in Michigan. One of their top ads and they were ultimately successful in passing legalization there. One of their top ads back in 2019 was a former cop saying legalize marijuana and we will get people out of prison. We're just imprisoning so many people and we will get people out of prison. We're just imprisoning so many people. And we looked at the numbers in Michigan and there were 11 people in the state of Michigan's prisons that were there for marijuana possession. So 11 people out of a state of I think more than 10 million people, possibly 12. So very, very, very small number of people were in prison in Michigan for this. It's been the same elsewhere and today there's an op-ed out in the Tampa Bay Times.
Speaker 1:Many of you know Florida is going to be voting on Amendment 3, which is to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida, and there will have to be at least 60% of Florida voters who approve that for that to pass, according to their state rules there, and their secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, who's in charge of all these data and statistics for the Florida Department of Corrections, wrote this op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times, basically again setting the record straight about the impact of simple marijuana possession on their prisons. So in Florida they define that as 20 grams. He says in this op-ed, 20 grams or less of marijuana would be simple possession or small possession. And in this case there is no one serving time, not one inmate in the Florida Department of Corrections that is serving time for simple marijuana possession. So, possessing 20 grams or less of marijuana, no one. And that flies completely in the face of the claims by the campaign by other advocates in there in Florida who are saying you know, everyone's locked away for a small amount of marijuana. It's just not the case. People are not being. This is his words.
Speaker 1:The narrative being promoted by some activists that individuals are imprisoned solely for minor marijuana possession is a lie. Currently, the only marijuana-related offenses that result in prison sentences involve large amounts consistent with trafficking charges. Okay, so we're talking about dealers, we're talking about cartel activity, we're talking about organized activity, things that truly are serious crimes and have a serious impact on quality of life and community safety. That's what they're focusing on, he says. He goes on to say in the op-ed presently there are only 37 individuals in our prison system convicted for the primary offense of possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana, but all of these individuals had their sentences enhanced by either an extensive criminal record or severe accompanying crimes like grand theft, battery, child abuse or possession of other illicit substances. It's also important to note that these individuals, he says, make up less than 0.05% of the total inmate population.
Speaker 1:So once again we see in another large state in this country that marijuana possession is not driving loads of people to prison. It's not making up a large amount of these people's arrest records. So we need to set the standard. You know the record straight there and very appreciative of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections there in Florida for doing so. You know, unfortunately there's just this perception out there and perception is reality for folks that our prisons are overflowing with people with marijuana possession charges and, simply put, the data do not support that perception. We need reality to really start informing people's perceptions on this issue, and so I think that that's going to be a really critical thing that we need to look at. And the other piece of this is it's really interesting, a really critical thing that we need to look at, and the other piece of this is it's really interesting the number one substance involved in arrests in this country, nationwide number one substance found in arrests Alcohol, a legal and regulated substance. That is the number one substance, far and away above all the other illicit substances. It's alcohol that's involved in arrests. So really, really important that we get the statistics right, get the data and the truth right. So that's an important subject that we often hear about. I wanted to make sure you heard this latest information from Florida and hopefully the campaign there in Florida will get that message out to voters as they're preparing to vote on Amendment 3 coming up in November.
Speaker 1:Second story that's driving our newsletter today is on the new study that has come out from researchers from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles that showed that daily marijuana users may raise the overall risk for head and neck cancers three to five fold. So if you're using marijuana daily which we know that there are more than 10 million Americans now who are using marijuana every day or almost every day they are three to five times more likely to develop head and neck cancers, which is very serious. These cancers are very serious. They make up about 7% of the total cancers in the world, according to this CNN story. So this is a really big finding and I think we're going to continue to learn more about what regular marijuana use and heavy marijuana uses impacts are on the public health.
Speaker 1:But this is, in my opinion, a canary in the coal mine, much like what we started to see with tobacco. As the big tobacco industry started to reach a critical mass of heavy cigarette users, we started to realize what those harms were to the public and the associations with cancer. It took a long time and then the industry started to cover their tracks. It took us a long time to get that under control and we still are dealing with the problems today, with more than 500,000 Americans dying from tobacco-related, whether it's cancers or other harms.
Speaker 1:So here's a great quote from the director of this head and neck center there at UC San Diego. It says the researchers used a huge, huge data set, which is really extraordinary, and there's enormous power in looking at numbers this large we're talking about. Millions of patient records were looked at for this study, when we typically only see small studies. So this was not just a tiny little study looking at something very small. This was a giant study looking at millions of patient records very sizable, especially considering other research that's been done in this space. So hopeful that we'll get more information on this.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, this is just the beginning, in my opinion, and we have already unleashed these products on 24 different states for recreational legalization, and there are millions of Americans who are using these products, thinking that they are generally safe, because the media says that.
Speaker 1:The celebrity world is saying that you have a lot of people doing promotion deals and, unfortunately, studies like this don't get a lot of fanfare until it really starts to hurt the broader public, and so I hope that it will not take something like that again, like what we have with tobacco, for us to turn around and say wait a second, the use of this substance is causing a lot of different problems. So, pointing out those two stories that are going to be leading the newsletter you're going to get tomorrow, if you're signed up for our newsletters, please check them out. You can read them Again. That's at CNN and then the Tampa Bay Times, and I want to thank you all for your support and listening to this podcast. Please give us a rating Five stars would be great and review if you have time, and I hope you have a wonderful week.