More reefer madness The Atlantic Monthly; Boston; Apr 1997; Eric Schlosser; Abstract:Harsh US marijuana laws harm citizens and society alike, butpoliticians compete to make failed policies even more harmful. Atleast 15 states have laws that require life sentences for certainnonviolent marijuana offenses.Full Text:Copyright Atlantic Monthly CompanyApr 1997[Headnote]Marijuana gives rise to insanity-not in its users but in the policiesdirected against it. A nation that sentences the possessor of a singlejoint to life imprisonment without parole but sets a murderer free afterperhaps six years is, the author writes, "in the grip of a deeppsychosis" EIGHT years ago Douglas Lamar Gray bought a pound of marijuana ina room at the Econo Lodge in Decatur, Alabama. He planned to keep afew ounces for himself and sell the rest to some friends. Gray was aVietnam veteran with an artificial leg. As a young man, he'd beenconvicted of a number of petty crimes, none serious enough towarrant a prison sentence. He had stayed out of trouble for a goodthirteen years. He now owned a business called Gray's Roofing andRemodeling Service. He had a home, a wife, and a two-yearold son.The man who sold him the drug, Jimmy Wilcox, was a felon justreleased from prison, with more than thirty convictions on his record.Wilcox was also an informer employed by the Morgan County DrugTask Force. The pound of marijuana had been supplied by the localsheriff's department, as part of a sting. After paying Wilcox $900 forthe pot, which seemed like a real bargain, Douglas Lamar Gray wasarrested and charged with "trafficking in cannabis." He was tried,convicted, fined $25,000, sentenced to life in prison without parole,and sent to the maximumsecurity penitentiary in Springville,Alabama-an aging, overcrowded prison filled with murderers and otherviolent inmates. He remains there to this day. Under the stress of hisimprisonment Gray's wife attempted suicide with a pistol, survivedthe gunshot, and then filed for divorce. Jimmy Wilcox, the informer,was paid $100 by the county for his services in the case. Gray's punishment, although severe, is by no means unusual in theUnited States. The laws of at least fifteen states now require lifesentences for certain nonviolent marijuana offenses. In Montana a lifesentence can be imposed for growing a single marijuana plant orselling a single joint. Under federal law the death penalty can beimposed for growing or selling a large amount of marijuana, even if itis a first offense. The rise in marijuana use among American teenagers became aprominent issue during last year's presidential campaign, fueled byRepublican accusations that President Bill Clinton was "soft on drugs."Teenage marijuana use has indeed grown considerably since 1992; byone measure it has doubled. But that increase cannot be attributed toany slackening in the enforcement of the nation's marijuana laws. Infact, the number of Americans arrested each year for marijuanaoffenses has increased by 43 percent since Clinton took office. Therewere roughly 600,000 marijuana-related arrests nationwide in 1995-an all-time record. More Americans were arrested for marijuanaoffenses during the first three years of Clinton's presidency thanduring any other three-year period in the nation's history. MoreAmericans are in prison today for marijuana offenses than at anyother time in our history. And yet teenage marijuana use continues togrow. The war on drugs, launched by President Ronald Reagan in 1982,began as an assault on marijuana. Its effects are now felt throughoutAmerica's criminal-justice system. In 1980 there were almost twice asmany violent offenders in federal prison as drug offenders. Todaythere are far more people in federal prison for marijuana crimes thanfor violent crimes. More people are now incarcerated in the nation'sprisons for marijuana than for manslaughter or rape. In an era when the fear of violence pervades the United States, small-time pot dealers are being given life sentences while violent offendersare being released early, only to commit more crimes. The federalprison system and thirtyeight state prison systems are now operatingabove their rated capacity. Attempts to reduce dangerous prisonovercrowding have been hampered by the nation's drug laws. Prisoncells across the country are filled with nonviolent drug offenderswhose mandatory-minimum sentences do not allow for parole. At thesame time, violent offenders are routinely being granted earlyrelease. A recent study by the Justice Department found that in 1992violent offenders on average were released after serving less than halfof their sentences. A person convicted of murder in the United Statescould expect a punishment of less than six years in prison. A personconvicted of kidnapping could expect about four years. AnotherJustice Department study revealed that almost a third of all violentoffenders who are released from prison will be arrested for anotherviolent crime within three years. No one knows how many violentcrimes these released inmates commit without ever being caught. In1992 the average punishment for a violent offender in the UnitedStates was forty-three months in prison. The average punishment,under federal law, for a marijuana offender that same year was aboutfifty months in prison. Even legislation aimed at reducing violent crime has been subvertedby the legal underpinnings of the drug war. According to a report bythe Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, California's much-heralded"three strikes, you're out" law has imprisoned twice as many peoplefor marijuana offenses as for murder, rape, and kidnapping combined.The vehemence of marijuana's opponents and the harsh punishmentsroutinely administered to marijuana offenders cannot be explained bya simple concern for public health. Paraplegics, cancer patients,epileptics, people with AIDS, and people suffering from multiplesclerosis have in recent years been