MPP_GOAL


 * Evaluating the Existing Policy**

**[|Goal]** What is the goal of the policy? If you don’t know what it’s supposed to do, you can’t measure its success or failure. What problem or problems is this policy supposed to address? Does it address the causes or affects of the problem? "The major federal law relevant to marijuana is the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, which repealed all prior federal legislation and reduced federal penalties for possession and sale. Although marijuana possession and sale are still prohibited, possession has been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor offense; the maximum penalty for a first offense is $5,000 and one year's imprisonment. The Act also provides for conditional discharge, by which first offenders found guilty of simple possession or casual transfer (which is treated as simple possession) may be placed on probation for up to one year [|(Congressional Digest, 1979).]" This policy is meant to control marjuana distribuition and sale. The "[|Drug Poilicy librariy]" tells us that the act provides disciplinary standards, but also, in the act, they provide alot of gray area; the act was written liberally to allow states to modify their policies. This is our federal governements policy. It is merely an outline for states to adopt, modify, and follow. The problem they are trying to stop is drug-trafficking. By leaving the actual laws of consumption and minor possession so loose, this policy does not solve the problem of drug trafficking. This act actually has detramental affects to the problem of drugtrafficking because by making the consumption of marijuana so minor, more people are going to smoke, thus making it more profitable to traffick drugs in the first place. ** R **** IVALS ** Who supports this policy? Who opposes it? Rivals are great sources of information but make sure you double check their facts. The people that support this policy are the people that are against the trafficking of drugs. These are people that are trying to end drug trades, which spur so many other problems in our communities. Other types of supporters of our national policy against, are people that beleive marijuana is bad for your health. There are all types of people against the legalization of marijuana, and they have numbers of reasons to justify their beleifs. I beleive, as the [|Drug Librairy] proposses, that the supporters of this policy, which dissallows the use od marijuana, are motivated by the stigma around marijuana, that it is bad for our communities. The people who oppose this policy are the peopel who smoke marijuana. These are the people that see that marijuana is a harmless substance, and believe it should be legalized. [|Many medical organizations support this policy more or less, because they beleive that the use of marijuana can be beneficial to ones health]. Their are many people that wish to abandon this policy, there are many reasons why too. The picture below depicts the common ** A **** DVANTAGES **   What are the policy’s benefits? What is good about the policy? Will it achieve (or has it achieved) its goal? Does it protect people from harm? Does it ensure people’s liberties? Marijuana is percieved as dangerous to an individual's health. It is thought to be addictive, and can be linked to harder, more dangerous drugs. So its illegalization protectes functioning American citizens from coming under the negative influence of the drug and becoming the negative conontations this illicit substance [|supports].

** D **** ISADVANTAGES **   What are the policy’s costs? What is bad about the policy? Is it inefficient? Is it expensive? Does it cause harm? Does it intrude on people’s liberties? Are their potential consequences that may cause damage? -One major problem that comes from marijuana being illegal is the costs that result from it. When someone goes to jail for marijuana, that's just another person the prison has to feed and take care of. That's not free. For every person who goes to jail, the state pays about $19,308 per year, $52.90 [|per day.] Each year more than 900,000 people get arrested in America with charges related to [|marijuana.] If everyone who got arrested only went to jail for one day, that means that approximatly $47, 610, 000 could be saved each year if marijuana was legalized. With the state of our countries economy, that //just might// be useful to have. ** E **** VALUATE THE ALTERNATIVES ** One alternative is to do nothing. Most serious problems have various policy proposals. Evaluate them. Look at their goals, advantages, and disadvantages (i.e. complete a version of this sheet for each alternative). You can completely legalize marijuana, which would introduce a whole cash crop into the agricultral industry. Lead to a complete decrease in narcotic related arrests and with it reduce stress on law enforcement agencies. If the federal goverment were to completely legalize marijuana and acknowledge it as not only as a narcotic but as a source of revenue and a source of jobs they could improve our economic situation. However, if this plant were to be completely legalized then there would be a large influx of individuals using the substance. This would increase the frequency of marijuana related health risks. Another alternative could be for the federal government to recognize marijuana as an legal narcotic and establish certain laws enforcing the safe and healthy consumption and distribution, similar to laws around ciggarettes and alcohol. This would also introduce a taxable product, similar to the complete legalization, but with more safety precautions. The disadvantage of this partial legalization would be that by limiting the consumption of marijuana, you would also be limiting the cultivation. Limiting the cultivation would make marijuana play a smaller roll in the market, and it wouldnt be as beneficial for the economy. However, this type of policy, if it were to be introduced, would have virtually no negative impacts. It would actually stop the spread of organized street crime because people wouldnt buy their marijuana from street vendors if they had a store to go to.