Does Arresting a Marijuana User Really Make a Difference?

Depending on which state it occurs in, a marijuana possession offense can range from a ticket to a hefty prison term. But are Americans any safer because of an arrest of a marijuana user? Unless this person was driving under the influence of marijuana then I would have to say no. When a person is busted for minor possession, the money has exchanged hands from the supplier all the way down to the user. In this case we really aren’t attacking the criminal organization responsible for importing it into the country or selling it on the streets. The criminal organizations will always find more buyers. If they couldn’t, then we would have won the war on drugs a long time ago and Mexico would not be torn apart by violence. Arresting a marijuana user is the most ineffective way to fight this war.

                I was watching a program about the drug war on television, and in this particular program they interview everyone from the drug dealer to law enforcement. While I was watching I saw a female police officer say that whenever she arrests someone for possession she feels like she’s “making a difference”.  I have no doubt that she “feels” like she is effectively combating the war on drugs, but I doubt that she is really making a dent. This foolish strategy of prosecuting the user does little to slow the drug trade in America. While we are wasting time finding possessors to bust, more drugs are being imported into the country and more dealers are selling it to more users. We are fighting the last step in the drug trade process instead of fighting the first step which is attacking the criminal organizations themselves. For forty years we have been arresting users and for forty years we have not stopped drugs from entering the country. This strategy is not effective as anyone can clearly see, so why don’t we do more to stop this problem at its source? Stopping the problem where it starts just seems to be the obvious solution.

                Can we really stop the entire flow of drugs into the country? No we cannot, no matter how many police we employ or how many drug laws we pass. Many in law enforcement say that this is a losing attitude, and that we can stop the flow of drugs into the country completely one day. If this is so then I have only one question to ask these law enforcement members. If you cannot keep drugs from being smuggled into our prisons that are locked down and surrounded by guards 24/7, then how do you expect to ever keep them out of the country entirely? To this day I have never heard an answer that satisfies this question. The user that gets busted on the street will continue to use in prison. This is just another reason why busting a user is a losing strategy. We don’t solve the problem by attacking the last step of the drug trade process; we solve it by attacking it before it happens. While the user is serving his sentence the dealer, distributor, and supplier are all still profiting and none of them are prosecuted or targeted by law enforcement.

                The easiest way to take marijuana away from criminals is put it in the hands of law abiding citizens. The same strategy was used when prohibition was overturned. The criminals could no longer profit from alcohol because it was given to responsible people, and America became stronger, safer, and more prosperous because of it. The same strategy can be applied here and be just as successful. As the saying goes, if we do not learn from history then we are doomed to repeat it. Let’s take a chapter from the history books and effectively end marijuana prohibition so that we can solve the problem and profit from it.