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.

Follow the work of SAM and FDPS below:

https://learnaboutsam.org/
https://gooddrugpolicy.org/
https://thedrugreport.org/

On X:
https://twitter.com/learnaboutsam
https://twitter.com/GoodDrugPolicy
https://twitter.com/KevinSabet
https://twitter.com/LukeNiforatos

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/learnaboutsam

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes or no?
Do you believe nicotine is notaddictive?
I believe nicotine is notaddictive.
Yes, congressman, cigarettesand nicotine clearly do not meet
the classic definitions ofaddiction.
I don't believe that nicotinefor our products are addictive.
I believe nicotine is notaddictive.
I believe that nicotine is notaddictive.
I believe that nicotine is notaddictive.

(00:20):
Hello everyone, this is LukeNiferatis.
I am your host of the DrugReport podcast.
Special thanks to SAM SmartApproaches to Marijuana and FDPS
, the Foundation for Drug PolicySolutions our two organizations
that make this podcast possibleof all of the drug policy news

(00:46):
that you really want to bereading.
If you're interested in thefield of drug policy, go to
thedrugreportorg and you cancheck out our website.
See the articles that we areputting together there as well,
as we had an excellent op-ed Iwas talking about last week I
encourage you to check it out ifyou haven't from Dr Stu Gitlow
from the American MedicalAssociation.
He gave much more clarity ontheir stance on

(01:07):
decriminalization.
For those of you following drugpolicy probably saw the big
policy shift at the AMA, wherethey essentially endorsed drug
decriminalization, but it wasn'twhat the headlines made it out
to be, as is so often the case.
And Dr Gitlow gave the DrugReport an exclusive editorial
that details why.

(01:27):
So I will leave it at that.
Check it out.
It's a great piece.
I was grateful he submitted itto our fledgling media
publication online.
So again, thedrugreportorgcheck it out.
Today I want to talk about justyou know, rather briefly about
two different stories that aredriving the news here early this
week, and the first one toucheson an issue that every state we

(01:52):
go to we are asked about.
This is an issue that you hearfrequently referred to in the
debate around marijuanalegalization, and that is this
idea that our prisons areoverflowing with people who are
locked away for having a jointin their pocket or having small
possession, and it basicallycomes with this idea that law

(02:14):
enforcement are out therewasting their time on these
small, no big deal cases.
And if we just legalizedmarijuana, then we would get rid
of this waste of their time, wewould get a lot of people out
of prison for marijuanapossession and all of a sudden
we would just save all thismoney and law enforcement have
all their time back.
Well, as ridiculous as thatsounds, it is truly ridiculous

(02:39):
in practice, and we've seen thatfrom state to state and from
the federal level and beyond.
So just looking at the federallevel, many of you probably know
if you've been following thisfield for the last couple of
years President Biden issuedhistoric pardons for the
possession of marijuana at thefederal level and when he issued
these pardons which, by the way, sam Smart Approaches to

(03:01):
Marijuana our organizationendorsed that move by President
Biden when he did that.
It was reported that same daythat the pardons got nobody out
of prison because there was noone serving time in federal
prison for simple marijuanapossession and for the.
I think it was around 50,000people or so who were impacted

(03:23):
by this decision by PresidentBiden.
It was only 50,000, which isstill a decent number of people,
but 50,000 over several decadesworth of time that were
impacted by this.
So a very small, smallpercentage of the arrest and
imprisonment activity that hasgone on over the last 30 to 50
years has gone on over the last30 to 50 years.
So really important tounderstand how small of a number

(03:46):
we're talking about, how littleof a priority marijuana
possession is at the federallevel.
Then you go to the state leveland we have seen time and again
and what comes to mind for me iswe led the fight against
legalization in Michigan and inMichigan.
One of their top ads and theywere ultimately successful in

(04:06):
passing legalization there.
One of their top ads back in2019 was a former cop saying
legalize marijuana and we willget people out of prison.
We're just imprisoning so manypeople and we will get people
out of prison.
We're just imprisoning so manypeople.
And we looked at the numbers inMichigan and there were 11
people in the state ofMichigan's prisons that were
there for marijuana possession.
So 11 people out of a state ofI think more than 10 million

(04:29):
people, possibly 12.
So very, very, very smallnumber of people were in prison
in Michigan for this.
It's been the same elsewhereand today there's an op-ed out
in the Tampa Bay Times.
Many of you know Florida isgoing to be voting on Amendment
3, which is to legalizerecreational marijuana in
Florida, and there will have tobe at least 60% of Florida
voters who approve that for thatto pass, according to their

(04:52):
state rules there, and theirsecretary of the Florida
Department of Corrections, who'sin charge of all these data and
statistics for the FloridaDepartment of Corrections, wrote
this op-ed in the Tampa BayTimes, basically again setting
the record straight about theimpact of simple marijuana
possession on their prisons.

(05:13):
So in Florida they define thatas 20 grams.
He says in this op-ed, 20 gramsor less of marijuana would be
simple possession or smallpossession.
And in this case there is noone serving time, not one inmate
in the Florida Department ofCorrections that is serving time
for simple marijuana possession.

(05:34):
So, possessing 20 grams or lessof marijuana, no one.
And that flies completely inthe face of the claims by the
campaign by other advocates inthere in Florida who are saying
you know, everyone's locked awayfor a small amount of marijuana
.
It's just not the case.
People are not being.
This is his words.
The narrative being promoted bysome activists that individuals

(05:56):
are imprisoned solely for minormarijuana possession is a lie.
Currently, the onlymarijuana-related offenses that
result in prison sentencesinvolve large amounts consistent
with trafficking charges.
Okay, so we're talking aboutdealers, we're talking about
cartel activity, we're talkingabout organized activity, things
that truly are serious crimesand have a serious impact on

(06:17):
quality of life and communitysafety.
That's what they're focusing on, he says.
He goes on to say in the op-edpresently there are only 37
individuals in our prison systemconvicted for the primary
offense of possession of morethan 20 grams of marijuana, but
all of these individuals hadtheir sentences enhanced by

(06:37):
either an extensive criminalrecord or severe accompanying
crimes like grand theft, battery, child abuse or possession of
other illicit substances.
It's also important to notethat these individuals, he says,
make up less than 0.05% of thetotal inmate population.
So once again we see in anotherlarge state in this country that
marijuana possession is notdriving loads of people to

(07:00):
prison.
It's not making up a largeamount of these people's arrest
records.
So we need to set the standard.
You know the record straightthere and very appreciative of
the Secretary of the Departmentof Corrections there in Florida
for doing so.
You know, unfortunately there'sjust this perception out there
and perception is reality forfolks that our prisons are
overflowing with people withmarijuana possession charges and

(07:21):
, simply put, the data do notsupport that perception.
We need reality to really startinforming people's perceptions
on this issue, and so I thinkthat that's going to be a really
critical thing that we need tolook at.
And the other piece of this isit's really interesting, a
really critical thing that weneed to look at, and the other
piece of this is it's reallyinteresting the number one
substance involved in arrests inthis country, nationwide number

(07:44):
one substance found in arrestsAlcohol, a legal and regulated
substance.
That is the number onesubstance, far and away above
all the other illicit substances.
It's alcohol that's involved inarrests.
So really, really importantthat we get the statistics right
, get the data and the truthright.
So that's an important subjectthat we often hear about.

(08:04):
I wanted to make sure you heardthis latest information from
Florida and hopefully thecampaign there in Florida will
get that message out to votersas they're preparing to vote on
Amendment 3 coming up inNovember.
Second story that's driving ournewsletter today is on the new
study that has come out fromresearchers from the University

(08:25):
of Southern California in LosAngeles that showed that daily
marijuana users may raise theoverall risk for head and neck
cancers three to five fold.
So if you're using marijuanadaily which we know that there
are more than 10 millionAmericans now who are using
marijuana every day or almostevery day they are three to five

(08:46):
times more likely to develophead and neck cancers, which is
very serious.
These cancers are very serious.
They make up about 7% of thetotal cancers in the world,
according to this CNN story.
So this is a really big findingand I think we're going to
continue to learn more aboutwhat regular marijuana use and

(09:07):
heavy marijuana uses impacts areon the public health.
But this is, in my opinion, acanary in the coal mine, much
like what we started to see withtobacco.
As the big tobacco industrystarted to reach a critical mass
of heavy cigarette users, westarted to realize what those
harms were to the public and theassociations with cancer.
It took a long time and thenthe industry started to cover
their tracks.

(09:27):
It took us a long time to getthat under control and we still
are dealing with the problemstoday, with more than 500,000
Americans dying fromtobacco-related, whether it's
cancers or other harms.
So here's a great quote from thedirector of this head and neck
center there at UC San Diego.
It says the researchers used ahuge, huge data set, which is

(09:48):
really extraordinary, andthere's enormous power in
looking at numbers this largewe're talking about.
Millions of patient recordswere looked at for this study,
when we typically only see smallstudies.
So this was not just a tinylittle study looking at
something very small.
This was a giant study lookingat millions of patient records
very sizable, especiallyconsidering other research
that's been done in this space.

(10:09):
So hopeful that we'll get moreinformation on this.
Unfortunately, this is just thebeginning, in my opinion, and we
have already unleashed theseproducts on 24 different states
for recreational legalization,and there are millions of
Americans who are using theseproducts, thinking that they are
generally safe, because themedia says that.
The celebrity world is sayingthat you have a lot of people

(10:32):
doing promotion deals and,unfortunately, studies like this
don't get a lot of fanfareuntil it really starts to hurt
the broader public, and so Ihope that it will not take
something like that again, likewhat we have with tobacco, for
us to turn around and say wait asecond, the use of this
substance is causing a lot ofdifferent problems.
So, pointing out those twostories that are going to be

(10:52):
leading the newsletter you'regoing 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 theTampa Bay Times, and I want to
thank you all for your supportand listening to this podcast.
Please give us a rating Fivestars would be great and review
if you have time, and I hope youhave a wonderful week.