Should Pennsylvania legalize pot?
There ARE clear public health benefits. But balancing the pros and the cons can get hazy.
Should Pennsylvania legalize pot?
By Jonathan Purtle
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania State Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery-Delaware) announced plans to introduce a bill that would legalize marijuana — not just for medical purposes, as New Jersey recently did, but also for recreational use. The substance would be regulated by the state in a way similar to alcohol and tobacco. As Leach describes on his website, the bill is founded on the idea that marijuana is no more harmful, and less addictive (this is debatable), than both these substances and that the financial costs of keeping marijuana illegal are enormous. Citing data from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Leach points out that 24,685 marijuana arrests were made in Pennsylvania in 2006 — translating into $325 million in criminal justice costs.
Leach’s proposal follows referendums in Colorado and Washington that recently gave those states the green light for recreational marijuana use. And while the Pennsylvania bill will likely go up in smoke — Gov. Corbett has vowed to veto the bill if it reaches his desk — it seems high time to explore the potential pros and cons of legalizing marijuana from a public health perspective.
First the cons.
Let’s assume that marijuana is 100 percent bad for the mind and body and that legalization would lead to increased consumption. While the notion that marijuana is all harm and no good is debatable — advocates of medical marijuana tout its therapeutic benefits — evidence of its adverse health impacts is strong. A White House document entitled “The Public Health Consequences of Marijuana Legalization” synthesizes some of this research. Outcomes include respiratory problems (smoke is never good for lungs) and cognitive impairment.
The science says that the less marijuana a population consumes the better. But would legalization actually result in more people toking up more often? The answer is hazy. Economists at RAND, the non-partisan think tank, crunched the numbers and concluded that marijuana consumption would probably increase with legalization, but they had little idea how large the increase would be.
Now the pros.
The most clear-cut public health benefits of marijuana legalization would likely result from reductions in incarceration. While there are many ways in which incarceration negatively impacts public health — by disrupting monogamous sexual partnerships, for example, which increases the number of sexual partners that people have, and thus the spread of sexual transmitted diseases — let’s just focus on the financial costs of putting people behind bars for weed. As Senator Leach notes, Pennsylvania taxpayers spend around $325 million annually on marijuana-related arrests. While not all of this goes to incarceration, legalization would free up a lot of public money that could be invested in health.
As described in a previous post, research has documented a link between increases in public health spending and improvements in population health. A large, multisite study found that a 10 percent increase in local public health department spending was associated with a 6.9 percent decrease in infant mortality, a 3.2 percent decrease in deaths from cardiovascular disease, a 1.4 percent decrease in deaths from diabetes, and a 1.1 decrease in deaths from cancer. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s budget would double if the state took $200 million of marijuana-related criminal justice savings and invested it in the city’s health. This would translate into a substantial number of lives saved. Exactly how many? We can only speculate.
Data from the 2010-2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicate that an estimated 10.82 percent of Pennsylvanians over the age of 12 used marijuana in the past month — as did nearly one-third (31.16 percent) of residents between the ages of 18-25. The estimates are similar for New Jersey — 10.73 percent and 31.79 percent, respectively. While uncertainty abounds regarding the public health costs and benefits of legalizing marijuana, one thing is for sure — people are using it, legal or not.
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- Agreed with Dixon here and I want to educate PhillyTaz, just becuase it is leagal do not change what people will do with it. As you are driving down the street you probably pass more cars with people who are legally drunk. I personally smoke, but I am very good at my job in a corporate setting and I do not mix the two. I feel like maturity is what you are asking for the most and that is based on the user. I also want to point out that the decriminalizing of weed in Amserdame cause the use of the "drug" to go down by residents and it became more of a tourist thing. This means that without the edge of getting caught it almost makes it not worth doing.
— traugdog420 - I have to agree with PhillyTaz here. Drunk driving IS a huge problem, even though it is illegal. We have ways of detecting whether a driver is intoxicated, and there are strict penalties for DUI. If marijuana is made legal, driving while under the influence of marijuana would obviously remain illegal. However, blood and urine tests will detect marijuana days or weeks after use. There is no way to know whether the driver was actually impaired by marijuana at the time of operating the vehicle. I doubt that this is an unsolvable problem - I'm sure that scientists can find a way to develop a "impaired by marijuana" test, but there isn't one yet. I just think it's something that should be considered before lawmakers jump to make legislation that leaves us with no way to enforce driver safety. In the mean time though, we should obviously stop incarcerating people. What a waste of life. — Izzy812
- anyone against legalization in this day and age is a cop, lawyer, judge or someone else worried that legalization will mean less overtime/ billable hours for themselves. There is literally NO valid argument against legalization.— cdw1262
- Legalize marijuana, prostitution and on-line gambling. Take the money and reduce our debt with the Chinese. Most Americans are too stupid to understand it’s a 1 way street with the Chinese, they steal our technology (and proudly admit it), manufacture garbage products, run sweat shops and more so why do we buy from them?— PDJ
- NO. Do not legalize pot yet. My kids are already using and are nearly worthless. If it was legal, I would probably lose my wife to it as well. I don't have a good solution on how to decriminalize it and keep it from getting out of hand. We should have it for medicinal purposes. I still think that the health risks should be studied in depth by an objective body so that we really know the health ramifications before making a decision one way or the other.— truthfirst
- the health tests have been done in the 70s and ignored. it is safer then alcohol, tobacco, & big pharma. i hope your kids read that you think they are worthless and your wife leaves you. truth. — legalize_marijuana
- I have read countless studies regarding weed and their is no proof that shows that weed is a gateway drug or addictive. I smoke it and I am not addicted. plus I have never tried any other drugs. This country has a problem with prescription meds but the government does nothing to try to police it. legalize weed— eisfresh
- True, but there are plenty of studies that show that heavy marijuana use in adolescence is linked to increased chances of developing schizophrenia and altered brain development that results in lower IQ, altered decision making, and increased addictive behaviors (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871604002066, http://www.cmaj.ca/content/166/7/887.short, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J069v19n01_01). It's not enough to justify criminalization -- particularly when compared to tobacco and alcohol -- but there should absolutely be age restrictions. — Izzy812
- and do you know the best way to keep marijuana out of the hands of adolescents? LEGALIZE IT AND CHECK ID!!! the corner drug dealer doesn't card, and he also sells heroin!
— legalize_marijuana - economics 101. it is called supply and demand. it should be legalized, taxed just like alcohol. we are in a fiscal crisis and additional revenue from taxation of illicit items like marajuana and prostitution seems logical. I may not agree with either, but its happening anyway. The war on drugs is over.— Keith S.
- also consider all of the savings from no longer having to lockup pot growers, sellers, smokers and not having to pay cops overtime to pursue them. that's alot of green saved just by legalizing the green! — legalize_marijuana
- Yes it should be legal. Free supply to the President and Congress. (But take away his blow) Maybe they will do the reverse of what they have been doing so far, and get it right.— Beethoven987
- Yes, it clearly should be legalized. I think it's disugsting, but people arent't hurting anybody else, so if they choose to do it, it's none of my business. It's just a shame that Leach is a statist on almost every other issue.— The Edifier
- Lower the gas tax, by legalizing pot and taxing it. We can drink, we can smoke we can gamble...how is pot any different?— LGbalsac
- It's worth noting that the couple comments against legalization all cite issues that are related to it's current use, not really about legalization. Sure, like any substance pot can cause issues, but if those issues are legit concerns, they are already a problem and not addressed by criminalization. If anything, legalization AND regulization would give the government more ability to positively affect its use.
I can tell you a million situations when alcohol can be bad for certain people, but I bet it's misused less as a regulated, taxed and legal substance than it was under prohibition.— chris commentary
