The first message on my office phone Monday morning was from the mother of an Ivy League college student who was arrested over the holidays for possession of marijuana.
Because they live in Pennsylvania, as opposed to one of the 10 states that have legalized pot, her son is now a criminal, she said.
“I’m beside myself,” she told me. “It’s purely ridiculous.”
She didn’t mention whether her son had any federal college loans, but if he does, he may lose those too.
I received more than a half-dozen emails or phone calls in response to last week’s column, where I advocated that Pennsylvania legalize pot. I wasn’t surprised by that. What did surprise me was the responses themselves: most supported my position.
“You make some great points as having pot, whose use is widespread in Berks and PA, criminal makes about as much sense as fortune-telling still being illegal in PA, and jailing all the horoscope makers, etc.,” commented reader Brian Forsyth at readingeagle.com. “Our society should think much more carefully about having things criminal, and making a costly prison society.”
I received this email from another reader:
“The legalization of marijuana is a very complex issue with more than its share of misinformation, unfounded fears and emotion-based perspectives. It is only through a rational discussion and sharing of ideas and knowledge that we will evolve to a more reasonable approach to the possession and use of this plant by adults in our society.”
The column appeared at the same time an op-ed by author and former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Berenson’s latest book, “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence,” was just published.
I was pointed to the article by two readers, one of them the president and CEO of a respected local rehabilitation service.
Berenson’s column questions some commonly promoted reasons for legalization, particularly, that pot is relatively safe. It’s not, he writes, noting that the mental health community is concerned that pot poses more serious risks than most people think by possibly being linked to a rise in mental illness, emphasis on possibly.
There are other questions about the risks of pot, which today is far more potent than it was in the 1970s, thanks to improved farming techniques and cloning.
Berenson’s reporting is important, and there is no question that pot presents problems for society. And, to be clear, I’m not advocating that people use pot any more than I would recommend cigarettes. I just believe that decriminalizing it and regulating it is a better solution than locking people up.
It comes down to this basic question: Is it any worse than the risks posed by tobacco and alcohol? If the answer is no, what justification do we have to jail people for using it?
Society has enough problems, I know, but I just can’t find a way to square all of what we know so far with laws that have denied millions their freedom, their reputations and their livelihoods.
