Marginalized Populations
And
Marijuana Policy Reform
Miriam Boeri, PhD
Bentley University
Marijuana Policy Reform
Saturday June 13, 2015, 10-2pm
UMASS Campus Center, Amherst Room Sponsored by
The School of Public Health and Health Sciences
1
The Gateway Myth
• In 2003 scientific evidence overwhelmingly
showed that the gateway theory was not an
explanation for leading to harder drugs.
• In 2014 scientists found that states legalizing
medical marijuana had reduced opiate
overdose mortality rates by up to 30%.
2
Conflicting Research?
• Learn from drug policy experiments
– Holland
– Portugal
– Canada
– US (23 states)
3
Drug Policies
Drive Incarceration Rates
The “War on Drugs” US drug policy started in 1971.
4
US Prison under Federal Jurisdiction
2011
69,000
Drug Offenses
94,600
Violent Offenses
Property Offenses
Public order offenses
10,700
14,900
Among drug arrests, 40% are for
simple possession of marijuana.
5
Incarceration Rates by
Race & Ethnicity
2,500
Per 100,000 in each racial group
2,000
1,500
1,000
2,207
500
966
380
0
Black
Latino
Source: Prison Policy Initiative from the Bureau of Justice Statistics
White
RACIALLY BIASED Cannabis ENFORCEMENT
Marginalized by Social Injustice
“The drug policy is forcing people to stay poor”
– Parole, probation
– Criminal justice record
– Employment drug tests
– Government subsidized housing
– Open air use
– Civil asset forfeiture
Voices of marijuana users
“It takes the edge off”
-fighting opiate addiction
“In a lot of ways, that was my sanity”
-recovering from methamphetamine
“It got me off of heroin. I mean having the
permission to smoke pot helped.”
- former heroin addict
9
Medical Marijuana Patients
“Cannabis stopped me
from using every other
drug…I even stopped
using a lot of the psych
meds I was on inside of
rehab”
-MM patient with chronic
mental health issues and
former pill user
“It beats taking
Oxycodone … If I was
taking the pills that the
doctors give me, I
couldn’t stand here and
talk to you right now
because I’m a drooling
idiot on that stuff.”
-MM patient with chronic
medical conditions
Cannabis as a strategy for drug and
alcohol treatment
Based on this overwhelming evidence I ask
policy-makers in Massachusetts to consider
allowing people in treatment to use medical
marijuana under a doctor’s care—it’s a
controversial move that will take political guts—
and save lives.
We first crush people to the earth,
And then claim the right to trample
on them forever,
Because they are prostrate.
Lydia Marie Child
Reform Marijuana Policy Now