2/21 Let’s begin with something we can all agree on: of all the tools we use to discourage, limit or otherwise proscribe behavior, the criminal legal system is the most blunt and comes with the highest economic, social, human, and generational costs.
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3/21 Economically, the costs are high because the system requires an army of expensive primary actors: police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, pre-trial officers, sheriffs, probation and correction officers.
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4/21 It also requires an even larger and no less expensive secondary expert and administrative staff to support these primary actors.
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5/21 Socially, even when prosecution does not result in incarceration, a criminal record poses a lifetime risk of being shut out of a long catalogue of social goods and benefits, including the primary job market, security clearance, school loans, public housing, etc.
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6/21 On a human level, coming into contact with the criminal justice system can be enormously and sometimes permanently disruptive of an individual’s personal and family life — to the point where one minor prosecution may well mushroom into more serious ones.
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7/21 Last but not least, generationally the system has never fallen equally on everyone. By know, we know it falls hardest on Black & Brown & poor people, and this is particularly true of the war on drugs, aspects of which in its inception were engineered to stoke racial fears
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8/21 By contrast, we have developed a robust set of tools other than criminalization to deal with behavior we believe needs to be regulated that do not come with such high costs, including: government monopoly, administrative control, taxation, or public health and education.
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9/21 So, if the question is how do we regulate behavior X, the answer usually is that we should criminalize it only if the behavior poses a danger to public safety, welfare, & wellbeing — and if there are no other effective and less costly means of achieving regulation.
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10/21 By that standard, I know of no evidence to show that personal possession and adult personal use of marijuana is so dangerous to public safety and well-being that we ought to use our costliest and bluntest tool to regulate it.
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11/21 Nor should we fall for the half measure of decriminalization plus civil fines because unpaid fines accrue interest and penalties and, under many circumstances directly or indirectly push individuals back into the criminal justice system.
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12/21 Of course, to argue for legalization doesn’t mean anything goes. It’s legal to take a bottle of wine to that office party but illegal to chug it as you drive. It’s legal to pick up a six pack at the grocery store but illegal do drink it as you’re walking home.
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13/21 It’s legal to do tequila shots to celebrate the Nats World Series but illegal to do it if you’re underage. It’s legal to have a well stocked bar at your backyard barbecue but illegal to start selling to your neighbors as a side business.
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14/21 All of that is to say this: we know exactly how to curtail the circumstances under which certain substances are used without criminalizing or imposing civil fines for mere possession or use of that substance.
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15/21 Indeed, anyone reading this thread knows perfectly well of one substance that’s addictive, has bad heath outcomes, and is associated with incidence of violence, including domestic violence. And yet we regulate it without criminalizing it or fining for its mere use.
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18/21 So the question then is why don’t prosecutors forcefully advocate for legalization of marijuana. I am by no means a football fan but perhaps the following analogy will help:
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19/21 If a football coach delegated all play calling on the field to the running back, we shouldn’t be surprised to see an awful lot of running plays. Or if wide receivers had the power to call plays, we’d see a lot of passing.
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20/21 (BTW y’all should appreciate this analogy. I worked really hard on it and asked people around me a lot of bad questions before I got it right. In fact I once met the Eagles’ Chris Long at an event and had to be told why he was such a big deal.) Anyway back to the point.
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21/21 Prosecutors err toward criminalization because we tend to define our job as prosecuting crimes. That’s not our real job. Our real job is public safety. Sometimes, it means prosecuting. Sometimes, as the American Bar Association ethics rules say, it means not prosecuting.
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21/21 And sometimes, it means speaking out clearly that certain behaviors should not be crimes at all. Simple marijuana possession should be legal. Regulated, but legal.
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