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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Responsible Marijuana Use is Harm Reduction
Wednesday 17 March @ 14:07:56 |
 by Aaron Neumann
In last week’s Letters to the Editor, COHR (Citizens Organized for Harm Reduction) organizers expressed “disappointment” in my characterization of their efforts in the article “Medical Marijuana: Smoke & Mirrors (See Pulse 03/03/04), in which they are petitioning for a ballot measure this fall that would set guidelines for a medical marijuana distribution system here in Minneapolis only when the Republican-controlled State Legislature passes comprehensive medical marijuana legislation and is then signed by our Governor.
I am criticized by COHR for advocating for an end to arresting those who enjoy marijuana responsibly, putting an end to marijuana prohibition generally, and developing a legal market for marijuana. Unfortunately, COHR makes two precarious assumptions in their letter. The first is that somehow “harm reduction” doesn’t include advocating that otherwise law-abiding citizens not be arrested for the use of the relatively benign substance (marijuana). The second the failure to differentiate drug use with drug abuse.
COHR’s own mission is: “Citizens Organized for Harm Reduction exists to reduce harms caused by the United States’ failed drug policies through education, legislative action, and citizen initiatives.” I am for this. Lots of people are for this. (Really, who is against reducing harm?) The issue I and others have raised is that although those who use marijuana as medicine should have their medicine made available immediately without fear of criminal prosecution, the bona fide harm in Minneapolis is the continual arrests for marijuana possession.
 According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Criminal (BCA) Justice Information Systems Uniform Crime Reports for 2002 (the latest available), there were a total of 15,029 marijuana arrests in Minnesota, of which 2,908 came from Hennepin county alone and roughly 1,500 from Minneapolis (up from last year). That’s about 4 people every day in Minneapolis who get arrested for marijuana offenses. This is a substantial harm caused by the United States’ failed drug policies.
Given the nature of marijuana use itself—less harmful and addictive than many legal substances—I argue this is among the most harmful results of these failed policies. Even those denied medical marijuana is a scarcity. I have not heard an outcry of medical marijuana patients who are getting arrested in Minneapolis. The tragedy of medical marijuana is the high cost of their medicine and the fear of criminal prosecution, not actual criminal prosecution. The outcry I have heard is from the multitude who have been harassed, ticketed, or arrested by cops in Minneapolis because of the way they look, the color of their skin, and that they happen to have marijuana on them.
COHR also fails to distinguish between drug use and abuse. They state, “...harm reduction, a policy which stands on the principle that drug abuse is bad but the Drug War is worse.” Agreed. The Drug War causes more harm than the abuse of drugs itself. But what about those who use drugs responsibly? Clearly the majority of those who enjoy the most widely used illegal drug, marijuana, do so responsibly. Abuse means harm. Some marijuana use is harmful; most is not. That which is harmful should be discouraged; that which is not need not be.
Most of the Drug War arrests are marijuana arrests. Arresting the otherwise law-abiding citizens who enjoy marijuana responsibly are among the most harmful of policies, and affect a multitude of people right here in Minneapolis. I am supportive of COHR’s initiative to “...improve society by finding less harmful drug policies...” and applaud any effort to do so. But I contend that efforts like the current citizen initiative in Oakland—which will essentially put a moratorium on marijuana arrests in that city—is not only a tangible, sensible step towards compassion and reason in our drug policies, but also provides the greatest reduction in harm.
Aaron Neumann
Co-Founder and former Chair of NORML MN (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Minnesota), 1999-2002
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