weed is what we need project #3- cju

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Weed Is What We Need

Criminal Law122(Spring 2012)Group # 3(TeamDetectives)Professor Whitaker By: Aaron Roundtree,Phedencia Prentice,Jodyne Ambrose, And

Holden John-Rose



The Situation

• 42.6% of American highschool seniors haveadmitted to having smoked

marijuana at some point intheir lives. (2008Drugabuse.gov)

• As it stands now, in theeyes of our government,

each and every one of these people, are criminals.



The Result

• Judicial systems are overpopulated withsmall time marijuana trials, which cost the

government big money. Some cases areeven caused by contradictions in local,state, and federal laws.

• Marijuana accountsfor 15,000 felony

arrests every year in the state of California alone.These arrests cost

the state about $100million each year.

• (California division of NORMLarticle: Marijuana a Costly and

Wasteful War )



• In 2008, the totalnumber of drugrelated arrests inthe country was,1,702,537. Of

those, 754,224 werefor marijuana possession alone.Imagine what these

arrests must costthe government if 15,000 arrests in

California costs



NORML CA./Drugwarfacts



The Reform

• Legalization of this substance would eliminate the need tomake these arrests, and save taxpayers and our government

billions of dollars•

Proposed legalization plans would not only save money but produce money for our country and could help make asignificant impact on our nations debt. It was stated in the

previously mentioned California NORML article, thatCalifornians consume between 3 and 6 billion dollars worth

of cannabis each year, which would amount to $250-500million in sales taxes alone, if purchased from thegovernment instead of foreign importers and street dealers.Keep in mind that these statistics are for California ALONE



• In 2008, 14 US states hadenacted laws to legalize theuse, prescription, anddistribution of medicinalmarijuana. These states

being: Alaska, California,Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,Michigan, Montana,

Nevada, New Jersey, NewMexico, Oregon, Rhode

Island, Vermont, andWashington.

• The remaining 38 statesrefuse to provide thisoption to thousands of

cancer, HIV, glaucoma,and multiple sclerosis patients as well as peoplesuffering from depression.



Modern science has found many uses for marijuana as a medicinal remedy, and there are surelymany more that have not yet been discovered. A large

part of the reason for this is because of the substance’s

illegality. It is extremely hard for researchers andscientists to experiment with marijuana because it isillegal. The possible uses of this plant could beendless, but until it is legalized, researchers won’t beable to do the tests that they need to in order to

identify other positive characteristics of thissubstance.



What’s Next

• As Rob Kampia stated in an article on Alternet, thewar on pot costs $42 billion dollar a year, isn’tthere a better way to spend that amount of money.

He suggested hiring 880,000 school teachers at asalary of $47,602 per year. Or give it back to thetax payers, that would be $140 dollars to everysingle person in the US. There are better ways we

could be spending this money, while generating billions more. There are many ways to get activeand change these laws such as writing letters,

phoning, or visiting legislators with your opinions.



• The USVI chapter of NORML (NationalOrganization for theReform of Marijuana

Laws) is based on StThomas. They serve as our link to local VI andFederal officials that havethe power to make a

change• Action can be as simple as

making a commitment tostay aware of thismovement’s effort, (join

NORML’s Facebook page)or mailing a pre-writtenletter to your localgovernment.

• For those of you who would like to be moreactively involved in the legalization

movement, our USVI chapter needsmembers, volunteers, protestors, and petitioners.



USVI/Washington D.C. NORML

• Virgin Islands

• USVI NORML

PO Box 535St. Thomas, VI 00804

Voice (304) [email protected]: Linda Adler (Executive Director),

• Martin Fredericks(Director),

• Barbara LaRonde(Director), Scott Wood (Director), CondonJohn (Director)

• NORML1510 Longworth House Office Building,District of Columbia 20515-5501

Phone: (202) 225-1790Fax: (202) 225-5517http://norml.org

http://norml.org/

mailto:[email protected]

http://usvinorml.org/

http://norml.org/

http://norml.org/

http://usvinorml.org/

mailto:[email protected]

weed is what we need project #3- cju

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