• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

American Federalism and Policy Chaos: Marijuana Legalization and Decriminalization

Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson by Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson
02/21/19
in Opinion
Pro-marijuana activists take part in a rally on Capitol Hill in 2017

Pro-marijuana activists. Photo: Mandel Ngan, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Federalism – a system whereby both the national government and subnational governments have equal status – provides opportunities for states and local governments to act as “laboratories of democracy” by developing innovative policies. Federalism is also chaotic and leads to confusion. Marijuana policy is a foremost example.

Since 1996, 33 states have legalized comprehensive medical cannabis programs, and 10 of those states have further legalized recreational pot. In both cases, states are regulating the marijuana market and decriminalizing some or all adult use and possession.

But other states (including some with medical programs) and localities have stopped short of full legalization and instead have decriminalized by defining minor marijuana offenses as non-criminal infractions (9 states) or by removing the threat of jail time for minor possession (4 states).

Card

The chaos comes in the fact that the details and practical effects of these policies on citizens vary across policy and jurisdiction.

Types of Marijuana Reforms

 There are two broad types of marijuana reforms: legalization and decriminalization.

Legalization includes medical and recreational, which we have referred to as “defiant innovations” in our published work because the states not only allow for some marijuana use, but they also actively enable a marketplace to form with growers, manufacturers, and dispensaries. In all of these legal systems, enforcement of marijuana is regulated at the state level.

Hand with marijuana
Marijuana. Photo: Yuri Cortez, AFP

Decriminalization is different. Rather than legal markets that facilitate the creation of a new industry, decriminalization simply diverts policing resources from marijuana enforcement to other priorities. Possession of pot often yields a fine from police and/or some short jail time instead of longer prison sentences and all of their related expenses. Decriminalization often occurs at the local level but has also been adopted by states.

While even our description makes it seem like there are three distinct policy approaches (no reform, legalization, and decriminalization), the truth is not as clear cut. States vary a great deal in how they regulate their medical and/or recreational systems.

More recent adopters of medical marijuana, for instance, tend to be more restrictive with how, where, why, and by whom medicinal cannabis can be used. In the case of decriminalization, some jurisdictions have been more ambitious by expunging (erasing or sealing) the criminal records of past drug offenders. Given that decriminalization often begins at the local level, there can be tensions between how far a state will allow localities to go.

Racial Justice and Decriminalization

It is no secret that there are vast racial disparities in the American criminal justice system. Decriminalization policies might be the fastest and most effective way to address racial disparities in marijuana enforcement. Politicians often cite racial differences in marijuana arrests when promoting decriminalization.

Given that many changes start at the local level rather than the state level, cities with diverse populations can unilaterally change the possession laws and penalties within their jurisdictions. This has allowed for cities like Houston and Milwaukee to pass reforms in spite of little state support.

But marijuana liberalization is not a racial panacea. While many have celebrated the burgeoning legal marijuana market, others have noted that the market is dominated by white owners. And people of color have fewer opportunities to capitalize on the market, between policies barring entrepreneurs with drug convictions and prohibitive startup costs made worse by difficulty accessing loans from banks.

This double standard was best captured in a photo posted by American singer Billy Ray Cyrus of his wife standing in front of several bags of marijuana captioned “my how the times are a changing.”

Yes! Like I said yesterday @TishCyrus…. my how the times they are a changing #CrAzYMaMa pic.twitter.com/tfvbGYC0Oc

— Billy Ray Cyrus (@billyraycyrus) February 15, 2019

Journalist Soledad O’Brien responded: “Think of all the people incarcerated right now on marijuana charges. And you wonder why so many people understand that criminal justice is often neither fair nor just.”

Snowball Effect

 A benefit of both chaotic innovation and local autonomy to act is the potential for local governments to influence broader policy. From plastic bag bans to smoking bans in the United States, local government actions in some states snowball and put pressure on state governments to make local ordinances uniform.

Local governments have taken the lead on marijuana decriminalization. Philadelphia, for example, decriminalized pot two years before Pennsylvania adopted medical marijuana.

Recently, the chief prosecutor for the city of Baltimore announced that her office will no longer prosecute residents for marijuana possession. This goes further than the statewide law that decriminalized the possession of 10 grams or less of pot in 2014.

Consequences of Policy Chaos

Policy chaos also has dire consequences. In Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), police brutally beat a citizen over the possession of one blunt. The altercation escalated because the victim did not know that he was in one of only two municipalities in Cuyahoga County that had not decriminalized. The fact remains that possessing the same amount of marijuana yields substantially different effects depending on a citizen’s location. Some are subject to no action by the government, and others face significant jail time.

Thus, a classic paradox in federal systems is that states and localities can leverage the benefits of trying local solutions to problems while also producing vast inequalities in the effects of divergent policies.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
Share8Tweet
Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson

Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson

Hannah is Assistant Professor of political science at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. Mallinson is Assistant Professor of public policy and administration at Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg in Middletown, PA

Related Posts

Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020
Opinion

The Vaccine Battle Highlights the Need to Communicate Science

by Lori Lennon
January 19, 2021
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.
Opinion

Threatening Democracy: The Choice Between Progress and Extremism Has Never Been So Clear

by Peter Bloom
January 13, 2021
Jake Angeli speaks to a US Capitol Police officer.
Opinion

American Democracy Will Prevail

by Saad Hafiz
January 13, 2021
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.
Opinion

Riots at Capitol Hill: Darkness Before the Dawn?

by Stacy Gallin
January 8, 2021
Playing the Un-Naming Game in New York Is Harder Than It Seems
Featured

Pandenomics: The High Cost of Living While Undocumented in the United States

by Benjamin Waddell
December 22, 2020
People holding up banners to defend DACA.
Featured

DACA’s Return and the Need for Action From Incoming Biden-Harris Administration

by Alessandra Bazo Vienrich
December 16, 2020
Next Post
kbr kitchen remodeled

Kitchen Remodeling Ideas That Won’t Break Your Budget

16 year old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at the 2018 UN Climate Conference in Poland.

Swedish Climate Activist Brings Major Youth Protest to Paris

Recommended

Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020

The Vaccine Battle Highlights the Need to Communicate Science

January 19, 2021
Beggars

Rights Court Condemns Switzerland for Fining Beggar

January 19, 2021
Central African Republic's Faustin Archange Touadéra.

Two UN Troops Killed in C. Africa as President’s Re-election Confirmed

January 19, 2021
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

UN Rights Office Urges Navalny’s Immediate Release

January 18, 2021
The filing was submitted by Justice Department lawyers on Thursday, January 14.

US Rioters Sought to ‘Capture and Assassinate’ Lawmakers at Capitol: Prosecutors

January 15, 2021
Biden proposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Biden Unveils $1.9 Tn Economic Plan as US Recovery Buckles

January 14, 2021

Opinion

Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020

The Vaccine Battle Highlights the Need to Communicate Science

January 19, 2021
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.

Threatening Democracy: The Choice Between Progress and Extremism Has Never Been So Clear

January 13, 2021
Jake Angeli speaks to a US Capitol Police officer.

American Democracy Will Prevail

January 13, 2021
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

Riots at Capitol Hill: Darkness Before the Dawn?

January 8, 2021
Volunteers are given the Moderna vaccine on August 5, 2020, in Detroit, Michigan.

Who’s First-in-Line for the Vaccine? A Classic Problem in Medical Ethics

December 30, 2020
A sorghum farmer inspects her small grains crop thriving in the dry conditions in March in the Mutoko rural area of Zimbabwe

The 10-Year Food Systems Revolution Must Start Now

December 22, 2020
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post