Pubdate: Thu, 11 Dec 2014
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2014 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198

WISE COUNSEL

Congress Should Listen to What Houston Police Chief Charles 
Mcclelland Has to Say.

Advocates for ending the war on drugs found an unlikely new ally last 
week: Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland.

In an interview with Houston-based radio show Cultural Baggage, 
McClelland candidly discussed the undeniable facts about our nation's 
criminalization and prohibition of marijuana, calling the drug war a 
"miserable failure."

"Most police chiefs understand that when it comes to marijuana use, 
we cannot (continue) to criminalize such a large population of 
society that engage in casual marijuana use," McClelland said during 
the pre-recorded interview that aired Friday on KPFT 90.1.

Beyond listing the drug war's financial toll on taxpayers, and its 
general ineffectiveness, McClelland also provided a perspective from 
our nation's police officers. As McClelland tells it, trying to 
enforce drug laws as a local peace officer means working within a 
world of conflicting orders. Marijuana is still illegal under the 
federal Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I drug - the most 
restrictive category. But plenty of local district attorneys, state 
legislators and voters are pushing back and creating their own 
policies. Police officers don't know what they're supposed to do.

"A lot of law enforcement officers see things in black and white, and 
they want to know, look, from the federal government, if it's 
illegal, do you want us to enforce it or not? And if it's something 
that should be changed, then take it off the list."

The police chief 's statement should be a call to action for Congress 
to write legislation that puts the power of drug regulation back in 
the hands of the states. This would move us toward a national drug 
policy that actually addresses the harms we want to prevent instead 
of just blindly punishing people.

Texas is ready for a change. A University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll 
from earlier this year found that only 23 percent of Texans thought 
that marijuana should be illegal in all circumstances, and nearly 
half of all Texans agreed that small amounts of marijuana should be 
legal for recreational purposes.

Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson has started a pilot 
program so that first-time, small-possession marijuana offenders can 
avoid the risk of a criminal record. Two Texas legislators - state 
Rep. Gene Wu and state Rep. Harold Dutton - have even put forward 
bills for the next legislative session that would decriminalize 
possession of small amounts of marijuana, replacing potential jail 
time with the equivalent of a speeding ticket.

But as McClelland wisely pointed out, change has to come from the 
top. While states and municipalities move forward, the federal 
government is stuck with a legal framework for marijuana that fails 
to accommodate changes at the local level. Congress only adds to the 
confusion with its current $1.1 trillion spending bill. That 
legislation includes provisions to undermine the recent Washington, 
D.C., vote to legalize marijuana, but it also prohibits the Justice 
Department from interfering with state-level medical marijuana laws. 
No wonder police officers feel like they're getting a mixed message.

This federal refusal to comprehensively update our national drug 
policy places a particular burden on communities of color, which bear 
the brunt of the drug war. A study by the American Civil Liberties 
Union titled "The War on Marijuana in Black and White" found that 
while black and white kids smoke marijuana at similar rates, blacks 
are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for it. Early 
exposure to our often unforgiving criminal justice system can ruin 
lives and gut communities. In the interview, McClelland called it a 
"trickle-down effect."

"[A] lot of young men who are minorities, in their early 20s, have a 
felony conviction on their resume, and now they're unemployable. And 
we wonder why they don't have jobs, they're not working, they're not 
contributing to society in a productive way, but we've put them in a 
position to where the odds are stacked against them."

Decriminalizing marijuana won't be a silver bullet to all our 
nation's problems, but it will take a weight off plenty of kids who 
already have to struggle uphill to find stable ground in society.

With his impressive testimonial on Cultural Baggage, Police Chief 
McClelland has the opportunity to become a leader in the campaign to 
reform our nation's drug laws. Senators and representatives from 
across the nation should listen to what he has to say.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom