Legalizing Marijuana

The ACLU has opposed marijuana prohibition since 1968. Since then, some things have changed, but too much has remained the same. In the past 30 years, 10 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses in the U.S., the vast majority of them for possession and use. Indeed, in 1996, the most recent year for which figures are available, there were 641,600 marijuana arrests in this country, 85% of them for possession -- more than in any previous year! Why …

…not been substantiated by scientific evidence." Now here we are in 1998 and the government, along with anti-marijuana organizations like the Partnership for a Drug Free America, still persist in distorting the evidence, claiming, for example, that marijuana "kills brain cells" and that it is a "gateway" to hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. These fear tactics are a linchpin in the government's effort to maintain prohibition and the civil liberties violations that flow from it.