TRI In The News

Rutherford Institute Endorses Charlottesville Marijuana Resolution

From Examiner.com

Original article available here

A resolution under consideration by the Charlottesville City Council would recommend that local police and prosecutors make a low priority of enforcement of laws prohibiting possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The resolution has now been endorsed by the Rutherford Institute, a nationally-known public interest law firm based in Albemarle County.

In an interview on May 1 with WINA-AM radio host Coy Barefoot, the institute’s CEO and president, John Whitehead, explained that the City Council will take up the resolution at its regular meeting on May 7 and that he has “written a letter to the City Council saying I think that’s a good idea.”

‘Total failure’

Whitehead added that “the war on drugs has been a total failure.”

The problem, he said on the radio, is that the “focus, it seems, in law enforcement across the country, and the studies show, is mostly on African-Americans.  African-Americans are ten times more likely to be incarcerated or arrested for marijuana possession.”

On the other hand, he pointed out, “studies show that white people use drugs more than black people.  It may not be racist-intended, the laws how they’re enforced, but the impact is racist.”

The significance of the City Council resolution, Whitehead explained, is that it instructs the police to “go after things like heroin [and] cocaine,” which he has heard are big problems in the Charlottesville area.

“As everyone knows, the war on drugs is relentless,” Whitehead continued.  “SWAT team raids for possession of marijuana have resulted in people getting killed.  I think that’s just crazy.”

Changing public opinion

At the same time, he added, polls show that “Americans are moving toward, in terms of their views, legalizing marijuana, especially medical marijuana.”

Whitehead said that “$246 million a year is spent on arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of marijuana users” in Virginia, money that could be spent better on eradicating hard drugs or on social-welfare programs.

For his part, talk-show host Barefoot asked if “the folks in Washington and Richmond are ready to wrap their minds around this idea?”

He described the war on drugs as “corporate socialism, it’s welfare for prison companies, it’s a way to militarize law enforcement and give them a bunch of toys to play with.”

Letter to Council

In his six-page letter to City Council, Whitehead wrote that “for those who fear that de-emphasizing marijuana prosecutions might lead to an increase in drug use, studies show the contrary to be the case – that decriminalization actually results in reduced drug usage.”

Whitehead added in his letter that, in “adopting the resolution to de-emphasize primary arrests for marijuana, the City Council has an opportunity to set an example for the Commonwealth [of Virginia] and the country of what it means to be a community that prioritizes people over policy.  Doing so would show that Charlottesville is progressive enough to act on Americans’ changing attitudes towards marijuana possession, recognizing that the nation’s drug war is a failure and that a new direction is sorely needed.”

He ended his letter by urging all five members of City Council to vote yes on the resolution.