Decriminalization < > Legalization

I’m trying to avoid incessantly blogging about drugs, but confusion about Denver’s recent action has induced me to revisit the issue again to clarify the issue, mainly because it pisses me off when people say that Denver legalized psychedelic mushrooms, because it didn’t.

Denver (the city) not the entire state of Colorado, decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms.   They remain illegal.  However, if you are caught with them, instead of going to jail, you are simply hit with a fine.   Since they’re still on Federal Schedule I, all bets are off for getting caught by the FBI, though I’m not aware that federal authorities are prosecuting anyone hit with civil fines on decriminalized drugs.   Decriminalization doesn’t mean legalization, it just means that possession of modest amounts considered plausible for personal consumption, incurs a civil penalty and not criminal sanctions.  Larger amounts still incur misdemeanor or felony charges and jail time. 

Legalization (except as noted below) means you can buy and sell it – and so far, that means in dispensaries which are heavily regulated and collect the state taxes on the transactions.  Many states have decriminalized marijuana but not legalized it, so people still have to either buy it from illegal dealers or grow it themselves.  As a practical matter, the police rarely bother to enforce the law once it reaches this threshold.  This is probably the #1 benefit of decriminalization:  while ordinary people with no source for these drugs can’t purchase them from a dispensary, those who do have a source can buy and sell with little or no concern about unwanted intervention by the authorities – at least the local authorities.   

DC and Maine legalized possession, but not sale, of marijuana.  This means you have to grow it yourself.  The police might be inclined to ignore sales IF the parties get clever by selling other items of nominal value and including the market value of MJ in the transaction as a “free gift”, e.g. buy this otherwise worthless sticker for $60 and we’ll throw in a quarter ounce of marijuana for free.  This seems to be the case in DC.  While it violates the spirit of the law, it does adhere to the letter of the law.  The lawyer in me considers this a form of corruption, while the libertarian in me, who believes all drugs – even heroin – should be legal, views this as a rare occasion when the authorities reach an accommodation with private citizens which moves in the proper direction and counteracts laws which are improper and immoral. 

Maryland has recently legalized medical marijuana, and the statute allows a physician to prescribe marijuana, full blown with THC as opposed to non-psychoactive CBD, if he/she believes that the benefits in treating the patient’s condition, whatever it might be, outweigh the risks.  Given there are no risks associated with MJ, that means literally any condition would qualify, not just cancer or glaucoma.  Medical marijuana dispensaries are now open, including two in Rockville alone.  Sadly, Maryland also ruled that having a medical MJ bans you from owning guns, but that restriction may end up overcome by court rulings – we do have the Second Amendment, remember?   Stay tuned.  Like the selling a sticker and a quarter ounce, these loosely drafted medical marijuana laws act as a de facto loophole to counteract an otherwise bogus law.  Yet again, the libertarian in me applauds this. 

Oddly, many recreational marijuana dispensaries, such as in Colorado and Massachusetts, will sell to non-residents.  In MA, the stipulation is that all such MJ sold must be consumed in Massachusetts.  There’s a dispensary in Springfield, just up the road from Connecticut, where MJ remains illegal.  MA also borders New York, Rhode island, Vermont, and New Hampshire.  Guess what – those states are now seriously considering legalizing now.  Because there’s really no effective way to make sure that no one takes all that MA-purchased MJ into a bordering state.  D’oh!  Do we want that tax money going to Boston - or Hartford, Providence, Concord, Montpelier, or Albany?

What’s funny is that I know people who live in Colorado – and none of them smoke MJ.   Same with my friends in Massachusetts, Nevada and Canada.  Simply because you legalize it doesn’t mean everyone will do it.  We’ll see what happens in Denver, which now has a marginally larger array of mind-altering substances to sample.  Shrooms won’t be sold in dispensaries – yet- but the penalties for possessing smaller amounts will be substantially reduced, at least in Denver.   :D 

As noted earlier, even marijuana is still illegal at the Federal level.  Under Obama, the Feds took the position that they would hold off on enforcing federal marijuana laws in states such as Colorado and Washington which had legalized recreational MJ.  Jeff Sessions, until recently Donald Trump’s Attorney General, made noises that he would change that, but to my knowledge the Feds have yet to do so.  For his part, Trump himself varies from one day to the next, so I’m ill-inclined to pay attention to his position (as it changes by the hour, it seems).  Moreover, Chuck Schumer and others in Congress are proposing to end the Federal ban on MJ, which will not only make this a moot issue, but also allow MJ sellers to enter the banking system.  I won’t hold my breath, but overall the trends seem to be positive.