Stanfield: Democrats should back legalizing pot

By Josh Stanfield
Stanfield is a Hampton Roads native who currently resides in Yorktown. He will be representing Virginia’s 1st Congressional District as a National Delegate pledged to Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention in July.

We find ourselves in a political desert, a desert in which a populist thirst leads in two mainstream directions: to Donald Trump and his rapacious band of loyalists, or to Bernie Sanders’ oasis of democratic socialism.

Our elected representatives, in terms of leadership, are nowhere to be found. Policy is an afterthought. They’re busy satisfying special interests, collecting campaign contributions, and most importantly – getting reelected.

What they lack is common sense, a common sense to which both Trump and Sanders seem to appeal.

By common sense, I recall Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet, a straightforward, vicious attack on hereditary monarchy and a call for American independence. His ideas went viral, and the gears of the revolution started to turn.

We can and should engage our own common sense, our ability to approach policy as everyday citizens through our own reason, experiences and moral sentiments. And I submit that we should start with the racist, unpopular, failed “war on drugs.” Specifically, we should start with reforming marijuana law.

Here’s the political calculus. Republican elected officials have reason to fear a Trump ticket, and libertarian-leaning voters will be the first to jump ship. An embrace of common sense drug policy reform could mitigate that damage.

Democrats will desperately need Sanders supporters, regardless of whether or not he’s the nominee, and common sense drug policy reform could secure some votes.

It is, after all, popular.

A national Quinnipiac poll released recently asked participants whether “marijuana should be made legal in the United States.” 54 percent agreed. When asked whether adults should be allowed to use medicinal marijuana if prescribed by a doctor, 89 percent agreed.

These numbers aren’t shocking to many of us in Virginia. A 2015 CNU poll found that 69 percent of Virginia voters favored legalizing medicinal marijuana. An overwhelming 71 percent supported decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

This popular support comes from common sense.

When confronted with a federal government that, even in 2016, still regurgitates the same discredited propaganda, common sense tells us to look to science.

The Controlled Substances Act classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance with “a high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

Yet study after study declares the opposite: marijuana has demonstrated therapeutic benefits in the treatment of glaucoma, nausea, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and AIDS-associated anorexia and wasting syndrome.

And when confronted with a criminal justice system that disproportionately imprisons people of color for drug offenses, common sense tells us to look to history.

We find a national drug policy that originates in a blatant racism, animated in its basest form by the original drug warrior Harry Anslinger. Consider the recently revealed admission of Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman that the war on drugs was a cynical political maneuver designed to disrupt the anti-war left and African Americans. “Did we know we were lying about the drugs?” Ehrlichman asks rhetorically. “Of course we did.”

The Drug Policy Alliance, after conducting an analysis of data from 2003-2013, concluded: “The racial disparities in the application of Virginia’s marijuana laws are unacceptable and fundamentally question the integrity and fairness of its criminal justice system.”

Not surprising, given African Americans in Virginia are arrested for marijuana at 3.3 times the rate as whites, even though marijuana use is relatively the same between the groups.

The Virginia General Assembly lacks the common sense to act. The 2016 legislative session saw the defeat (in committee) of several promising bills: SB 104, for example, would’ve reduced the penalty for first-time possession to a $100 civil fine.

SB 701, a bill that allows the production of cannabis oil and its prescription and use for the treatment of intractable epilepsy, survived the legislative process this year, but must be reenacted by the 2017 session for its provisions to become effective. There’s reason to be optimistic.

But we can do better, and citizens in the Roanoke region are leading the way: Delegates at the 6th Congressional District Democratic Convention in May passed a resolution in support of rescheduling marijuana, decriminalizing possession, regulating its use, production, and sale, and legalizing medical marijuana.

The Sanders delegation expects to vote on similar proposals, hopefully as part of a criminal justice reform package, at the State Democratic Convention on June 18 in Richmond.

Yet we need the people to write their representatives, protest, and most importantly – vote. Otherwise common sense in politics will remain, as it is today, notoriously uncommon.