Just Say No, Oklahoma

States are laboratories of democracy and harbingers of public policy trends. Good ideas get repeated when all the pieces fit together, like work for welfare. Bad ideas get tossed out like brown bananas, consider legal cannabis. Medical marijuana legalization efforts have been a disaster for law enforcement in the cases I examined, and a boon for sellers both legal and illegal. Cash strapped states see the promise of quick money from pot retailer licensing fees while voters primarily want to get high. Gains made from those sales turn to loses when cannabis fueled problems add another layer of crime to an overstretched police force.

Oklahoma doesn’t have a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot for the upcoming election but attitudes are moving in that direction. A group called Oklahomans for Health is in the process of getting signatures to put a state question (SQ) on the upcoming ballot to legalize cannabis for medical use. Medical marijuana is a Trojan horse for legalized pot; both are bad ideas. Marijuana is shown to help in pain relief associated with Multiple Sclerosis, glaucoma, cancer and joint pain. In every case however, other more effective drugs exist and are better understood. Cannabis is still a schedule I drug and until recently wasn’t seriously put through clinical studies. Even where some positive signs have been shown from the drug, the best case scenario is ‘promising’- hardly an endorsement. 

California’s law was passed in 1996 and although it was meant as a way to keep dispensaries from being dragged into court, it resulted in a tangle of legal contradictions and naivete. The problems with California’s proposition 215 were twofold according to Gerald Caplan in his 2012 paper Medical Marijuana: A Study of Unintended Consequences: first, the state had trouble distinguishing between ‘medial’ and ‘recreational’ cannabis. Second, retailers made huge profits from sales even though profits were specifically prohibited by law. A common issue was when ‘patients’ would sell their prescribed amount to non-patients for a larger fee. Since the state didn’t keep records on the number of patients overall they couldn’t know how many users had prescriptions. Also, distinguishing legally grown plants from illegal ones is impossible without following the legal plant with a tag. It would be so costly as to be unworkable.

In the case of dispensaries, the marketing techniques show the egregiousness of the whole experiment. Dispensers used glossy pamphlets and billboards to advertise their shops with suspect information like, “35 million suffer from long term insomnia sleeplessness…20 million to 30 million more…short term sleeplessness” (Caplan, 2012). They are in the business of getting customers despite (technically) being a non-profit organization. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that raids by federal police routinely uncovered large caches of money and marijuana. Feds seized 4000 pounds of marijuana (more than allowable) and $400,000 dollars in one case. The report is a few years old now but represents a stark reminder of how dumb laws give cover to bad actors and end up costing money to prosecute.

In Colorado they have likely tried to increase revenue from the licensing of dispensaries. They reasonably believed that physicians would consider marijuana only when traditional approaches failed and that even then, it would be used on a trial basis given the uncertainty of the drug’s effectiveness and the possibility of side effects. They did not foresee the birth of a new specialization in which a physician’s practice would be limited to patients seeking marijuana.

Imagine that? patients who seek doctors on the basis they prescribe cannabis exclusively.  This was in Colorado where recreational cannabis is legal.  Just as a common sense principle adding another layer of prosecution to already lengthy caseload isn’t wise. It is true that legalizing marijuana will eliminate some of the lesser offenses that clog up the courtroom. By decriminalizing small amounts of pot each person may poses state attorneys are free to prosecute bigger ‘fish’.  Most states had already started decriminalizing possession below certain amounts before legalization was in vogue. Colorado passed a superfluous law that with short term gain and long term headache. A few statistics compiled a year ago on the Colorado law:

– Marijuana-related traffic deaths increased 32 percent.

-Almost 20 percent of all traffic deaths were marijuana related compared to only

– 10 percent less than five years ago

– Marijuana-related emergency department visits increased 29 percent

– Marijuana-related hospitalizations increased 38 percent

– Marijuana-related calls to the rocky mountain poison center increased 72 percent

– Diversion of Colorado marijuana to other states increased 25 percent

It is unlikely that every marijuana sale came from licensed dispensaries or even physicians with carte blanche authority to write prescriptions. A section in the law requires individuals to have as many as six plants for personal use. Even with all that, it is unlikely that all the sales were from state authorized retailers. Unscrupulous sellers flock to easy money like rats to a landfill.

  

The problem of thinking that by legalizing weed you will eliminate the sale of illegal weed is that the logic doesn’t work with cigarettes. Most bureaucrats understand the link between taxes and black market tobacco products, when taxes increase so does the sale of black market cigarettes. In Oklahoma we have a slightly different problem of smokers buying from tribal lands and avoiding the higher tax. The problem is the same. States miss out on the revenue the sales tax would have provided at a lower rate and smugglers have likely moved into the area due to the high ‘sin’ tax. The problem is now compounded by a dumb and greedy legislature. Selling without a license still ensures a stiff penalty but just like with cigarettes, the higher price incentivizes risk (or illegality).

California lost the ability to discern ‘patients’ from non-patients. Colorado dropped the ‘medical’ ruse and let everyone have a go, they probably figured it was easier. Both were worse off and although other states have tried the experiment, it remains a bad idea. Oklahoma residents will be tempted to vote on something that guarantees a short term fix for the gaping hole in the budget. Caplan’s report on medical marijuana isn’t just an examination of specific wrong-headed legislation; it is a rebuke to the idea that states can even manage a workable cannabis policy. From the dubious medical claims to the increased crime, hospitalization and suspect retailers-Oklahoma should say no.