236 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Suite 400

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www.mpp.org

Our marijuanalaws arentworking.

Its timefor a new

approach.

What are the four biggest reasons that people are concerned about

regulating marijuana?

1. Marijuana use is wrong. Whatever ones moral beliefs about marijuana consumption, marijuana laws have caused far more harm than marijuana use itself: marijuana prohibition has drained precious criminal justice resources from our communities, made it difficult to keep marijuana from our children, and destroyed the lives and families of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

2. Marijuana regulation would send the wrong message to teenagers. Regulation would reduce teen access to marijuana by taking it off the streets and regulating it, and sending adults to prison if they sell marijuana to young people. According to the White House, more than half of U.S. teens try marijuana before graduating from high school. In the Netherlands, where marijuana is sold in indoor establishments to adults who are carded for age, teen marijuana use is only 28%.

3. Marijuana regulation might increase DUI-related deaths on the roadways. Driving while intoxicated would still be illegal. And people who want to use marijuana are already using it; there are few adults who would start using marijuana if it were regulated.

4. Marijuana is a gateway or stepping stone to hard drugs. Its the criminalization of marijuana thats the gateway to hard drugs. When adults enter a liquor store to buy alcohol, they dont find cocaine sitting on the shelf next to bottles of vodka; similarly, if marijuana were regulated, adults who buy marijuana would not be exposed to hard drugs (as they currently are, via drug dealers).

Its time for aneW apprOach:

marijuana regulation and control.

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Please mail this form, with your donation, to Marijuana Policy Project

236 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20002

I want to help Mpp make marijuana legal.

Marijuana Policy Project Foundation

Our marijuana laws arent working. Our failed marijuana laws cost taxpayers $7.7 billion a year, keep police from focusing on real crimes, and fail to keep marijuana away from minors.

In 2010, there were 853,838 marijuana-related arrests in the United States which is one arrest every 37 seconds. Thats more ar-rests for marijuana than for all violent crimes combined. And 88% of these arrests were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture.

Marijuana use is far higher in the United States than in the Netherlands, where marijuana is sold in regulated establish-ments instead of on the criminal market. In the U.S., 41% of people over 12 have tried marijuanaversus 17% in the Netherlands.

Regulation is the answer.Its time for a new approachstrict regulation and controlto reduce the criminal market and lower teen use.

Taxing and regulating marijuana would...

4 Make our communities safer. Removing marijuana from the criminal market would free up police time so police offi cers can focus on violent crimes, property crimes, and people who drive under the infl uence of alcohol, marijuana, or any other substance. Tax dollars would be used to incarcerate real criminals who threaten public safety.

4 reduce teen marijuana use. Unlike drug dealers, licensed vendors would work to prevent teens from buying marijuana just as states that have implemented strict controls on underage tobacco purchases have seen sales of tobacco to minors fall dramatically.

4 Save taxpayer dollars and generate revenue.Each year, the government spends $7.7 billion to arrest and lock up nonviolent marijuana users. Taxing marijuana would produce combined savings and tax revenues of between $10 billion and $14 billion per year, instead of generating profi ts for drug dealers.

4 provide a legal source of marijuana for seriously ill patients who currently must resort to buying marijuana from drug dealers.

Taxing and regulating marijuana would not...

6 allow marijuana possession or access for those under the age of 21.

6 allow driving under the infl uence of marijuana, which would remain a crime and would be treated like other DUI off enses.

What are the health e ects of marijuana?Unlike with alcohol and tobacco, no one has ever died from using marijuana. And while marijuana isnt risk-free, its risks are lower than those of many legal drugs.

alcohol Tobacco(Tylenol)

Marijuana

Can cause stroke?

Yes Yes

possible with

frequent use or high

doses

no

Overdose can cause death?

Yes No Yes no

Number of deaths annually

21,634 353,300 458 0

acetaminophen

Drug dealers dont card for age.If marijuana were taxed and regulated, licensed establishments would have an incentive to card for age, because selling to minors would cause the establishments to lose their licenses to sell to adults.