Marijuana Users Deserve Amnesty, Just Like Illegal Aliens
BRADENTON, FLORIDA — Government statistics show that 112 million Americans, or 46% of the population, have used illicit drugs (mostly marijuana) at some point in their lives, and that 28% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 have used marijuana within the last year. Since one of the big reasons given for legalizing illicit immigrants is that we can’t possibly arrest and deport 12 million people, and we have far more marijuana users than illegal immigrants, it’s obviously more important for us to legalize marijuana use than to give amnesty to illegal immigrants.
Illegal immigrants fear new laws and enforcement efforts that will penalize employers for hiring them, thereby clamping down on their job opportunities. In our “zero tolerance” drug law environment, many employers already reject marijuana users. Pre-employment drug screening is common, while (effective) pre-employment identity verification is not, as witnessed by the number of illegal immigrants we see working in jobs ranging from agriculture to construction to auto repair.
A common argument in favor of a “path to legality” for illegal immigrants already in the U.S. is that, aside from the fact that they break the law by being here, most illegal immigrants hold jobs and are otherwise productive, valuable members of society.
You can say the same about marijuana users. The ones I know personally are productive members of society. And unlike illegal immigrants, they don’t routinely use fake IDs or fraudulent Social Security numbers.
Don’t forget: using false ID is a crime that virtually all illegal immigrant commit. And virtually all illegal immigrants who drive cars or trucks in the U.S. are either guilty of driving without a license or of obtaining a drivers license under false pretenses, both of which are crimes that routinely put bona fide Americans in jail.
As near as I can tell, marijuana users represent no more threat to society than illegal immigrants. We don’t want either group to drive or operate dangerous machinery under the influence, but that’s a separate law-enforcement issue.
One reason a (legal) immigrant neighbor from Mexico gives for not making it hard for illegal immigrants to get jobs here: “A lot of them will turn to crime to make money instead of working. They’ll be robbing and stealing to support their families. 12 million people, that’s a lot of potential criminals. We can’t handle that many, no way. We don’t have enough police or jails to deal with them.”
You can say the same thing about marijuana users. Millions of otherwise law-abiding Americans have been turned into criminals by our drug laws. In many cases (including one in my own family), possesion of as little as four ounces of marijuana can brand a young man as a felon, which makes it hard for him to find a decent job and makes it impossible for him to get any kind of government-sponsored loans or aid to continue his education. My young relative works two low-wage jobs to get by, but many others in his situation have given up on bettering themselves through legitimate work and have turned to crime.
We don’t want to make 12 million illegal immigrants into potential criminals. We shouldn’t make even more millions of marijuana users into potential criminals, either. But we do.
Proponents of legislation to legalize illegal immigrants’ presence in the U.S. don’t like the word “amnesty” used to describe their efforts. They talk about how they will have application procedures and fees and some sort of screening process, including proof of employment, for all illegal immigrants who want to become legal.
Fine. Let’s do the same for marijuana users. Give them a procedure to apply for legal status, including proof of gainful employment and an otherwise clean court record. And, to make this idea more politically palatable, let’s not use the word “amnesty” to describe it.
Why law enforcers should back marijuana legalization
Most state and local law enforcement agencies do not arrest illegal immigrants over their illegality, even for ID-related crimes including driving without a license. (I have personally watched local police tell illegal immigrants who had no drivers licenses to walk home after accidents instead of arresting them.) A reason often given for this lenient approach to immigration law enforcement at the local level is that police must overlook the crime of illegal immigration so that illegal immigrants feel comfortable talking to police about robberies, rapes, murders and other serious crimes.
Now imagine this conversation: “Sure, officer. Come on in, have a seat. Want some water or coffee? I’ll tell you everything I know about that home invasion robbery next door. Let me move my stash box and rolling papers off the table so you have a comfortable place to take notes.”
Wow! Suddenly millions of American marijuana users would help police instead of being scared of them.
The other big reason I’ve heard for local and state law enforcers ignoring immigration law violations is that they are not trained in the specifics of immigration law and policy. How many are trained specifically in drug law and policy? Or know the difference between a marijuana high, a cocaine high, and a meth high? It seems to me that it would be a lot easier to teach police about immigration law than about the ins and outs of our many layers of drug laws, let alone turn them into expert pharmacologists.
Cutting off drug and human traffickers’ incomes
I’ve seen more than a few weepy tales on TV about the evils of human traffickers and how their clients are at risk during border crossings. Legalizing now-illegal immigration would cut the number of stories we hear about immigrants suffocating in cargo containers or dying of thirst in the Arizona desert.
We see and hear just as many stories about how narcotrafficantes — often the same people who smuggle humans — have overwhelmed Mexican authorities and even kill Mexican journalists who report their crimes. Legal marijuana in the U.S. would kill most of the Mexican and border-state drug-smuggling industry just as thoroughly as legal immigration would kill the human-smuggling industry.
We need rational immigration and marijuana policies
Sooner or later, one way or another, leaders of our major political parties will come up with a politically-acceptable way to let illegal immigrants stay here legally. We need those workers to fill “jobs Americans won’t do.” The alternative — paying decent wages to people who do low-skill work — is too horrible to contemplate.
And sooner or later, we need to face the reality that we’re not doing any better at keeping people from using marijuana than we are at keeping willing workers out of our country — and since America’s marijuana users are our own sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters, we ought to legalize them before we talk about legalizing illegal aliens.