War on drugs: national spotlight on marijuana 
Tuesday, 28 November 2006 
by LILLIAN HOGAN
News Editor

Last year marked the largest number of marijuana arrests in U.S. history, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Of the 786,545 citizens arrested, 88 percent were charged with possession only.

“This should call us to question the amount of money we’re putting into the drug war,” Clark C. Anderson, Appalachian State University American Civil Liberties Union President, said. “It’s still easy to find drugs. The drug war is unsuccessful.”

The United States has seen a gradual increase in marijuana arrests every year since the 1980s, Kris Krane, executive director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy in Washington, D.C., said. 

This is likely because the United States is spending more money on police and marijuana violations are fairly easy to go after, Krane said. 

Krane, an American University graduate, wrote his honors thesis on the war on drugs. He found that the war is “a massive failure that creates racial inequalities.”

SSDP is “dedicated to seeking alternatives to failed drug policies,” Krane said. The most failed is marijuana prohibition, because the substance is “not harmless, its risks are not any greater than alcohol and tobacco.”

In light of the increasing number of marijuana possession arrests, critics of the drug war question why so much emphasis is put on punishing marijuana offenders.

“There is too much emphasis on punishment and prison,” SSDP Campaigns Director Tom J. Angell said. “We see drug issues as health issues with an emphasis on education and health, not handcuffs and jail cells.”

According to the U.S. Federal Government, there have been no known cases of death from overdosing on marijuana.

According to Rutgers University Center for Alcohol Study, 50,000 cases of alcohol poisoning are reported each year and someone dies from it about once a week.

Society practices drug discrimination, Lisa A. Curtin, psychology professor and substance abuse researcher said.

Curtin, agreeing with Krane, said, “Most harm in the country is caused by our two legal drugs: alcohol and tobacco.”

Goals of Appalachian groups supporting marijuana education, such as Help End Marijuana Prohibition and National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law, are often misunderstood. 

However, according to the Lee H. McCaskey Center for Student Involvement and Leadership Assistant Director Kim L. Mitchell, HEMP is the most asked about organization on campus.

At a president’s breakfast, Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock asked HEMP/NORML President Josh C. Kleinstreuer, “‘So, is your club about drugs?’” Kleinstreuer said. 

Many students have asked him if HEMP/NORML members “are just a bunch of hippies who sit around and smoke pot,” he said. 

Appalachian’s HEMP/NORML works for similar regulations for both alcohol and marijuana, opposes marijuana prohibition, and represents the interests of the tens of millions of Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly, Kleinstreuer said.

Kleinstreuer said he thinks marijuana legalization can happen with the current generation.

“As homosexuals come out of the closet, pot smokers have to come out of the closet and face scrutiny,” Kleinstreuer said.

He said some professors told him in confidence they would support HEMP/NORML’s cause, but are afraid of losing their jobs.

Student interest in HEMP/NORML is growing. There are currently around 30 members. Kleinstreuer, a cannabis consumer, said it’s faulty to assume that marijuana users are bad students. 

“I’m a dean’s list student,” he said. “There is a social stigma that people who use cannabis are deadbeats.”