Marijuana: Prohibition is almost history, but will it be legalized intelligently?

SPANISH VERSION

I. A Breaking Bad-esque teacher

They guided us to the back of an unmentionable business in a commercial area of the San Fernando Valley, a dark space with only a shelf against the wall used to store junk. One of the employees says “Enjoy!”, moves one of the racks and opens up a metal door that was hidden in the wall. After entering, passing a 30-­feet­ corridor, we move a purple velvet curtain to the side and an intense smell of ganja welcomes us like a slap in the face. Big screens with hockey playoffs, music, a few circular tables, a lot of pipes from all range of prices, and a ton of smoke and laughs. It’s Eden for those who like marijuana: the dopest “smokeasy” in Los Angeles.

It looks like one of the secret bars from the Alcohol Prohibition era during the 1920s, precisely known as a “speakeasy.” Just like back then, to enter this establishment you need to know somebody and a password, like “710,” which is “OIL” inverted, making reference to the potent cannabis extracts found in the majority of dispensaries.

Clandestine and exclusive, but with thousands of followers on Instagram is a secret already famous.

The mission was to talk to Afgoo Head, who got access to the place for this reporter. Afgoo ―his identity will not be revelead for security reasons― is a former teacher from the Los Angeles Unified School District that moved away from the classrooms and now spends his time growing marijuana and rolling cigars so good that they’ve earned him admiration in the cannabis community. His technique takes to another level how this plant is smoked, taking an idea from the past such as “Thai Sticks” and combining it with contemporary ingredients to forge the future. The results are gigantic cannacigars with several grams of the best types of sativa and indica smeared with extracts that have a high percentage of Tetrahidrocannabinol ―or THC, the psicoactive ingredient that gets people ‘high’― like hash, oil or wax, and wrapped in ­cured bud leaves.

It takes minutes for Cuban “maestros torcedores” to roll the best cigars in the world, but Afgoo’s process takes days. That effort is reflected in the quality of the final product and also in the price. While the smallest cannacigars ―with about seven grams of weed, four grams of wax and three grams of hash― are worth $300, the biggest ones ―about half a pound― are $4,000.

“$2,000 in product and $2,000 for my time and effort,” said Afgoo.

Watch this video and learn more about Afgoo’s Thai Sticks:

The initial contact with Afgoo was at The Treehouse, an establishment in South L.A. that was the only spot in the city where you could medicate with marijuana. “Was” because weeks after our visit the business shut down because of noise complaints, although the former manager, Aggie Karmelita, said that they had never had problems with businesses or residents in the area. Anybody could go in, no secret password, but you needed to show a doctor’s recommendation to consume cannabis.

While marijuana is illegal on a federal level, it’s allowed in California under certain conditions. Just like in the 1920s there were legal loopholes that permitted the consumption of alcohol, such as doctor’s recomendations, today there’s a current in the United States that has made ganja quasi­-pseudo­-semi­legal in almost half of all states. The dialogue should no longer be if it will be legalized, but how will we do it.

Afgoo is one of those people that’s had to acquire batmanesque habits, like having a hidden lair or keeping a huge secret from his loved ones, in order to keep his passion for marihuana concealed. On one hand is his concern for security ―because of the authorities and because he has a growing cycle of about 700 plants, which is worth a lot of money― and the objections of a conservative Mexican­-American family where herb is a taboo. On the other hand is his desire to go back to teaching some day. If LAUSD found out, surely he wouldn’t be allowed to teach again. Curiously, there are about 80 of his former students among the more than 104,000 followers Afgoo has on Instagram, where he explains in detail the process to make these marijuana cigars.

“I feel like a free man only until the moment I have to leave my home,” said Afgoo. “From then on, I’m a clandestine and discreet person. It’s not that I always have in my mind what I do, but I have to be careful, make sure I’m clean, that I don’t smell, that there’s no substance on my hands, resin or bud fragments.”

Marijuana has changed Afgoo’s life considerably since he started using it about nine years ago for medicinal purposes because he’s got Carpel Tunnel Syndrome. Now, aside from appreciating its medical properties, the plant is for him a creative tool and a vehicle that has allowed him to do once again what motivated him to become an educator: teach.

“My favorite part [of being a teacher] is to share ideas and to be able to reduce big ideas and complex concepts in a simple way so any person can understand,” said Afgoo. “That’s basically what I’ve done on Instagram and my website.”

Massive amounts of pot were consumed the day of the interview with Afgoo, enough to go to sleep and wake up the next day still fumigated. Such excess can hardly be for medicinal purposes but, contrary to ‘Reefer Madness‘ stereotypes from news or movies, nothing was stolen, noboby got killed, nobody was influenced to do harder drugs, nobody gave children a bad example, the terrorists didn’t win and the country didn’t go to hell.

II. Washington and Prohibition

The issue of cannabis prohibition is not of vital importance for society like others but, since it has an impact in so many lives, it’s undeniable that it’s relevant. It is estimated that between 125 and 200 million people worldwide use it. In other words, it’s the most popular drug.

Marihuana has been classified as a Schedule 1 drug since 1972, making it illegal and placing it at the same level of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Restrictions for its cultivation, possession and use began since the first years of the XX century with the Pure Food and Drug Act, which ordered to label any over-the-counter remedies that had cannabis among its components. On the international level, the International Opium Convention marked the beginning of a series of agreements that created the conditions for the current war on drugs. It wasn’t until the 1970s when the U.S. took a leadership role in those anti­drug efforts, according to the report Ending the Drug Wars from the London School of Economics (PDF).

2015: #BHOs Budget For The #War_On_Drugs Hits $25.4 Billion http://t.co/WZ6exPhgQh pic.twitter.com/7tZe7EqaZl

— Monterey Bud (@MontereyBud) March 26, 2014

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Despite prohibition and the war on drugs, a change in the general public’s perception has occurred in the last decade, which has gained a bigger momentum in the past two years. While 31% of people supported marijuana at the beginning of the 21st century and 46% in 2012, results from a 2013 Gallup poll indicate 58% want an end to prohibition. The total value for the marijuana market in the U.S. medicinal and illicit is between $15 billion and $30 billion, according to an estimate in the book Marijuana legalization: What everyone needs to know using statistics from the RAND Corporation and the Office for National Control Policy.

“We should give up on cannabis prohibition,” said Mark Kleiman, coauthor of that book and a UCLA public policy professor that helped develop the legalization model in the state of Washington. “$40 billion a year is too big of a market. Let’s get that under control. That doesn’t mean I think it’s particularly safe. It’s just that the efforts to control by making it illegal no longer seem worth the effort.”

All prohibitions have a breaking point. It happened in the 1920s when several communities went against the federal government to allow the sale and consumption of alcohol, and also recently with the boost in support for gay marriage and other LGBT rights after, for example, Goodriddge vs. Department of Public Health or the California Supreme Court decision on Proposition 8. It seems that inflection point is coming for cannabis legalization in America.

Explore this map with details on state laws regarding marijuana:

On top of the fact that more cities, counties and states are enacting their own laws to regulate ganja, evidently going against federal prohibition ?like Colorado and Washington, which became in 2012 the first states where voters approved legalization for recreational use? the current of change can also be perceived in Congress. For example, there is the motion passed by the House of Representatives that defunds DEA operations against dispensaries in areas with medicinal marijuana laws. There’s also the memorandum where the Department of Justice explains that local pro­cannabis experiments would be allowed as long as they didn’t go against eight priorities for the federal government:

During a testimony in Congress on September 10, 2013, the U.S. Deputy Attorney General, James Cole, discussed the decision of the federal government not to go against the Colorado and Washington laws:

“It would be a very challenging lawsuit to bring to preempt the state’s decriminalization law,” said Cole. “We might have an easier time with their regulatory scheme and preemption, but then what you’d have is legalized marijuana and no enforcement mechanism within the state to try and regulate it and that’s probably not a good situation to have.”

Evidently, the most tenacious resistance against medicinal and recreational marijuana efforts comes from the DEA and other law enforcement agencies where the majority of arrests are marijuana­related. Although it’s hard for some to acknowledge ―such as Michele Leonhart, head of the DEA― the legalization and decriminalization efforts are like turning off the lights and closing the blinds in Elliot Ness’s office, with him present, at the end of the 1920s, when an unstoppable wave to end alcohol prohibition brewed in numerous parts of the country. In a meeting in Congress, after representative Frank Wolf (R­VA) lamented that pro­marihuana laws in Colorado and Washington will be part of the Attorney General’s legacy, he asked Leonhart if her agents felt demoralized as a result of legalization.

“Actually, it makes us fight harder”, answered Leonhart.

Even though the last three U.S. presidents have said they consumed cannabis and Obama said that marijuana is less dangerous that alcohol ?which sparked criticism from Leonhart? that doesn’t mean the White House is in favor of legalization. On July 28th, one day after the New York Times published an editorial asking for an end to prohibition, Washington responded it’s opposed because of the public health risks it’d create, listing:

In that response, aside from recognizing that the criminal justice system affects certain groups disproportionately and needs to be reformed, the White House concluded saying that discussion on legalization should be framed by science and facts, not ideology or ‘wishful thinking.’

III. Legalization and alternatives

One of the most important arguments against cannabis legalization is the lack of scientific knowledge about the plant, its components and effects on people. But why not just research it thoroughly? Because it’s prohibited federally and it’s very difficult and tedious to get the approval to do it. That undoubtedly makes it harder for the discussion to be guided by scientific evidence. For example, Sue Sisley, a psychiatry professor at the University of Arizona that wanted to study if marijuana can help veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, was fired before even starting her research.

However, that doesn’t mean that some potential for cannabis hasn’t been recognized. Aside from the fact that the federal government legalized industrial cultivation of hemp ―a type of ganja with almost no THC that is used for textiles, paper and fuel― there’s the case of four American patients that get their mota from “Uncle Sam.” Indeed, that tío is a hippy that grows his own bud in the University of Mississippi since 1978 under the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program and ships 34 ounces monthly to a few.

“If the [federal government] in good faith wanted to find out if marijuana has medical benefits, why wouldn’t they research these people whose doctors were required to fill out reports every month or so. But they didn’t do any research at all. The only research on these four patients was done with private funds and it found that even though the federal marijuana is bad ―has a lot of seeds and stems and it can be frozen and it’s not very potent― but even with this pretty crummy marihuana that was in joints, they still reported a whole lot of benefits.”

Explore this timeline with the most important landmarks for weed in the U.S.:

Recent documented cases of marijuana medicinal benefits are mostly related to the use of cannabinoids (CBDs), one of the components in the plant that seems to help patients with epilepsy, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis or that are going through chemotherapy. Although strains with high dosage of CBDs can be found easily in California in multiple presentations ―oils, creams, brownies, joints and even drinks― the majority of types of weed sold in dispensaries focus on having a high percentage of THC, the ingredient that makes people ‘high.’ Added to how easy people can obtain a doctor’s recommendation and the few scientific investigations done on its impact, it explains why there’s a perception that the medicinal potential of the plant is a myth.

“I think that the ‘medical trick’ was successful,” said Kleiman. “Completely dishonest, but completely sucessful. Most people can’t wrap their heads around the notion that something can be a medicine and also a dangerous drug, even though morphine, metanphetamine and cocaine are all medicines. There’s no link between saying ‘cannabis is medically useful’ and ‘cannabis is safe.’”

“Cannabinoids are medically useful and marijuana is not the name of the medicine,” added Kleiman, who thinks that the plant itself has too many variables to be a medicine. “Those are both two statements, even though they seem to be contradictory.”

While the main risk of legalization is the increase in heavy marijuana consumption and addiction ?including all the negative side effects that implies? the potential benefits are, aside from a reduction in criminal activity and incarceration, more taxes that can be destined to education (Colorado sold $24.7 million of cannabis in June), an improvement of quality and safety of the product and, of course, liberty for millions of clandestine users.

“There are 33 million people who are criminals under federal law,” said Kleiman. “They’re breaking federal law because of something that, for most of them, doesn’t hurt anybody.”

Weeks after the interview with Afgoo at the smokeasy in the San Fernando Valley, he was pulled over for allegedly driving over the speed limit by an L.A. police officer who went through his vehicle and found around half a gram of wax. He then checked his cell phone without his permission or a search warrant ―which, the Supreme Court recently ruled, cops cannot do― and saw pictures of big cannacigars and marijuana plants. Using that information, a warrant was obtained to raid his home. A passion that generated inspiration and happiness in Afgoo’s life turned suddenly into a source of suffering, not only for him but for also for his loved ones.

That experience with police costed Afgoo about a pound of weed, mainly residues. Almost nothing. However, the tragedy was on the personal level: his case was referred to the child and family services agency and they took away his daughters. In other words, everything.

“[My daughters] have been my number one priority”, said Afgoo. “I have always tried to keep them away from my meds and from my cannabis-­related lifestyle. It was like living a double life, but for their protection. When the cop threatened to ‘raid my home and take away my daughters if they found anything illegal,’ I felt as if he was deliberately trying to hurt us where it hurt the most. My daughters are sacred to me, which is why I tried my best to always keep them safe. But this moth#$@%$&r went the extra mile to hurt me. I think it was a coward move. When children’s court ordered me to stop smoking and take drug classes and counseling, I quickly agreed and haven’t smoked since, because they’re my motivation to put that part of my life on hold. I haven’t been able to sleep longer than three hours per night and the pain in my forearms has come back with a brutal vengeance. But none of that matters, as long as I get my daughters back.”

Even after that experience with the system, Afgoo doesn’t think marijuana legalization or consumption should be connected with personal liberty. “That would be like saying ‘I’m going to smoke because they’re telling me that I can’t,” said Afgoo. “I think that using marijuana should be about self-­improvement, not only about personal liberty, because marijuana makes you think different, makes you analyze things differently, it opens up your mind… it gives you an opportunity to appreciate the small things, among the many possibilities marijuana offers, it gives you a chance to teach you something that was always there.”

The arguments for legalization are diverse and the current in its favor seems unstoppable now, at least in the U.S. For that reason, the dialogue should no longer be if cannabis will be legalized, but how it will be done.

Jon Caulkins, coauthor with Kleiman of Marijuana legalization: What everyone needs to know, explains in the book that he opposes legalization but proposes reforms such as decriminalization and cultivation in private homes to diminish the black market. Neither legalization nor prohibition.

And what options are between marijuana legalization and prohibition?

According to Kleiman, there are six:

Pepe Mujica, president of Uruguay, where marijuana was legalized in 2013, criticized the models in Colorado and Washington because they don’t establish a limit on the amount that can be purchased. “It’s a fiction what they’re doing in Colorado,” he said. Kleiman agreed with Mujica’s criticism because he considers that a open market system similar to alcohol’s is not what’s ideal.

For Kleiman, the ideal model for legalization could be a state monopoly or run by cooperatives. “But that probably won’t happen,” he said. As opposed to O’Keefe, who believes that it would go against American lifestyle and freedoms, Kleiman wants quotas set for marijuana cultivation, consumption and purchases. In fact, he suggests those limits and taxes should be set based on THC concentration.

“If you’re going to tax, it doesn’t make any sense to tax per ounce of herb,” said Kleiman. “Because the thing that gets you intoxicated is THC and, if you try to tax by ounce of herb, the way you get the most intoxication for the least tax is to have the highest possible THC level. That’s not what you want. It gives you exactly the wrong incentive.”

A law nobody respects is not a good law and marijuana prohibition seems to fit that category, just like it occurred a century ago with alcohol prohibition. As time goes by, more people, politicians and local authorities are realizing that the damage caused by the failed prohibition is greater than its benefits.

However, it’s necessary to make it clear that an end to prohibition is not a panacea for all problems.

Legalization will not end cartels, but it will take away from them a considerable portion of their income. Legalization will not end prison overcrowding in the U.S., but it will help decrease it. Legalization will not pay off the national debt, but collected taxes could help finance the educational sector. Legalization will not end the separation of families, but it will contribute so people won’t lose their jobs, get deported or lose their family, like it happened to Afgoo, because they chose to use an herb. Legalization will not end the stigma and taboo associated with marijuana, but it will help more people live freely and without a double life. Legalization will not end the black market, but it will help reduce it. Legalization will be televised, tweeted, facebooked and instagramed and it will generate the explosion of a culture and a huge industry that will need to be regulated intelligently.

“Soon enough, candidates for president are going to be asked about their positions on marijuana legalization,” said Kleiman. “They’re going to need a good answer. I suggest something like: ‘I’m not against all legalization; I’m against dumb legalization.’”

But what would be the implications of legalization in the U.S. for the rest of the world and the war on drugs? Are we ready for a global dialogue on the issue? We’re not even ready in the U.S., except some isolated examples, because cannabis still is a taboo, not only in conservative Latino families like Afgoo’s, but in society in general. Until we can have that dialogue in an adult manner using scientific evidence, the black market and the secret doors connecting it to the lives of millions of people will continue to exist.