The California State Assemblys public safety committee approved a bill Tuesday Jan 12 to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, proposing to add potentially one billion dollars to California’s deficit-wracked budget. Colorado is consider similar measures, and New Jersey just became the 14th state to allow medical use of marijuana. We look at the long history of governments using addictions, whether substances or processes, such as gambling, as revenue sources … and also issues of treatment, or lack thereof, when of these things become problems… and also an innovative organization in South Dakota working to create a grassroots, community effort to pick up where traditional treatment leaves off.
Transcript (edited):
CNS: Darryl, there are interesting things in the news this week we have the California legislature about to debate legalizing and taxing marijuana, and a story out of Maryland about the need for a new commission similar to the one we had at the end of Prohibition, looking at the way we deal with our drug laws; also an interesting story out of South Dakota about a new community organization looking at dependency issues as a long-term illness. These things seem related.
DARRYL: The first two are related, I am not sure about one in Sioux Falls, S.D. California, Colorado, and eleven or twelve other states have been moving to legalize, or decriminalize marijuana for some time now. There are huge movements or initiatives, which got momentum from the medical issue of marijuana and now the economic issue. I think basically whats leading the thing along now is the great potential revenue source it represents for the states.
CNS: Which is of course historically true of alcohol and other drugs.
DARRYL: Any addictive substance, whether its a mild substance like nicotine or tobacco, or a strong substance like heroin, that is capable of inducing substance-dependency is always going to be profitable. If you think marijuana will become legal soon so it can be taxed – you might to invest in something small like maybe patenting a name, like Maui-Wowie, or some kind of packaging, or some kind of thing that goes along with marijuana because if it becomes a legal and tax issue, it represents a huge source of revenue. Research indicates that 10 or 20% of those who consume alcohol, consume 80% of all alcohol sold. The individuals who use these substances consume huge amounts and ultimately pay a penalty in terms of taxation which supports the rest of society. I have no illusion that the money will go towards treatment. Here in Oregon, the voters approved gambling, which is a huge addiction, the citizens agreed to legalize it with the proviso that about 5% or 10% of the money would be reserved for treatment of gambling addiction. But when the (economic) downturn happened, the legislature and the people in power didn’t give a darn what the people voted for, they stripped the money for gambling treatment down to 1%, and diverted the other revenues toward supporting the infrastructure and political machinery that seems to be running our country at this time.
CNS: Even though it was written into the law, they just decided to modify it.
DARRYL: Yes, I don’t know how that works, but they do it all the time. When governments declare a state of emergency, they do anything they want, state militia and all that, so I guess the executive and legislative powers can decide what they want to do about anything.
But marijuana is moving rapidly toward taxation, or legalization, or medical use. I think the California legislature is looking at that now, talking about $50 per ounce as the proposed tax, which they say is only one dollar per joint, but that’s a pretty thin joint.
CNS: But if you’re talking about high THC, sinsemilla, or what have you, that’s probably close.
DARRYL: It depends on the users tolerance, because you do get tolerance to marijuana, it depends on the social environment where it is used. In Oregon and California where medical marijuana is legal, there are problems in high schools and with our kids. For example, Ashland, Oregons high school is voted one of the top ten in the US and the issue there wont be students having a medical marijuana card, but the fact that students cant smoke on campus or be in possession of it. So what happens if a student pulls out the card and says I need it for medical purposes? It is legal and could present an interesting case.
CNS: Im sure it will show up. But back to gambling, there was another story recently from Pennsylvania, talking about the amount of revenue that the states are realizing from the legalization of gambling, and their responsibility that to address the addictive qualities.
DARRYL: Gambling is probably one of the most powerful addictions I have seen, its a process addiction, like shopping or hoarding, or internet gaming. It has a powerful impact in the most devastating ways. Working in a state that legalized gambling I see individuals who have completely lost relationships, lost their freedom, lost their cars, their jobs, their self-esteem, ultimately their soul and their life. Gambling seems to be even more devastating than alcoholic or heroin addiction. It happens very quick and they have almost no control over their obsession with winning. Its hard for me to understand because Im a normie when it comes to gambling. I hate to lose and I believe the machines that are legal here, the poker machines, the lottery machines, are adjusted to pay out only so much.
CNS: Theyre all programmed its not like a poker game with your buddies.
DARRYL: The electronic slots are programmed to come up near-misses a lot, almost the three cherries one little scoot, or three on the diagonal, and it just continues to draw you in more, and people get totally obsessed with it.
CNS: So thats a psychological manipulation, thats mean and nasty.
DARRYL: It is even worse than drug addiction where the drug just does it for itself. People smoke, people use heroin and the drug does it on its own. Here we have a whole industry trying to suck you in with all kinds of advertising, branding gimmicks and all kinds of other things. Certainly these are issues that have not been thoroughly looked at; for whatever reason. The biggest problem we have with drug addiction, marijuana, and gambling, is the horrible lack of services. You can legalize anything if there was a huge increase (in funding), and offer treatment on demand. Any time a person with these problems can come forward and enter a very rigorous and very good treatment program. That kind of treatment access would make legalization more acceptable. A society that continues to put few resources toward treatment and a lot of money toward the revenue side doesn’t seem like a fair way to go.
CNS: We are seeing greater usage of the drug courts, also more drug education, substance abuse, relapse and recovery and training in the prison environment. Its still not enough but maybe increasing a little bit.
DARRYL: Its wonderful, but I have no illusions. I’m a supporter of drug courts and I think they really work. There is evidence across the country that it is much better than the alternative of just locking people up, and saying stay away from drugs.
CNS: As if you couldn’t get drugs in prison anyway …
DARRYL: We spend so much money on our court system and incarcerating people providing custodial care of people, and coerced treatment seems to be successful in that it saves our court and prison system so much money. A proposition addressing this was passed in California and resulted in closing two prisons. It was the first time California didnt build more prisons than educational institutions. That was great, but then the prison union and a lot of people protested because of job loss. Now there is a move to open more prisons. ,
This article from Sioux City ties into that somewhat. There is a community learning what is evidence-based in terms of treatment and also in terms of NIDAs approach to treatment. It is community-based treatment, structured towards community involvement on all levels that promotes the best outcomes. So Sioux City is recognizing now, and I hope all communities recognize, that addiction is a chronic, persistent medical disorder, its an anomaly, a difference in people’s brain, and it affects the most wonderful of all our citizens. So the community rather than supporting incarcerating, criminalizing, and treating a person as a pariah…. as evil, the community embraces them as someone who might have diabetes or hypertension or asthma, and then provides a community -based intervention, where all parts of the community support that idea, where even the parent of addict says “my son has an illness,” rather than “he’s always been a bad kid”. That goes a long way and I hope the rest of the country does that more and more instead of merely looking at ways to make money legally off of marijuana. And that unfortunately, seems to be where California and other states are going.
CNS: Budget issues, recession issues have had an effect on government services, and as often happens, caused the removal of services that are perhaps the most needed. It is a balancing act — do we need police, or firemen more — its a difficult choice. But in terms of issues related to addiction, it continues to be under funded. Are we seeing some movement? Some progress? Or is it still really slow?
DARRYL: I think it is still slow. The latest University of Maryland notes on addiction show that, of the people who need, and want treatment for their addictive condition or substance use disorder, only one out of 29 or so are able to access treatment in any given year. That number has been about the same for many decades. We still have this huge treatment gap in which we are unable to provide enough treatment for those who want it even though treatment has been shown to be so effective in every study ever done. The meta study at the University of Pennsylvania 2005 showed that every treatment study, and they looked at over a thousand, had a positive economic outcome and actually saved society money. Treatment is effective, it compares well with treatment of any other chronic, persistent disorder like diabetes, asthma, hypertension. Now that the Mental Health Parity Act is in effect I have seen some institutions start to either contract out or look at providing more drug abuse treatment. Now that you cant discriminate against addicts maybe well see some change. We are still amuck in a horrible lack of treatment for people who want it and need it.
CNS: Hopefully it will move forward, and we wont reverse the trend again, even with our economic difficulties. And we have yet to see how thats going to be addressed in the health care reform legislation. Thanks Darryl.