By Frank Knaack, staff member at Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice; Jesse Kelley, government affairs specialist & criminal justice manager with the R Street Institute; and Shay Farley, JD, senior policy counsel at the SPLC Action Fund

In late 2016 Wesley Shelton fell asleep on a Montgomery public bench. He had one marijuana cigarette in his backpack. He was awakened by a police officer who asked to search his bag. The officer found Mr. Shelton’s marijuana and hauled him off to jail. Because of that one marijuana cigarette - $10 worth of marijuana - Mr. Shelton spent the next 15 months in the Montgomery County Jail. Ten dollars worth of marijuana upended Mr. Shelton’s life and cost the taxpayers of Montgomery approximately $21,000 in incarceration costs.

Mr. Shelton’s story is shocking, but unfortunately not unique in Alabama. Every year, Alabama law enforcement officers arrest thousands of people for possessing a substance that is legal for recreational or medical use in states where more than half of all Americans live. It’s time for Alabama to join them in recognizing that the war on marijuana is a monumental waste of tax dollars, undermines public safety, and is enforced with a staggering racial bias.

Alabama prides itself on being a fiscally conservative state, but its continued enforcement of its marijuana laws wastes taxpayer dollars. Each of the 2,351 marijuana possession arrests in 2016 involved a judge, a clerk, law enforcement officers, forensics, storage, and prosecutors, all paid for by Alabama’s taxpayers. Taken together, Alabama spent an estimated $22 million enforcing the prohibition against marijuana possession in 2016 – enough to fund 191 additional preschool classrooms, 571 more K-12 teachers, or 628 more Alabama Department of Corrections Officers. It’s time for Alabama to focus its resources on strategies and programs that will help keep our communities safe - investigating serious crimes and investing in substance abuse and mental health programs.

This misuse of tax dollars undermines public safety. The enforcement of marijuana possession laws creates a crippling backlog at the state agency tasked with analyzing forensic evidence in all criminal cases, including violent crimes. As of March 31, 2018, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences had about 10,000 pending marijuana cases, creating a nine-month waiting period for analyses of drug samples. At the same time, the department had a backlog of 1,121 biology/DNA cases, including about 550 “crimes against persons” cases such as homicide, sexual assault, and robbery. Alabama spends nearly twice as much enforcing marijuana possession laws as it does on the entire agency tasked with analyzing forensic evidence in all criminal cases.

The fiscal and public safety harms are just part of the problem - the war on marijuana also destroys individuals, families, and communities. The overwhelming majority of people arrested for marijuana offenses from 2012 to 2016 – 89 percent – were arrested for possession. In 2016, 92 percent of all people arrested for marijuana offenses were arrested for possession. The impact of an arrest for a drug offense is often significant and can last for years. Even an arrest for the possession of a small amount of marijuana can be a barrier to accessing housing, employment, and student financial aid, and send people and families into a downward spiral of court debt.

The war on marijuana’s often life-altering consequences fall most heavily on black people – a population still living in the shadow of Jim Crow. In Alabama, black people were approximately four times as likely as white people to be arrested for marijuana possession (both misdemeanors and felonies) in 2016 – and five times as likely to be arrested for felony possession. In at least seven law enforcement jurisdictions, black people were 10 or more times as likely as white people to be arrested for marijuana possession. These racial disparities exist despite robust, nationwide evidence that white and black people use marijuana at roughly the same rate.

Finally, Alabama’s marijuana laws undermine the fundamental American principle of equal justice under law. Because Alabama law lacks clarity between marijuana possession and distribution, two people arrested for possessing the same amount of marijuana under the same circumstances can face very different punishments based on the subjective decision of a government official. In addition, access to diversion programs, which enable individuals to avoid a criminal record, is often determined by one’s wealth, rather than their actions - effectively denying this opportunity to those without wealth. Equal justice under law does not exist when people receive different punishments for the same action.

Public support for legal marijuana in the United States is high – 62 percent in recent polling. Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use, and another 13 states – including Mississippi – have reclassified small amounts as non-criminal offenses. And, we now know that the fears of increased marijuana use, traffic fatalities, and crime have not materialized in states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use. At the same time, these states have seen tremendous new revenue generated to support education, drug treatment programs, and other basic government services. It’s time for Alabama to reexamine its marijuana laws and implement a responsible approach to marijuana use by adults.