BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — The people of Ohio may soon again be in a position to consider the question of legalizing recreational marijuana use. Deciding such a question requires considering which moral and political principles are relevant, and then applying those principles to the relevant facts.
There are at least three principles that should guide our decision. First, it is not morally permissible to restrict the liberties of others without first showing that something very bad — not just a little bad — will happen, or is unacceptably likely to happen, if their liberty is not restricted. Second, our laws, or at a minimum, our legislative agendas, should be logically consistent. We should treat like cases alike, because fairness requires this, and the law should be fair. Third, if we must restrict the liberties of others, we should do so in the least restrictive way possible.
When we apply these principles to the prohibition of recreational marijuana, we see that prohibition is unjust and must be ended.
Marijuana prohibition is a serious restriction on liberty. According to the FBI Crime Data Explorer, Ohio law enforcement arrested 6,450 people for marijuana possession and 219 people for selling marijuana in 2021. This is around 6% of all arrests in Ohio. Under the Ohio Revised Code, possession of 100 grams of marijuana or less is a minor misdemeanor. A conviction does not carry any jail time other than the time associated with an arrest, but it does carry a fine of up to $150 – and simply getting arrested, even if it doesn’t lead to a conviction, can have serious negative consequences. People caught with more than 100 grams can be charged with a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the amount.
Ending prohibition will not lead to disaster. We do not have to speculate much about the possible negative consequences of legalization, because the current wave of legalization in this country, which has now hit 21 states plus Washington, D.C., started in 2012 with Colorado and Washington. And people have been smoking pot illegally in large numbers for a long time before that. Forty-eight percent of U.S. adults, according to a 2022 Gallup Poll, and former President Barack Obama, have admitted to using marijuana at least once. If legalization leads to disastrous consequences, I think we would have seen them by now, yet those jurisdictions in and outside of the United States that have legalized have not fallen apart.
Prohibiting recreational marijuana does not treat like cases alike. Smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and eating junk food have similar attributes to smoking marijuana. All of these can be enjoyable activities, but they can also be bad for you and the people around you, especially when done in excess. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, tobacco, poor diet, physical inactivity, and alcohol are the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States.
Marijuana legalization will surely cause some problems, but it seems untenable to me to maintain that these problems will be worse than those caused by other things we allow.
James Schultz of Bowling Green is a graduate student who formerly worked as a public defender in Indiana. (Photo by Anurati Jain)
Finally, a total prohibition on recreational marijuana is not the least restrictive means possible for preventing the harms that prohibition seeks to avoid.
One reason Gov. Mike Dewine has cited for opposing legalization is that it will lead to more young children unwittingly eating marijuana-infused candies and being taken to the emergency room. Another is increased driving under the influence. These are valid concerns, but prohibitionists have overstated them, and they can be addressed through less restrictive means than total prohibition, like requiring child-resistant packaging for edibles, allowing the sale of smokable marijuana only, or improving public transportation.
Marijuana prohibition fails to satisfy any of these three principles. It is unjust and must be ended. I sincerely hope this state will end it in 2023.
James Schultz is a philosophy graduate student who previously worked as a public defender in Indiana. He lives in Bowling Green.
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