The American Medical Association Supports Alternatives to Incarceration for Marijuana Offenses
On December 2, 2020, the American Medical Association sent a letter to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, both of California, opposing the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (HR 3884) and in support of the US Senate bill the Cannabidiol and Marihuana Research Expansion Act, stating:
It is the AMA’s position that cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is a serious public health concern. We oppose legalizing the sale of cannabis for adult use and support stronger public health messaging on the health effects of cannabis and cannabinoid inhalation and ingestion. AMA policy opposes state-based legalization of cannabis for medical use and supports the traditional federal drug approval process for assessing the safety and efficacy of cannabis-based products for medical use. The AMA is especially concerned about the consequences of its use, particularly in high-risk populations such as youth, pregnant women, and women who are breastfeeding. With respect to criminal penalties, the AMA believes that public health-based strategies, rather than incarceration, should be utilized in the handling of individuals possessing cannabis for personal use. In order to promote public health and safety, research on the impact of cannabis legalization and decriminalization also is encouraged and information derived from such activities should be widely disseminated. At its recent November House of Delegates policymaking meeting, the AMA adopted new policy calling for a study on the expungement, destruction, and sealing of criminal records for legal offenses related to cannabis use or possession.
The AMA is very concerned with the growing public support and legislative efforts at all levels of government to legalize marijuana and the medical use of cannabis. This has resulted in many individuals using marijuana-derived products that have not been approved by the FDA. This seems to be the reverse of what a safe and effective medical marijuana framework should be. The AMA believes that scientifically valid and well-controlled clinical trials conducted under federal investigational new drug applications are necessary to assess the safety and effectiveness of all new drugs, including potential cannabis products for medical use. Cannabis and its compounds, in particular CBD, has been found to have some therapeutic benefits. However, legal and regulatory barriers to cannabis and cannabinoid research have left physicians and patients without the evidence needed to understand the health effects of these products and make sound clinical decisions regarding their use.
Accordingly, the AMA believes the focus of federal efforts first should be on removing such barriers to research. We support adequate and well-controlled studies of marijuana and related cannabinoids in patients who have serious conditions for which preclinical, anecdotal, or controlled evidence suggests possible efficacy and the application of such results to the understanding and treatment of disease. We urge the House of Representatives to facilitate and support such research, as S. 2032 would do, rather than legalizing cannabis now.
While we are glad the American Medical Association supports research into marijuana as a drug, we are more grateful to see that they support a public health approach to marijuana possession offenders.
A recently published report from Impact/Justice “Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison” tells us that:
A person sentenced to prison in the United States serves three years on average. That’s more than 3,000 meals behind bars (far more for people serving longer sentences), all typically high in salt, sugar, and refined carbohydrates and low in essential nutrients—a diet that for decades everyone else has been advised to avoid. The food itself and the conditions under which it is served are harmful to physical and mental health and can erode self-esteem, with immediate and long-term impacts.
The damaging and degrading prison food experience is a symptom of a larger systemic malady: our dependence on a dehumanizing criminal justice system to address harm. Like every other aspect of mass incarceration, this is an issue of racial and economic injustice: Lower-income communities of color, where affordable healthy food is scarce, disproportionately lose members to prison and then struggle to support them when they return home in worse health. In this way, prisons function as out-of-sight food deserts, perpetuating patterns of poor health in communities that already experience profound inequities.
Certainly it would be within the purview of the American Medical Association to address the pervasive harms of incarceration, including those of malnutrition, lack of access to medical care, and other issues faced by offenders whose only crime is possession or distribution of marijuana. We urge The American Medical Association to call for the release and pardon or expungement of offenses from non-violent marijuana criminals — a step that is only possible by passing the MORE Act.