Titre : | Mitigation of marijuana-related legal harms to youth in California (2016) |
Auteurs : | P. BANYS |
Type de document : | Article : Périodique |
Dans : | Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (Vol.48, n°1, January-March 2016) |
Article en page(s) : | 11-20 |
Langues: | Anglais |
Discipline : | LOI (Loi et son application / Law enforcement) |
Mots-clés : |
Thésaurus géographique ETATS-UNISThésaurus mots-clés CANNABIS ; ADOLESCENT ; SANTE PUBLIQUE ; ARRESTATION ; LEGALISATION ; JEUNE ; EVOLUTION ; CRIMINALITE ; POSSESSION DE DROGUE ; SANCTION PENALE |
Résumé : | If recreational marijuana is legalized for adults in California, a rational implementation of public policy would neither criminalize youth possession, nor medically pathologize it by conflating possession with addiction. The harms of a criminal justice approach to juveniles should not exceed the harms of the drug itself. Juvenile arrests and probation have consequences: (1) arrest records, probation, and juvenile hall; (2) an incarceration subculture, "crime school," psychological and re-entry costs; (3) school "zero-tolerance" expulsions and suspensions; (4) ineligibility for federal school loans; (5) employment screening problems; (6) racial disparities in arrests; (7) fines and attorney's fees; and (8) immigration/naturalization problems. Marijuana-related arrest rates in California dropped after a 2011 law making possession under 1 oz. an infraction for all, but juvenile marijuana arrests continue to outnumber arrests for hard drugs. Recommendations for prudent implementation policy include: stable marijuana tax funding for Student Assistance Programs (SAPs) in high schools; elimination of "zero-tolerance" suspension/expulsion policies in favor of school retention and academic remediation programs; juvenile justice transparency discriminating among infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies. Criminal sanctions and durations must be proportional to the offense. Probation-based interventions should be reserved for larger possession amounts and recidivist offenders, and outcomes should be independently evaluated. |
Domaine : | Drogues illicites / Illicit drugs |
Affiliation : | University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA |
Cote : | Abonnement |
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