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Decriminalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States has been attempted since the 1970s. As views on cannabis (or marijuana) have liberalized, over half of the states have either approved it for medical use, decriminalized it for recreational use, or completely legalized it and approved it for retail sale.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Department of Public Health and Environment )〕 Proponents of decriminalization argue that legalizing cannabis would free billions of dollars now used to prosecute users, provide several billions in tax revenue, free a substantial amount of law-enforcement resources which could be used to prevent more serious crimes, free a substantial amount of prison resources, and reduce the income of street gangs and organized crime who grow, import, process, and sell cannabis. Opponents argue that cannabis on the street today has a much higher percent of THC with a stronger drug effect, and that decriminalization will lead to usage, increased crime, and abuse of actual dangerous illicit drugs. Cannabis remains on the Schedule I list of controlled substances under U.S. federal law. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in ''Gonzales v. Raich'' that the Commerce Clause and Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution allowed the federal government to ban the use of cannabis (including medical use) because federal law is "supreme" and trumps state law to the contrary. == History == (詳細はstates, counties, and cities have decriminalized cannabis. They may require drug education, or drug treatment in place of incarceration, and/or criminal charges for possession of small amounts of cannabis, or have made various cannabis offenses the lowest priority for law enforcement. After the 1960s, an era characterized by widespread use of cannabis as a recreational drug, a wave of legislation in United States sought to reduce the penalties for the simple possession of cannabis, making it punishable by confiscation and a fine rather than imprisonment or more severe charges. In 1972, President Richard Nixon commissioned a study on cannabis use from the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. The Commission found that the constitutionality of cannabis prohibition was suspect, and that the executive and legislative branches had a responsibility to obey the Constitution, even in the absence of a court ruling to do so. The Nixon administration did not implement the study's recommendations. However, the report has frequently been cited by individuals supporting removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. In 1973, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize cannabis possession.〔Hardaway, Robert M. ''No Price Too High: Victimless Crimes and the Ninth Amendment'', 2003. Page 94.〕 By 1978 Alaska, California, Colorado, Mississippi, New York, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Ohio had some form of cannabis decriminalization.〔Peter De Marneffe and Douglas N. Husak. ''The Legalization of Drugs'', 2005. Page 8.〕 Certain cities and counties, particularly in California, have adopted laws to further decriminalize cannabis. In 1974, A Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, chaired by Sen. James O. Eastland on The Marijuana-hashish epidemic and its impact on United States security state that evidence accumulated by scientific researchers on cannabis had turned dramatically against this drug. Further legalization came in 2012 as two of three measures on the November 6 general ballot succeeded by wide margins. Washington Initiative 502 (2011) and Colorado Amendment 64 (2012) passed in the general election, as Oregon Ballot Measure 80 (2012) failed. Both of the successful measures restricted cannabis possession to adults aged 21 or over, restricted the total amount allowed and included a "DUID" provision against driving under the influence of marijuana. Both explicitly regulated cannabis much like hard liquor has been regulated since the end of prohibition in the United States, and explicitly avoided any changes to medical cannabis law. Initiative 502 defined marijuana based on its THC content and regulated all growth, processing and sale of marijuana under the Washington State Liquor Control Board, with strict restrictions against public consumption of marijuana. The Colorado measure, by contrast allowed private "home grows" in addition to commercial regulation. The failed Oregon law, by contrast, established a new state agency to regulate and tax cannabis, but was less specific and allowed possession for all adults, aged 18 or older. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Decriminalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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