Carrie Margolis, Journal Contributor
SUNORML hosted a discussion yesterday with Dick Evans, an attorney and former NORML board member. The event was to discuss “cannabis and its unfortunate prohibition,” according to Jeff Morris, SUNORML president.
Evans compared today’s issues with marijuana to the Prohibition from 1920-1933. Once the 18th Amendment was passed, the manufacturing, sale and transportation of intoxicating substances were prohibited. It became a very lucrative business to sell liquor, gangsters like Al Capone became rich during this time, and crime and violence increased. Many people were permanently injured or killed due to the government poisoning industrial alcohol. It became illegal to not even report any knowledge of illegal alcohol use.
Following the discussion, a recent Suffolk alumnus, who wished to remain anonymous, talked about his run in with the court system. In 2009, a month after the decriminalization act, he was stopped in his car, which the officer would be searching, so he told admitted the small amount of marijuana in possession. The officer arrested him, and the police told him to talk so they could help him out.
“I am a good and honest kid,” he said, “so I believed them.” He was corporative with the police and did not lie, but by then end of the ordeal he had given enough information to put him in prison. He received 18 months of probation. During that time he stayed out of trouble, passed drug tests and graduated with a degree in entrepreneurship.
Shortly before his parole was up he was helping a friend move. His friend left a box in his car, which was soon after pulled over with police searching the trunk. Inside the box was a few shirts and marijuana. Now the courts say he violated parole and will have to go back on trial.
“I have the most amazing job…I dress in a suit and talk to millionaires,” he said with a smile. The judge can take away his license. “Then I can’t go to and from work…then what do I do, work in a pizza place?”
Evans compared the legalization of cannabis to a Champagne bottle. According to Evans, you tug and pull at the cork really hard, once the cork gets moving, there is no stopping it. NORML wants to change public opinion about the use of marijuana. Evans said they need people to “come out of the closet,” about their use, or even their tolerance of it. It was the voters, not the politicians, who ended prohibition and it will be the same for the use of cannabis.
Next year’s SUNORML President, Sean McSoley, explained that their goal is to educate people and get rid of the taboo people have on marijuana. Evans talked about how legalization is not taken seriously on in the Beacon Hill area. When Morris asked what students can do to help be taken sincerely, Evans advised to ask visiting politicians some well-conceived questions about marijuana use. An example he had was: “How much more money will it take to aide law enforcement in ending marijuana use?”
Evans proposed a challenge. During Prohibition, the terms “wet” and “dry” were used to differentiate people for and against alcohol. He said today we need terms that are less discriminatory than “smokers” and “non-smokers,” and catchier than “tolerant” and “intolerant.”
