For a better legal system, Florida should legalize marijuana for recreational use. Here's why.

The way Florida handles possession of small amounts of marijuana is ineffective, destructive, racially biased, and disconnected from modern sensibilities. It's good that voters have a chance to change all that in the November 5 election. Legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use can't come soon enough. Our legal system catches too many otherwise law-abiding people just for possessing a substance that is in many ways less dangerous than alcohol. The benefits of legalization outweigh the disadvantages. Florida should join the two dozen other states that have made this important change.

Amendment 3 is on the ballot as part of a citizen initiative. If 60% of voters approve, the amendment would allow people over 21 to possess up to 3 ounces – about 85 grams – of recreational marijuana. Currently, possession of 20 grams or less without a medical marijuana card is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison. Possessing more is a felony.

In 2016, Florida voters approved a medical marijuana system that boosted acceptance of the drug. In recent years, some jurisdictions have issued civil citations to people caught with small amounts of marijuana rather than charging them with crimes. Both are positive steps, but they don't go far enough. Last year, Florida prosecutors charged about 16,000 people for small amounts of marijuana, a Times analysis found. That's 16,000 too many.

States that legalize adult-use marijuana typically see a significant drop in marijuana arrests. Colorado recorded 13,225 marijuana arrests in 2012, when the state voted to legalize. The number dropped to 4,290 by 2019, according to a report from the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice. Other states have seen declines in the 50 to 70 percent range.

Ricky Dixon, secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, has said that none of the state's 87,000 inmates are serving a prison sentence solely for possession of 20 grams or less of marijuana. But people can end up in local jails and their lives can be turned upside down in so many other unnecessary ways. Someone convicted of marijuana possession can lose their job. A conviction can also make it difficult to find housing. It can make a person ineligible for certain government grants and contracts, and they can be rearrested and imprisoned for probation violations. The arrest also burdens them with attorney fees and fines. The punishment is disproportionate to the crime, because possession of small amounts of marijuana should not be a crime.

Further consequences

Arresting an otherwise law-abiding citizen for conduct that polls show most people do not consider a crime undermines trust in the justice system. To be effective, police and prosecutors must build trust. They need the public's support to do their jobs. Each of these minor marijuana arrests eats away at that trust. Ultimately, all of these bricks compromise the foundation. If police arrested thousands of Floridians for buying a bottle of wine or a few beers, how quickly would they distrust law enforcement? Arrests for minor marijuana offenses have the same damaging effect.

The same goes for racial profiling—whether real or imagined. For decades, police have arrested Black and brown people for small amounts of marijuana at much higher rates than white people, even though research shows that the different groups use marijuana at about the same rate. This kind of discrepancy raises all sorts of questions that undermine trust in the system, especially given that marijuana possession is not a violent crime. The insidious impact of these unnecessary arrests on the relationship between police and certain communities should not be underestimated. Legalizing marijuana for recreational use will not solve all racial problems, but it would be a step in the right direction.

The high number of arrests for minor marijuana offenses also distracts police from preventing or solving more serious crimes. Paperwork, transporting suspects to jail or appearing in court to testify against the accused, takes time. This time could be better spent on other crime-fighting efforts.

Legalizing recreational marijuana is also safer in many ways. Buying marijuana from a street dealer is far more dangerous than buying from a regulated vendor. In a legal market, transactions take place at legal businesses, not on the streets or in secret meetings. Florida would be better off with American companies running the marijuana industry, rather than criminal cartels. Companies use the law to resolve disputes. Cartels use violence. There is even evidence that legalizing recreational marijuana in many states has cut into Mexican cartels' cannabis profits.

Instead, some of those profits end up in the state coffers. Colorado has collected nearly $2.8 billion in marijuana taxes and fees in the decade since legalization. Last year, Washington state collected nearly $469 million. The Florida Financial Impact Estimating Conference projected that legalizing marijuana for recreational use would generate annual state and county sales taxes of $195 million to $432 million. These estimates do not include the additional marijuana tax — called an excise tax — that many states, such as Colorado and Washington, levy on marijuana sales. With a similar excise tax, Florida's estimated total would be much higher. Less money for criminal cartels. More money that can be spent on state programs — or to reduce other taxes. It's a win-win.

Reduce the risks

Of course, legalizing recreational marijuana raises legitimate concerns. In many states that have taken this step, marijuana use has increased, even though trend lines were often pointing upward before legalization. Some studies have found that adult marijuana use in states that have taken this step not The use of legalized recreational marijuana has also increased. Surveys also show that many more people view marijuana in a much more positive way than they did 25 years ago. So is the increase in marijuana use a result of legalization or the cause of it? More research is needed.

States where marijuana is legal for recreational use generally see an increase in marijuana-related hospitalizations, although the overall numbers are relatively small — and the consequences are generally less severe — than with other drugs, including alcohol. Some states have seen an increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths, but many studies point out that a positive marijuana test does not mean someone was drunk at the time of the crash. Some of the crash analyses also did not examine whether the increase in marijuana-related deaths was offset by a decrease in alcohol- or other drug-related traffic deaths.

What the available data does not support is the oft-stated claim that legalizing adult use will lead to significantly higher use by teens. Study results are mixed, although the most commonly cited findings found no significant increase—or decrease—in marijuana use by middle and high school students after adult use was legalized in any state. And the evidence on whether legal marijuana is a gateway to harder drug use is unclear at best. The same goes for arguments that marijuana legalization leads to more violence or that marijuana users are significantly less productive than non-users. As for “Reefer Madness,” rates of psychosis-related diagnoses or prescriptions of antipsychotics in states with medical or recreational marijuana are not much different from those in states where marijuana remains illegal, some studies have found.

Passing Amendment 3 will not create a marijuana scandal, no matter how much opponents would have you believe that. Florida can pass rules and regulations governing everything from who can legally sell marijuana to how much it taxes. You don't want people smoking it in public? The legislature can pass a law, just like it does with smoking cigarettes. You don't want marijuana dispensaries near schools? Write that into the regulations. You want labels detailing what's in each marijuana mix? States have done that, too.

More than half of the country's population lives in states where recreational marijuana is legal. These states have faced challenges, but they did not turn into modern-day Gomorrah cities. Many politicians in these states thought recreational marijuana would become a scourge, only to soften their stance when reality set in. For example, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper fought legalization in 2012, only to later admit he was wrong about some of his predictions, including those about increasing use among teens. Florida can learn from states that have already enacted regulations by implementing what works best while avoiding missteps.

Florida can also spend the extra tax dollars to promote drug treatment or drug abstinence campaigns. These programs are often far more effective than criminalizing nonviolent drug use. Some jurisdictions have used the money to hire more police or build schools. Both are more beneficial to society than overloading the court system with minor marijuana possession cases.

Florida has already legalized medical marijuana, so we won't spend much time rehashing the health arguments. Marijuana is not a cure-all. Yes, it has some medical benefits, including pain management and anxiety relief. It also has some health consequences, especially for chronic users. Eating sugary cereal every day is unhealthy, but no one is arrested or jailed for possessing Froot Loops or Cap'n Crunch. That's our main point. Too many Floridians get in trouble with the law for engaging in the relatively harmless behavior of marijuana possession. People should have the right to be left alone when there is no good reason to do so, and the reasons for criminalizing marijuana possession are not good enough. In fact, they fall far short of that standard. Fortunately, Floridians have a chance to make this right.

On Amendment 3, the Tampa Bay Times editorial board recommends voting yes.