Two Vermont lawmakers are taking an interesting approach to legalizing cannabis in their state by introducing legislation this week that would ban alcohol consumption under similar laws to those that outlaw pot.
Representatives Chris Pearson and Jean O'Sullivan have no real interest in outlawing booze with House Bill 502, though. They hope their tongue-in-cheek approach will symbolically highlight the absurdity of allowing the most dangerous and harmful drug, alcohol, to remain legal, while keeping illegal the medically beneficial and relatively harmless drug marijuana.
The bill would impose penalties similar to those currently in place for possession of marijuana. "A person 21 years of age or older who possesses a small amount of alcohol may be ticketed for a civil violation and subject to a monetary penalty of up to $500.00," the bill reads. "Possession of larger quantities of alcohol, as well as cultivation, distribution, and sale of alcohol will be subject to criminal penalties ranging from one day to 30 years' imprisonment and fines ranging from $1.00 to $1,000,000.00." The bill would not prohibit alcohol used for medicinal, chemical, or industrial purposes.
O'Sullivan told The Huffington Post that "the object was to basically embarrass leadership to say that we have [marijuana legalization bills] in front of us, and they're going absolutely nowhere."
"We're certainly not going to ban alcohol, but when you say you'll let a drug like that be legalized and then you have a drug like marijuana that's far safer that's still banned, it's completely ironic," she told the Post, adding that marijuana legalization would help to offset the state's huge budget deficit by providing an estimated $20-$75 million in tax revenue.
A separate bill sponsored by the legislators and currently in committee, H.277, would legalize and regulate marijuana in Vermont, and Senate Bill 95, introduced earlier this year, would do the same.
Pearson cited "recent scientific studies that demonstrate that alcohol use is significantly more dangerous than marijuana use," including statistics showing that alcohol is a factor in 40 percent of all violent crimes in the U.S. and alcohol consumption was related to over 88,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2010, Vermont's NPR News Source reported.
"Marijuana, on the other hand, kills almost no one," he said.
No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose, though Pearson did acknowledge that marijuana can increase risk in certain situations.
A study published in February found that marijuana has the lowest risk of mortality compared to nine other frequently-used drugs, including alcohol, tobacco, heroin and benzodiazepines.
A 2010 study published in The Lancet ranked alcohol the most dangerous and harmful drug in the U.K., even more so than heroin or crack.
