为何我支持大麻合法化
我们的大麻法律显然弊大于利。大麻被定为非法，并没能阻止它成为美国及许多其他国家使用最广泛的违禁物质，但却带来了巨大的成本和负面后果。
Our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm than good. The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.
如今，执法机构每年要花费纳税人数十亿美元，试图执行这项根本无法执行的禁令。他们每年因持有少量大麻而逮捕约 75 万人，占所有毒品逮捕人数的 40% 以上。
Law enforcement agencies today spend many billions of taxpayer dollars annually trying to enforce this unenforceable prohibition. The roughly 750,000 arrests they make each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana represent more than 40% of all drug arrests.
对大麻进行监管和征税，一方面能为纳税人节省数十亿美元的执法和监禁成本，另一方面每年还能带来数十亿美元的收入。它还会减少与毒品市场相关的犯罪、暴力和腐败，以及当大量原本守法的公民面临逮捕时发生的公民自由和人权侵犯。警察可以转而专注于严重犯罪。
Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually. It also would reduce the crime, violence and corruption associated with drug markets, and the violations of civil liberties and human rights that occur when large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens are subject to arrest. Police could focus on serious crime instead.
大麻执法政策中固有的种族不平等不容忽视。非裔美国人吸食大麻的比例并不比其他美国人高，但他们因持有大麻而被逮捕的可能性却是其他人的 3 倍、5 倍甚至 10 倍——具体取决于城市。我同意加州全国有色人种协进会主席爱丽丝·赫夫曼的说法，她说，被卷入刑事司法系统对年轻人造成的伤害比大麻本身更大。给数百万美国年轻人留下一份可能伴随终身的永久毒品逮捕记录，不符合任何人的利益。
The racial inequities that are part and parcel of marijuana enforcement policies cannot be ignored. African-Americans are no more likely than other Americans to use marijuana but they are three, five or even 10 times more likely—depending on the city—to be arrested for possessing marijuana. I agree with Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP, when she says that being caught up in the criminal justice system does more harm to young people than marijuana itself. Giving millions of young Americans a permanent drug arrest record that may follow them for life serves no one’s interests.
种族偏见也有助于解释大麻禁令的起源。当加州和其他美国州最早（1915 年至 1933 年间）决定将大麻定为非法时，主要动机并非基于科学或公共卫生，而是基于对来自墨西哥的移民的偏见和歧视，据称他们吸食这种“致命毒品”。
Racial prejudice also helps explain the origins of marijuana prohibition. When California and other U.S. states first decided (between 1915 and 1933) to criminalize marijuana, the principal motivations were not grounded in science or public health but rather in prejudice and discrimination against immigrants from Mexico who reputedly smoked the “killer weed.”
谁从大麻违法中获益最大？最大的受益者是墨西哥和其他地方的大型犯罪组织，他们每年从这项非法贸易中赚取数十亿美元——如果大麻成为一种合法商品，他们将迅速失去竞争优势。有人声称他们只会转向其他非法活动，但他们更可能因为失去大麻带来的轻松利润而被削弱。
Who most benefits from keeping marijuana illegal? The greatest beneficiaries are the major criminal organizations in Mexico and elsewhere that earn billions of dollars annually from this illicit trade—and who would rapidly lose their competitive advantage if marijuana were a legal commodity. Some claim that they would only move into other illicit enterprises, but they are more likely to be weakened by being deprived of the easy profits they can earn with marijuana.
这只是拉丁美洲毒品与民主委员会——由三位杰出的前总统，巴西的费尔南多·恩里克·卡多佐、哥伦比亚的塞萨尔·加维里亚和墨西哥的埃内斯托·塞迪略主持——在其改革美洲毒品政策的建议中纳入大麻非刑事化的原因之一。
This was just one reason the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy—chaired by three distinguished former presidents, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, César Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico—included marijuana decriminalization among their recommendations for reforming drug policies in the Americas.
和许多父母及祖父母一样，我担心年轻人陷入大麻和其他毒品的麻烦。然而，最好的解决方案是诚实有效的毒品教育。一项又一项调查表明，青少年比大多数成年人更容易获得大麻——通常还有其他毒品——并且发现买大麻比买酒更容易。将大麻合法化可能会让成年人更容易买到它，但几乎不可能让年轻人更容易获得。我宁愿投资于有效的教育，也不愿投资于无效的逮捕和监禁。
Like many parents and grandparents, I am worried about young people getting into trouble with marijuana and other drugs. The best solution, however, is honest and effective drug education. One survey after another indicates that teenagers have better access than most adults to marijuana—and often other drugs as well—and find it easier to buy marijuana than alcohol. Legalizing marijuana may make it easier for adults to buy marijuana, but it can hardly make it any more accessible to young people. I’d much rather invest in effective education than ineffective arrest and incarceration.
加州的 19 号提案将娱乐性使用和小规模种植大麻合法化，这不会解决与这种毒品相关的所有问题。但这将代表向前迈出的重要一步，其缺陷可以根据经验加以纠正。正如废除全国禁酒令始于各州废除自己的禁酒令一样，各州现在必须在废除大麻禁令方面采取主动。而且，正如加州在 1996 年成为第一个将医用大麻合法化的州，从而在全国发挥领导作用一样，它有机会再次引领全国。
California’s Proposition 19, which would legalize the recreational use and small-scale cultivation of marijuana, wouldn’t solve all the problems connected with the drug. But it would represent a major step forward, and its deficiencies can be corrected on the basis of experience. Just as the process of repealing national alcohol prohibition began with individual states repealing their own prohibition laws, so individual states must now take the initiative with respect to repealing marijuana prohibition laws. And just as California provided national leadership in 1996 by becoming the first state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, so it has an opportunity once again to lead the nation.
当然，从许多方面来看，无论选举日结果如何，19 号提案都已经是一个赢家。仅仅因为它出现在选票上，就已经以一种一年前我无法想象的方式，提升并正当化了关于大麻和大麻政策的公共讨论。
In many respects, of course, Proposition 19 already is a winner no matter what happens on Election Day. The mere fact of its being on the ballot has elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana and marijuana policy in ways I could not have imagined a year ago.
这些就是我决定支持 19 号提案并邀请他人也这么做的原因。
These are the reasons I have decided to support Proposition 19 and invite others to do so.