President Joe Biden and many other politicians who continue to resist marijuana legalization instead advocate decriminalization of simple possession. By replacing criminal penalties with civil fines, they argue, legislators can reduce possession arrests without taking the further step of allowing recreational use. But according to a new JAMA Open Network study, states see substantial reductions in marijuana arrests after they legalize recreational use even when they have already decriminalized possession of small amounts. University of California, San Diego, researchers Christian Gunadi and Yuyan Shi analyzed FBI data on marijuana possession arrests from 2010 to 2019 in 31 states, including nine that legalized recreational use during that period and 22 that did not. Five states in the first group (California, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Vermont) already had eliminated criminal penalties for low-level possession, while the other four (Alaska, Michigan, Nevada, and Washington) had not.
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