A Great Schism: Social Norms and Marijuana Prohibition

by MATTHEW A. CHRISTIANSEN

In the Democratic presidential debate on November 6, 2003, the eight candidates were asked whether they had ever used marijuana. Three, including the party’s eventual nominees for president and vice president, answered yes; a fourth said that he had not but thought it should be decriminalized; and a fifth stated that she had no comment. Less than twenty-four hours later, believing that students possessed marijuana, police exploded into a South Carolina high school hallway with guns drawn. They ordered all 107 people to the ground, handcuffed approximately a dozen students, and brought in drug-sniffing dogs, searching any bags to which the dogs reacted. One fourteen-year-old witness described how police treated his classmates: ‘“They would go put a gun up to them, push them against the wall, take their book bags and search them.’” In the end, the officers found nothing and arrested no one.

The presidential candidates almost certainly could not have openly admitted to violating any other law while maintaining the viability of their candidacies. Yet others suspected of breaking that same law experience the kind of treatment suffered by the students in South Carolina. The juxtaposition of these two events illustrates the vast chasm between social norms and the laws prohibiting marijuana.

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