Why Regulation?
Good policy is built on evidence. When a policy consistently fails — year after year, decade after decade — the responsible thing to do is change it. Regulating, taxing, and controlling marijuana isn’t a radical idea. It’s a commonsense response to one of the most demonstrably failed public policies of the modern era.
Marijuana prohibition has not made Rhode Island safer. It has not reduced use. What it has done is drain public resources, devastate communities, and fill our courts and jails with nonviolent offenders — all while a completely unregulated black market has continued to thrive. It’s time for a different approach.
Prohibition Has Failed — Here’s the Evidence
It’s a Distraction from Real Public Safety
Every hour a police officer spends investigating a marijuana offense is an hour not spent solving a violent crime. The numbers tell a stark story. In 2012, the FBI reported that just 63% of murders, 40% of rapes, and only 13% of burglaries were solved — meaning the majority of violent crimes in America went unresolved. In that same year, law enforcement made approximately 750,000 arrests for marijuana offenses nationwide. That is a profound misallocation of resources. Rhode Island’s police officers, prosecutors, and courts are stretched thin. Marijuana prohibition is making that problem worse, not better.
It’s Discriminatory by Design and in Practice
Marijuana prohibition does not affect all Rhode Islanders equally. Despite similar rates of marijuana use across racial and economic groups, Black and Hispanic residents and people from low-income communities are dramatically more likely to be targeted, arrested, and prosecuted for marijuana offenses. In Rhode Island, people of color are nearly three times more likely than white residents to be arrested for marijuana-related charges. These are not random outcomes — they reflect systematic disparities in how prohibition laws are enforced. A policy that treats citizens differently based on race or income is not justice. It is discrimination dressed up as law enforcement.
It Puts Young People at Greater Risk
One of the most persistent arguments for prohibition is that it protects children. The data says otherwise. Because marijuana is sold on an unregulated black market, there are no age verification requirements, no oversight, and no accountability. Dealers don’t check ID. Nearly one in two high school students report knowing a classmate who sells illegal substances at their school — and 91% of those students identify marijuana as what’s being sold. By contrast, only 1% say alcohol is available through the same channels. That’s not a coincidence. Alcohol is regulated. Marijuana prohibition, paradoxically, makes it more accessible to young people, not less.
Regulation Is the Solution
Bringing marijuana under a regulated framework — similar to how we already handle alcohol — addresses each of these failures directly. It puts public safety first, restores fairness to our communities, and creates a system with real accountability.
It Puts Control Where It Belongs
Regulation means the state — not street dealers — controls when, where, how, and to whom marijuana is sold. Licensed retailers would be required to verify age, just as liquor stores do today. Products would be tested for purity and potency so consumers know exactly what they’re purchasing. Strict penalties would apply to anyone caught selling to minors. Right now, prohibition gives us none of these protections. Regulation gives us all of them.
It Makes Our Communities Safer
When marijuana is brought into the legal economy, the illegal market that surrounds it begins to collapse. Drug gangs lose a significant revenue stream. Law enforcement officers are freed to focus on violent crime, property crime, and the serious public safety challenges that Rhode Islanders actually want addressed. Fewer young people find themselves caught in the orbit of criminal networks. The communities that have been hardest hit by both drug violence and aggressive prohibition enforcement stand to benefit the most from a regulated system.
It Generates Jobs and Economic Growth for Rhode Island
A regulated marijuana industry creates real, lasting economic opportunity. From cultivators, processors, and retail workers to electricians, accountants, logistics workers, and marketing professionals — a legal marijuana marketplace supports a wide range of jobs across skill levels and industries. States that have moved to regulate marijuana are generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue — funds that can be directed toward public education, substance abuse treatment, infrastructure, and community reinvestment. Rhode Island has the opportunity to build that same economic engine here at home, creating hundreds of living-wage jobs for the middle class rather than continuing to push that economic activity underground.
The Bottom Line
Prohibition has had decades to prove itself. It has failed on every meaningful measure — public safety, racial equity, youth protection, and fiscal responsibility. Regulation offers a better path: one grounded in evidence, built on accountability, and designed to serve all Rhode Islanders.
Rhode Island’s Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act is that path forward.
Ready to make a difference? Contact your state legislators today and tell them you support regulation. [Take Action →]