Greg Midgette
Greg Midgette is Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. He holds a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School.
Voting History
Marijuana reform
Pardoning federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana will have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.
| Vote | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Disagree | 9 |
| Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 8 |
Pardoning state convictions for simple possession of marijuana will have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.
| Vote | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 7 |
| Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 8 |
Comments
Criminal penalties toward simple possession probably have little deterrent or incapacitation effect on more serious crimes. About half of U.S states have not yet decriminalized cannabis possession, so many more people stand to benefit from state reform than a comparable federal reform.
Moving marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a less-restrictive schedule or legalizing it at the federal level would have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.
| Vote | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 9 |
| Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 8 |
Comments
We've probably learned enough from states with recreational markets to be able to design a market for recreational cannabis that is much less harmful than the legal market for alcohol. Rescheduling cannabis could spur federal research funding, and in turn replace some of the pseudoscience that currently informs consumer decisions. Potential crime, (e.g. robbery, fraud) associated with paper cash-based markets could also be mitigated without huge expenditures on private security.
Comments
Simple marijuana possession convictions are very rare today and sentences are pretty short. So, there's some notional value to removing a rarely enforced law from the books, but it would affect few recently convicted people. People who were sentenced a long time ago already paid the direct penalty of incarceration and the secondary costs of being labeled a felon. A long delayed pardon has few costs, but benefits might accrue mostly to politicians.