# So pot becomes legal..what happens to all the people in prison then? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486 "2009-08-06T01:00:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yelimS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/54ee81/32.png) [@yelimS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yelimS)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/21 "2009-08-06T17:26:02Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not _users_ so much as _dealers_. A simple user rarely goes to prison. Dealers can be well armed, and violent. You’re getting it wrong. A dealer’s just a man with a lump of grass in his hand. It’s the _pusher_ that doesn’t care if you live or if you die. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/22 "2009-08-06T17:50:13Z")
I’ve enjoyed marijuana for 10 years now, and I’ve never actually met a drug pusher. The dealer’s don’t typically have to go out and force people to do drugs. Whenever I hear the term drug pusher it always reminds me of this Chris Rock quote: ``` "Drug dealers don't sell drugs. Drugs sell themselves. It's crack. It's not an encyclopedia. It's not a f**king vacuum cleaner. You don't really gotta try to sell crack. Ok? I've never heard a crack dealer going "Man, how am I gonna get rid of all this crack?!" ``` ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/23 "2009-08-06T17:59:57Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > IIRC, there are some prisons where prisoners work as a call center for commercial businesses, doing telemarketing or customer support. Inmates at the North Carolina Women’s Prison answer telephone calls for the state tourism bureau’s information line. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/24 "2009-08-06T18:04:00Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > Do you guys think that the people who are imprisoned for possessing rifles banned under the assault weapons ban should be let go now that that ban has been lifted? Are there any? I was lead to understand by an NRA member in my family that the law was so bad it failed to make anything illegal. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/25 "2009-08-07T02:57:15Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Are there any? I was lead to understand by an NRA member in my family that the law was so bad it failed to make anything illegal. Oh, it made things illegal all right, but I am unsure if anyone went to prison for a simple violation of just that law. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/26 "2009-08-07T15:16:56Z")
If pot is made legal it’s not something that will happen instantly. The government will either pass a law allowing it, or repeal a law banning it. There will be a few months between government passing the law, and it coming into effect. During those few months, courts will be reluctant to prosecute, knowing that it’s just about to become legal anyway. And by the time it comes into effect, most of those already in prison for pot will have completed their sentences anyway. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/27 "2009-08-07T17:17:47Z")
They also would probably get parole easier too, but like I wrote above, if they were typical medium scale growers its not surprising to find other criminal activities attached to the pot farm, so I think it would be a wash. ---
**Author:** ![scarbrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@scarbrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scarbrow)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/28 "2009-08-07T19:24:34Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > When booze was legal again in 1933 did they let people out of prison who were in for making booze? My guess is no. It seems to me the answer to this question would really help, and I’m surprised how difficult it seems to be to find an answer. Google is completely fooled by all the posts about “drug prohibition”, and Wikipedia seems to avoid the subject entirely. Does anyone know what actually happened when prohibition was repealed? ETA: Proper grammar sound much better. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/29 "2009-08-07T20:01:55Z")
[The legal system was equally evasive; the courts convicted about seven percent of those charged with liquor violations (Sinclair, 1962: 193-195; Dobyns, 1940: 292)](http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2a.htm) [For example, of prohibition-related 7,000 arrests in New York between 1921 and 1923, only 27 resulted in convictions. [8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_during_and_after_prohibition) What are pot convictions at? I assume much higher. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/30 "2009-08-07T21:42:46Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > Back to the detail, however, a problem for your proposal is this: What do you mean by making pot “legal”? Legal to possess? What about sell? Given that legalisation of possession will almost certainly involve taxation issues (as with alcohol and cigarettes), it is hardly likely that it will ever be legal to sell in the casual way it is sold now. For similar reasons, it is hardly likely ever to be legal to grow it in the casual way it is now. There will be licences, fees, tax stamps on packaging and all the usual rigmarole. I’m pretty sure there would be no issue with growing for personal use or to share with friends. Right now I’m free to brew/distill/process as much alcohol as I like for my own personal consumption and for friends that I want to share with. There is a limit, but it’s high enough that if I were to actually consume that much I’d be too busy being drunk to make more. By the same token I can plant a field of tobacco to do pretty much whatever I want with short of selling it. Now if I ever do decide I want to profit from my hobbies, I’ll have to get the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms as well as several other entities involved to keep myself on the right side of the law. But as long as it’s for me, my family, and some close friends, the law has no involvement. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/31 "2009-08-07T22:14:53Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > I feel compelled to point out that vast numbers of weed smokers also work hard and pay their taxes. I don’t disagree but I must ask, so what? I know of a guy who works very hard, he pays taxes, he volunteers at his church. He does a lot of good work. He also has two DUIs. This man put a lot of lives in jeopardy by driving drunk. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t work hard or isn’t a nice guy? It doesn’t really mean anything ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/32 "2009-08-08T00:02:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Oh, it made things illegal all right, but I am unsure if anyone went to prison for a simple violation of just that law. I don’t have any cites about specific cases, but that’s not my point. Should everyone who was imprisoned for breaking ANY law that has since been repealed now be set free? Or is it pot a special case? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486/33 "2009-08-08T00:36:48Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > I don’t have any cites about specific cases, but that’s not my point. Should everyone who was imprisoned for breaking ANY law that has since been repealed now be set free? Or is it pot a special case? Like I said, if the conviction was a stand-alone, then yes, they should be set free. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pot-becomes-legal-what-happens-to-all-the-people-in-prison-then/505486.md?page=1)