Preface
In 2003, Praeger Publishers, now a part of ABC-CLIO, published my book
No Price Too High: Victimless Crimes and the Ninth Amendment, which set
forth the history of marijuana criminalization and provided an overview
and analysis of then-current laws regulating its use in the context of the
Ninth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Since that time, many states
have legalized marijuana use for medical purposes, and others have also
legalized its use for recreational purposes. As of the publication date of
this book, 29 states have legalized the former and eight the latter.
Because of the many legal developments that have occurred since
2003, this book was conceived as an update of this earlier work, with par
ticular attention to the most recent laws representing the accelerating
trend toward legalization that occurred during the 2016 election in the
form of popular initiatives and referenda. For this reason, much of the
history and legal developments in the area of marijuana law that occurred
before 2003 has been carried forward from the earlier work, and in some
cases entire relevant sections have been reproduced, often verbatim, in
the pages that follow. This has been made possible by the fact that I wrote
the previous work and the copyright of No Price Too High is now held by
ABC-CLIO, the publisher of this book.
As noted in the previous work’s foreword by former New Mexico Gov-
ernor Gary Johnson, “The title of No Price Too High sarcastically implies
that, to our law and judicial system, there is ‘no price too high’ to make
something illegal, even if that only makes the problem worse. Using
extensive references, Hardaway proves that the drug problem has only
increased since its criminalization.”
Certainly the premise of that title has not changed since 2003, as soci-
ety continues to be afflicted by the horrifying spectacles of tens of thou-
sands of murders committed by drug cartels, mass graves, extravagant
