Policy Towards The Total Legalization Of Marijuana example essay topic

Currently, drugs remain high on the list of concerns of politicians, and drugs are considered one of the major problems affecting our country. Stories are on 11: 00 news every night about people being murdered on the streets because of drugs. Many people think that drugs are only an inner-city problem, but in reality, they affect all of us; non-users and users. I believe that the negative effects associated with drugs would be reduced greatly if the United States adopted a policy towards the total legalization of marijuana. By this I mean completely legalizing marijuana for recreational, medicinal, and other uses. The current drug policy of our government is obviously failing.

Drugs are quite present in our society, and the United States drug policy has not deferred drug trafficking to the point where it is beneficial. Drug laws have created corruption, violence, increased street crime, and disrespect for the criminal justice system. Besides that, the American people should be allowed to enjoy what they like to do responsibly and law enforcement could focus their attentions to other more serious crimes. Marijuana comes from the hemp plant, which can readily be grown on fields across the nation and was cultivated heavily in the colonial period. After 130 years of being able to grow and consume marijuana, the potential problems of marijuana were brought into the public eye in 1932. Harry J. Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, authored the book Marijuana: Assassin of Youth (Goldman 88).

In his book, Anslinger portrayed images of Mexican and Negro criminals, as well as young boys, who became killers while under the influence of marijuana. With this and other added public pressure from Anslinger' book, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. This law made the use and sale of marijuana federal offenses, and at this point marijuana vanished from the public eye. In the mid-1960's marijuana reappeared and the "Hippy" emerged.

Hippies were viewed as the abnormal people who did not "fit in" and were often referred to as freaks. Widespread objection to the use of marijuana remained because of the lifestyles associated with hippies. Contrary to the belief of the population, the use of marijuana appeared in colleges and among middle-class youths in the suburbs. Marijuana became a symbol of a counter-culture, youthful rebellion, and freedom for the non-hippie users. During the next ten years marijuana use escalated to a point that it was literally everywhere. Marijuana could be found in cities, towns, suburbs, the country, and just about anywhere a person could think of.

People rooting from all different backgrounds were using it, and consequently, marijuana was becoming more accepted across the nation. For example, in 1997 a teacher at Pine View School for the Gifted in Sarasota, Florida was "relocated to a different school" because it was found that he was growing marijuana for personal consumption. The users of marijuana, and the attitudes about the danger of marijuana broke down. In 1970, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act reduced the classification of simple possession and non-profit distribution of marijuana from felonies to misdemeanors (Himmelstein 103-104). However, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1973, and over the next 20 years, each succeeding president continued to escalate the drug war. This particular "drug war" is not only against marijuana but also against harder drugs that are more dangerous.

This policy has obviously done nothing to stop the recreational use of marijuana in this country; on the contrary, it is causing great harm. The policy is preventing many people who could benefit from marijuana medicinally and us costing the taxpayers money with little results. It is time to try something new. When some people imagine the legalization of marijuana, they fear a marijuana free-for-all with everybody constantly getting high and the United States Government being burdened by legalization. In fact, the process of legalization would include a law passed by Congress allowing the government to control the content, quality, and distribution of marijuana. The laws would be similar to the current laws regulating alcohol and tobacco, including laws governing age, limits for driving, and distribution.

A thorough investigation of the costs and benefits of legalization must be examined before any policy is implemented. In reality, legalization will only make legal what many people do everyday. There are a number of myths associated with the use of marijuana which people who are opposed to the legalization of marijuana repeatedly cite. One of these is that Marijuana causes brain damage. People who are opposed base their claim on a study by Dr. Robert Heath of the rhesus monkey in the late 1970's. Heath's work was criticized for its insufficient sample size of only four monkeys, its failure to control experimental bias, and the misidentification of normal monkey brain structure as "damaged" (Hager 1).

Actual studies of human populations of marijuana users have shown no evidence of damage to the brain (Hager 1). In fact, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) conducted two studies in 1977 and they showed no evidence of brain damage in heavy users of marijuana (Hager 1). Later that same year the JAMA came out in favor of the legalization of marijuana (Hager 1). If marijuana did cause brain damage, would the JAMA be in favor of legalizing it Another myth is that marijuana damages the reproductive system. This is based on the work of Dr. Gabriel Nahas, who experimented with tissue cells isolated in petri dishes. The cells were dosed with near lethal levels of THC (Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol).

The scientific community rejected Nahas's connections between the petri dishes and human beings because the data was invalid. Studies of actual human populations have failed to demonstrate that marijuana adversely affects the reproductive system (Hagar 1). A persistent myth about marijuana is that it is a gateway drug, which is a softer drug that leads to the use of harder drugs. The Dutch partially legalized marijuana in the 1970's and since then the use of heroin and cocaine has sharply decreased. The opposite of this gateway affect is also present the United States. In 1993, a study by the Rand Corporation compared drug use in states that have lessened the penalty for marijuana use and those that have not.

It found that in states where marijuana was more available, hard drug abuse (as measured by emergency room episodes) decreased. What science and real experience tells us is that marijuana tends to substitute for much harder drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin (Hagar 1). Another common misconception is that marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol. Extremely high doses of marijuana cause death. "Extremely high doses" is the essential phrase. Scientists have concluded that the ratio of THC, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol the chemical that produces a high (comparable to a 'buzz' from alcohol), needed to get a person intoxicated (stoned) relative to the amount necessary to kill him is 1 to 40,000.

That means that to overdose on marijuana a person would need to consume 40,000 times more THC that a person normally would to become intoxicated. The ratio of normal alcohol consumption versus overdose varies between 1 in 4 and 1 in 10. Over 5000 people die of alcohol overdoses each year, and no one has ever died from overdosing on marijuana (Hagar 2). Many would argue that this fact is because marijuana is illegal, but consider the fact that marijuana is approximately a $46 billion dollar industry (NORML).

Health care, increased crime and social aspects are the three general areas which marijuana is not beneficial. One of the definite proven disadvantages of marijuana is the fact that it is more dangerous than cigarette smoking. Two marijuana cigarettes (joints) create more airway impairment than do an entire pack of cigarette (Miner 44). One joint contains three times more tar than cigarettes do and marijuana is considered four times more dangerous (Courtwright 54). Marijuana dramatically increases the pulse rate and blood pressure during use. Many politicians and some medical professionals project that lung cancer cases will increase if marijuana is legalized.

(Miner 44). These are all valid arguments, but cigarette smoking is legal, and the end result for many years of use is the same as marijuana; lung cancer. The American Civil Liberties (ACLU) advocates the full legalization of the use, possession, manufacture, and distribution of drugs (ACLU 1). The ACLU believes that marijuana being illegal is unconstitutional. The following is an excerpt from their policy on drugs, which was adopted in 1994: "Criminalizing the use, possession, manufacture, and distribution of drugs violates the principle that the criminal law may not be used to protect individuals from the consequences of their own autonomous choices or to impose upon those individuals a majoritarian conception of morality and responsibility.

Enforcement of laws criminalizing possession, use, and manufacture of distribution of drugs engender violations of civil liberties. Because drug enforcement is aimed at behavior, which is inherently difficult to detect and does not involve a complaining "victim", it necessarily relies on law enforcement techniques. Such techniques include the use of undercover operations, arbitrary or invasive testing procedures, random or dragnet seizures, and similar measures that raise serious civil liberties concerns. These enforcement techniques lead in practice to widespread violations of civil liberties guarantees, including those secured by the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments" (ACLU 1). The enforcement of the drug laws criminalizes the possession, use, manufacture, and distribution of marijuana and this is what is causing the violent crime. If a "marijuana black market" did not exist there would not be any reason for illegal activity to be associated with marijuana.

Allen St. Pierre, Assistant National Director of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML), says that legalization will wipe out the already 60-billion dollar black market by placing marijuana in the open market. (NORML information pack 3). This war on drugs is wasting the money, as well as the lives of American people. The widely recognized opinion maker William F. Buckley, Jr. writes: .".. The time devoted to tracking down, arresting and then trying marijuana users and then trying marijuana users is perhaps the greatest exercise in lost time in contemporary activity. In the last two years, approximately 750,000 arrests were made in our mad, quixotic effort to stamp out marijuana.

What this adds up to is millions of police hours spent on bootless missions, millions of hours of court time wasted, and millions of months in jail, using up space sorely needed to contain people who can't wait to get out in order to resume mugging and murdering" (Politics-Commentaries). The drug law imprisons a multitude of otherwise law-abiding people for non-violent acts that are directed at no one but themselves (ACLU 1). Most small-time drug offenders were growing marijuana for personal consumption or were possessing marijuana for personal consumption. There were not driving intoxicated of imposing a threat on anyone. Instead of eliminating drugs, the prohibition of them merely fosters an illegal industry able to inflate prices. This is hauntingly familiar to the prohibition era of gangsters when alcohol was illegal in the 1920's.

The black market is obviously the only place where drugs in general can be sold and because of this fact violence is created, along with deaths due to no quality regulation, and diseases are spread from sharing illegal drug paraphernalia (ACLU 1). The supporters of legalization believe that it will benefit society in three ways, including revenue enhancement, medical benefits, and hemp production. The largest and most appealing argument for marijuana legalization is revenue enhancement for the United States Government. Much of the money normally spent of law enforcement, court time, and the cost of incarcerating prisoners would be saved and used towards something more beneficial (Schmoe k 3). The United States spent roughly one billion dollars on marijuana enforcement last year and the DEA has proposed a 400% increase in anti-pot spending within the next 10 years, yet domestic marijuana production has only been reduced by 10%. Furthermore, in 1989,314,552 arrests were made for simple possession (NORML 2).

That's 314,552 people that taxpayers paid to hold in jail, for just having marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia in their possession. America's annual marijuana harvest was worth $50.7 billion in 1989 and $41.4 billion in 1988. In comparison to corn, a $31.4 billion harvest, marijuana grosses $28 billion more and has the potential to become leading agricultural product in the United States (NORML 2). With trade regulations, industry regulations, and consumption taxes on marijuana, NORML has estimated that legalization would produce over $40 billion in taxable revenue (NORML 3). Legalization offers Congress a resolution to the national debt because marijuana sale could provide the needed funds to help our economy and reduce our debt. In addition, marijuana could help America's medical patients.

Advocates of legalization constantly tout the medicinal benefits of marijuana. For cancer patients, marijuana reduces nausea and increases the appetite (Cauchon 4 A). Marijuana also reduces epileptic seizures and reduces nerve disorders in multiple sclerosis patients (NORML 3). I believe that if marijuana offers suffering patients extra quality time from their life then attempts to legalize it needs support. Legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, as California did in 1996 with Proposition 15, could possibly provide cures for diseases, allow patients to feel relief, and allow research to be conducted for future purposes. One area that does not gather too much publicity in the legalization issue is hemp production.

Marijuana comes from the top leaves and flowers of the female hemp plant. The fiber from the top is used to make clothing, paper, rope, and methanol fuel. Methanol is a liquid alcohol fuel that burns much like gasoline. It is widely used in the manufacture of windshield washer fluid, gasoline fuel additives, formaldehyde and other chemicals, and methanol has promise as a transportation fuel. (Methanol Fuel 1) (Some speculations is that the energy companies that hold a strong say-so are against legalization because of the fuel that can be derived from hemp) Hemp is also a versatile plant because it grows in poor soil, thus not taking up any valuable agricultural land (NORML 4).

Male hemp plants (does not contain THC) now grow in the U.S. because of its heavy production in the 18th and 19th centuries. Seventy-five to Ninety percent of all paper used before 1883 was hemp paper, including the first two drafts of the Declaration of Independence (Young 25). Hemp is also safer for the environment. Hemp requires 40% fewer chemicals to produce paper and over a time span of twenty years, one acre of hemp can produce four times as much pulp versus an acre of trees (NORML 4). Therefore, the production of hemp would save trees, and saving trees promotes cleaner air, and manufacturing marijuana plants creates more jobs for people. The push for legalization of marijuana is making news across America just as it did in the 1960's.

Marijuana is the only illegal substance that people can talk about, sing about, make movies about, wear clothes that display the well-know marijuana leaf, and basically tell the world "I smoke marijuana". If a police officer asks a person if they are intoxicated and a person says, "yes I smoked marijuana", and that person is not driving a vehicle the worst that happens is the person spends a night in jail. Everyone knows marijuana's presence and it is totally accepted but if a person is caught growing it, consuming it, or possessing it; it is only then illegal. Marijuana use is glorified in movies like Dazed and Confused and Half Baked and by music groups like Cypress Hill and Busta Rhymes. Increasing public support and media attention will slowly force the legalization issue into the forefront of the political arena. If the widespread acceptance and consumption continues among the powerful new voting block, college students, the policy towards marijuana could change in the near future.

Weighing both the costs and the benefits, the legalization of marijuana seems inevitable. Many of the purported myths about its harmful effects have been proven false. The current war on drugs is clearly failing, and costing too many lives and too much money. There are many benefits to be gained from the Cannabis plant: increased tax revenue, safety due to governmental regulation, decreased crime and use of hard drugs, and the environmental benefits of hemp to name a few.

With all these reasons taken into consideration the legalization of marijuana seems like the best idea for America. messageboard The Legalization of Marijuana Cauchon, Dennis. "Marijuana: Medical Enigma". USA Today 1 Oct. 1996, national ed. : 4 A. Courtwright David T. "NO!" American Heritage Feb. - March 1995: 43, 50-56. Goldman, Albert. Grass Roots.

New York: Harper & Row 1979. Hager, Paul. "Marijuana Myths". ACLU drug task force literature. Internet. web (22 Jan. 99) Himmelstein, Jerome L. The Strange Career of Marijuana.

Westport Connecticut: Greenwood Pres, 1983. Miner, Brad". How Sweet is Mary Jane" National Review 25 June 1996: 44. National Association for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "Marijuana: Facts and Figures". Information Pack.

Washington, DC: NORML, N.D. National Association for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Internet. web Copyright 1998, (15 Feb. 99, 24 Mar. 99) Natural Resources Canada. "Methanol Fuel". Energy Publications (n. d. ).

Online. web (6 Apr. 99). "Politics-Commentaries by Others". Online. (Author Unknown) web bummer / comments. html (5 Mar. 99). Rosen field, Jim.

ACLU Drug Policy adopted April 1994: "Decriminalization of Drugs". [Board Minutes, April 8-9, 1994] Internet. web (25 Jan 99) Young, Jim. "It's Time to Reconsider Hemp". Pulp and Paper (1994): 25..