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A total of 3, 470, 545 Americans have been arrested for marijuana offenses. In 1997 state and local law enforcement arrested 695, 200 people for marijuana violations. That number is the highest ever recorded by the FBI. Of the 682, 885 arrests made in 1998, approximately 88 % were for simple possession. The remaining 12 % were for sale and manufacture. Every 52 seconds, a marijuana smoker is arrested in America.
This is truly a waste of law enforcement and a waste of our tax money. These people getting arrested are generally responsible adults capable of making their own decisions. Marijuana was made illegal in 1937, but hemp was kept legal to use. Hemp provides from four to fourteen tons of dry fibers per acre per year. It can be made into paper, cloth, and cellulose for plastic. If drug laws would allow hemp farming, wed have an alternative resource for paper, which would save our trees.
When you look at the one-dollar bill, you are looking at a hemp farmer, George Washington grew hemp. The US Drug Enforcement Agency is ignorant to realize that there is a big difference between hemp and marijuana. Hemp can not be used to get high, and it never was used for that, but it still was put in the same category as heroin. Our tax dollars go to feed all the people that are held in prison on marijuana related charges. Those people are now struggling to feed their children, knowing that they wont get much help, because they are criminals according to a good percentage of society. Our society thinks marijuana isnt acceptable because it is illegal.
Marijuana was made illegal because congress put up a fight, and went against narcotics. It was found a narcotic when it was classified along with opiates. It was deemed too dangerous to allow research, and dismissed all attempts to argue over it. We know that the legal drug addictions present now, do not cause any crimes. The actions from them, but not the use. You cant baby all alcohol users, making sure they dont drink too much.
You cant tell someone that they cant smoke marijuana, when their beliefs are otherwise. On June 21, 2000, Val Walton a news staff writer for The Birmingham News reported that a 46 year old man could face life in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to running a drug operation that sold thousands of pounds of marijuana. The man pleaded guilty to his charges of continuing a criminal enterprise and drug trafficking. Since this is a federal offense, he is not provided with parole as an option. He could face 20 years to life in prison. Now this man is not innocent, he was carrying an illegal firearm to engage in money laundering.
His home was searched and authorities found at least 40 weapons, $ 30, 000 worth of jewelry and more was found in a safety deposit box. This man should spend some time in prison for these offenses with no doubt. But the 20 years to life is for the marijuana, and the added 5 -year sentence is for the weapons charge. This is just one of the thousands of cases, and not the usual, most are just for marijuana offenses.
Marijuana is classified as a minor psychedelic drug. If it is used in large amounts, it could lead to a psychedelic effect. So can medication and alcohol, and it is okay to drink alcohol. This is not a new drug either; it dates back to 4, 000 years ago in China. The emperor smoked it, and promoted its use for an all-purpose medication. It spread to India and other neighboring countries.
Early Hindus used it for a variety of purposes as well. We have used it as a medical aid for thousands of years, and still are used for a variety of purposes, just not legally in most cases. There are many myths about Pot used to discourage use. One is that Pot is nearly ten times more potent and dangerous than in the sixties. This is based on government data, and samples from the 70 s recently compared to domesticated marijuana of today show that its potency has increased moderately by a factor of two or so. The government ignores that it was available in premium varieties in the sixties, like Acapulco Gold, as well as hashish and hash oil, which is every bit as strong as todays marijuana.
Another myth is that Pot kills brain cells. This myth came from animal experiments in which changes, not actual cell deaths were observed when animals were exposed to high doses of pot. There is no physical evidence that it causes permanent brain damage. Users should know that it does cause short-term memory loss has been found in chronic smokers, after about 6 to 12 weeks of abstinence. This is probably what makes people think it will damage you brain cells. Other drugs including alcohol have been noted to cause brain damage though.
People try to say it will cause you to become sterile and lower testosterone in males. In contrast to alcohol use, there is more of a chance you will become impotent or have low testosterone levels from drinking alcohol. In females it has been shown that it may temporarily lower fertility or increase risk of fetal lost, even mildly disrupt ovulation. Again, if you drink alcohol the same risks are at stake, even worse ones. Experts generally recommend that drugs not are used during pregnancy, but there is little evidence that marijuana use implicates fetal harm, unlike alcohol, cocaine, or tobacco. A variety of studies indicate that THC may exercise reversible immune-suppressive effects by causing the activity of the immune system cells to be inhibited.
It is dubious whether they are of import to human health, since it is based mainly on theoretical laboratory animal studies. Chronic pot smokers have been shown to suffer damage to immune cells, the ones that are defense mechanisms. It is unclear how much damage is caused due to THC, as opposed to all the other toxins that occur in smoke. Water pipes and other devices can filter out many of those toxins.
Many AIDS patients smoke marijuana to help stimulate appetite and reduce nausea. Cannabis doesnt actually damage T-cells, which are depleted in HIV patients. Some studies even found that exposure to marijuana increased T-cell counts in subjects who were not AIDS patients, but had a low T-cell count. Laboratory studies have suggested that high doses of THC might interfere with cell replication, Producing abnormal numbers of chromosomes.
There is no evidence that it damages cells and chromosomes. A review done by Dr. Leo Hollister from the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs said: The evidence on immune suppression has been contradictory and is more supportive of some degree of immune-suppression only when one considers in vitro studies. These have been seriously flawed by very high concentrations of drugs used to produce immune-suppression. The closer that experimental studies have been to actual clinical situations, the less compelling has been the evidence. Another popular myth is that one joint equal about 4 cigarettes.
Critics have exaggerated the dangers if pot smoking. Dr. Tashkin found that daily pot smokers experienced a mild but significant increase in airflow resistance in large airways. This is greater than persons smoking 16 cigarettes per day are. What examiners ignore is that marijuana smokers did much are better than tobacco smokers in aspects of lung health.
Dr. Tashkin himself says that the notion that one joint equal 16 or maybe just 4 cigarettes is not true. An estimate that marijuana smokers consume four times as much carcinogenic tar as cigarette smokers per weight smoked. The average joint usually contains 0. 4 grams of pot, a bit less than one-half the weight of a cigarette. A joint is equal to two cigarettes, which isnt an exact equivalency, but is more accurate. Marijuana affects different parts of the respiratory tract than cigarettes; tobacco tends to penetrate smaller passageways of the lungs.
One consequence of this is that pot, unlike cigarettes, does not appear to cause emphysema. Most experts agree that occasional or moderate use of marijuana is innocuous, they agree that excessive use can be harmful. Research shows that the two major risks are respiratory disease due to smoking, and accidental injuries due to impairment. A survey from the Kaiser Permanente Center found that daily marijuana-only users have a 19 % higher rate of respiratory complaints than non-smokers do. Marijuana contains virtually the same toxic gases and tars as tobacco.
The hazards of marijuana can be reduced by various strategies. One is to use higher-potency cannabis, which can be smoked in smaller quantities, use of water pipes and other smoke reduction technologies, and ingesting pot orally instead of smoking. People can use marijuana as a tea, or bake it into foods, but you must use about three times as much marijuana for the effect. There is no scientific evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug. Cannabis is used by cultures in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America shows no propensity for other drugs. The theory of marijuana leading to other drugs came from the sixties, when it became the leading recreational drug.
Events in the eighties showed cocaine abuse exploded at the same time marijuana use declined. There is evidence that cannabis may be a substitute for other drugs such as alcohol and hard drugs. A survey by Dr. Patricia Morgan or the University of California at Berkeley, found a significant number of pot smokers and dealers switched to met amphetamine ice, when Hawaii's marijuana eradication program created a shortage of pot. Marijuana doesnt lead to other drugs for the reason it is illegal, but because dealers are likely to deal other illicit drugs as well. Whatever the risks are when someone smokes pot, the laws make matters worse in several ways.
Paraphernalia laws impede the development and marketing of water pipes, and all other advance technology that could reduce the harmfulness of marijuana smoke. Prohibition encourages sale of pot that has been contaminated or adulterated by insecticides, or mixed with other drugs such as PCP, crack, or heroin. By raising the price of marijuana, it makes in uneconomical to consume it orally, which is the best way to avoid the smoke exposure all together. When you eat it, it typically requires two or three more times as much marijuana as smoking. There has never been a controlled scientific study showing that a drug urinalysis improves work place safety. The largest survey to date, covering 4, 396 postal workers nationwide, found no difference in accident records between workers who tested positive.
Random drug testing of transportation workers was enacted by a reaction to a single 1987 train collision in which 16 Amtrak passengers were killed by a Conrail train that didnt stop. The engineer and brakeman of the Conrail train wer...
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Research essay sample on Evidence That Marijuana Life In Prison
