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Legalization of Marijuana Most Americans don t realize how extreme the war on Marijuana actually is. Since 1965 there have been over 9 million arrests for Marijuana law violations. Over 7 million of these arrests were for possession of personal amounts (High times 1). The average time served in prison for selling Marijuana is four years, compared with just one year for rape or manslaughter (Drug sense 1). Our country treats drug crime as more important than our God-given, constitutionally protected rights. It puts more emphasis on Marijuana than it does on violent crime.
These are facts which need to change. Why is Marijuana illegal? The adverse health effects of marijuana are still unproven and it is known to be a rather soft drug, yet it is still illegal, even though alcohol and tobacco, which are other soft drugs, are not. The reason for this is that Marijuana is a gateway drug. It is a soft-illegal drug that opens the gate between less dangerous legal drugs and hard-illegal narcotics. LSD, ecstasy, mushrooms, cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs all have seriously harmful side-effects which can range from permanent psychosis to death, and this is why Marijuana is feared.
Who has the most to fear from marijuana legalization parents. They fear that if marijuana is legal more kids will smoke it and use hard illicit drugs. The fact is that legalizing marijuana will help protect Americas children from more potentially dangerous drugs. Juvenile marijuana use is inevitable. The real fear, though, is that this will lead to an increase in hard drug use. This is not true.
Legalizing marijuana will finally close the gateway between legal drugs and illegal drugs. Marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco will be known as legal and reasonably safe whereas hard drugs will be known as illegal and extremely dangerous. Recreational marijuana users are not the only people hurt by the prohibition of marijuana. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans who suffer extreme pain and anxiety due to any number of debilitating diseases.
The legalization of marijuana would provide them with relief to the daily strain that they must endure. In recent studies scientists have found that an extract from marijuana called Cannabidiol is an antioxidant and could provide treatment for or even prevent strokes, neurodegenerative diseases, and Heart Disease (Brainard 20). Even at the turn of the twentieth century pharmaceutical companies were manufacturing extracts from marijuana for various medicines (Inaba 172). Marijuana is natural, and relatively inexpensive, and it could help hundreds of thousands of people. Almost two-thirds of our nation supports the medicinal use of marijuana. Even the AMA has appealed for federal funding of therapeutic pot research (What 134).
Not only will legalization of marijuana help the citizens of this country; it will also benefit the government. If the government were to legalize possession of marijuana in small amounts it could impose a marijuana dealer s license much like it already does with liquor licenses (Barber 108). The government could then put a tax on marijuana like it already has on cigarettes. The money made from the licenses and tax could be used for drug prevention programs or other government sponsored programs. According to the United Nations 200 million people worldwide use Marijuana in at least one of it s many forms (Inaba 170). In many countries across Europe marijuana is already legalized or decriminalized to a great extent.
One common method suggested when discussing alternatives to arrest and detainment of individuals caught in possession of cannabis products is through fines issued by the police. The logic behind this idea is that individuals can avoid the aggravation and stigma of being taken in and booked for minor drug offenses, while the police can conserve money by reducing man-hours spent filling out paperwork and holding offenders. This in turn also allows police departments to better channel their resources to more violent and dangerous crimes instead of essentially victimless ones. The Government can search through our garbage without our consent and confiscate our property without a trial all in the name of the Drug War. Fifteen years of Drug War have done nothing to solve our drug problems. This is because the core of the problem lies in the drug use itself.
Marijuana legalization will lead to a dramatic decrease in illegal drug use by closing the gateway, and relieve pain for hundreds of thousands of sick people. Bibliography Inaba, Darryl Cohen, William. Uppers, Downers, and All A rounders. Ashland: Steinbroner, 1993.
This book depicts the effects and risks of many different drugs. It has a lot of information which was gathered from Haight-Ashbury clinics and therefore comes from real, first-hand experiences. Barber, Theodore. LSD, Marijuana, Yoga, and Hypnosis. Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1970. This is a book about the place of LSD and Marijuana in the field of Psychology.
It tells about drugs and the uses of some drugs in the treatment of certain mental illnesses and in aiding Hypnosis and Yoga. It shows Marijuana and LSD as concentration drugs (drugs which allow one to concentrate on more acute details). Brainard, J. Marijuana Chemical Tapped to Fight Strokes, Science News v 154 (Jl 11 98): 20 This article tells about a new finding dealing with marijuana and medicine. It tells that they have found a new chemical in marijuana that can treat or prevent strokes. It also says that the chemical could help in treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and heart disease.
Dickinson, Ben. What If Weed Is Exactly What You Need? Esquire v 128 (Oct 97): 134 - 1345 This article goes over some of the misconceptions about Marijuana. It also tells about some of the medicinal benefits which people are missing out on due to the ignorance of the government. web This is a website that is devoted to the legalization of Marijuana. They believe that people should have the right to make their own decisions and that the government is foolish in trying to enforce the laws against Marijuana. 33 a
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