Why Marijuana should be Legalized?
The debate over the legalization of Cannabis sativa, more
commonly known as marijuana, has been one of the most controversial issues ever
to occur in the United States. Its use as a medicine has existed for thousands
of years in many countries worldwide and is documented as far back as 2700 BC
in ancient Chinese writings.
Marijuana should be legalized for multiple reasons:
·
Moral. Prohibition must be weighed against the loss of personal freedom.
Countries have a responsibility to respect individual free will and the right
of self-determination. No drug eliminates free will. It is possible to quit
using any drug. Many banned drugs, and marijuana in particular, are
significantly less deleterious to free will than legal alcohol or tobacco.
Severe physiological addiction has been demonstrated for tobacco
(stronger than cocaine), but no strong physiological addiction has been shown
for marijuana.
·
Medical.
The American Medical Association supports legalization of Marijuana, because it
is actually not only much less dangerous than alcohol, cigarettes, but even comparing
with most over-the-counter medicines or prescriptions. Marijuana, in its
natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to
man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a
supervised routine of medical care. Marijuana has so many medical benefits that
just mentioning them will require a separate article. For example, it relieves
nausea suffered by cancer patients undergoing powerful chemotherapy. It is successfully
used by patients who have multiple sclerosis and AIDS. It proves to be
effective in the treatment of glaucoma because its use lowers pressure on the
eye. It helps in severe cases of clinical
depression, and, finally, it gives hope to Alzheimer’s patients, because is
the only known substance which can reverse
Alzheimer’s (subject for additional development).
·
Overdose.
Smoking extreme amounts of marijuana will do nothing more than put someone to
sleep, while drinking excessive amounts of alcohol may kill you.
·
Addiction.
Unlike substances, which are legal in the USA, alcohol and tobacco, marijuana has
zero addiction and zero tolerance. That means that you have no need to increase
the consumed dose to reach the same effect, and that you can stop consuming it
any time with no psychological or physiological withdrawal effects. Gateway effect, used as argument against
marijuana legalization (claim that person started on Marijuana, will than inevitable
use the heavy drugs), has been confirmed as non-existing, based on multiple
researches and statistical data evaluation.
·
Financial.
The money the government would make from taxes, which now goes to drug dealers,
could be used for more important things, such as serious drugs or the national
debt. And the amounts of funds, we are talking about, are quite significant.
·
Quality
and Regulations. The regulation of marijuana also allows for many health
benefits to those who use it. Today, marijuana is illegal, so there is no
regulation of what the drug contains. Unwary buyers of the drug often get more
than they bargain for when marijuana is laced with other drugs and other
harmful additives. If it were legalized, not only would this harmful practice
never occur, but the products themselves could be heavily regulated for health
concerns including filtering, and specialized growing and manufacturing.
Packages of the legal product would be emblazoned with warnings from the
surgeon general describing the health risks involved.
·
Crime
Rate. Legal prohibition does not
stop consumers from consuming drugs, it does not stop traffickers from
producing and selling it. The price of the final product increases to
abnormally high values because of the black market status, which together with
the powerful effects of drug addiction causes users to commit crimes in order
to fund their addiction. Complete
decriminalization of marijuana, combined with a system of regulation, as
happens with alcohol and prescription drugs will positively affect the amount
of related arrests and prosecutions, freeing police and legal systems for dealing
with real crimes. By providing legal supplies of currently illegal drugs
the price will fall, leading to a collapse in the illegal drug industry, and a
reduction in crimes committed by both drug suppliers and users. The reduction
in the price should not lead to any substantial growth in drug addiction, due
to the inelasticity of demand. Some experts even claim that in a strictly
regulated market, drug use may fall overall, by removing the marketing
activities of the illegal drug industry. The crime rate in Amsterdam, where
marijuana is legal, is lower than many major US cities, including San
Francisco, for example.
·
Minors’ Consumption. Illegal Drug dealers will sell to anyone,
including children. Merchants who legally sell alcohol and tobacco are
not allowed to sell to children. Many
high school students report that it is easier to obtain illegal drugs than
alcohol and tobacco.
·
Industrial.
An entire industry could be created out of hemp based products. The oils
extracted from the seeds could be used for fuels and the hemp fiber, a fiber
valued for its strength that it is used to judge the quality of other fibers,
could be manufactured into ropes, clothing, or paper.
Why Marijuana was Criminalized?
I was surprised to
learn that the real reasons for the Marijuana criminalization were far from care
for the population health. As always, you should trace the MONEY…
Until 1937,
consumption and sale of cannabis was legal in most American states. In some
areas it could be openly purchased in bulk from grocers or in cigarette form at
newsstands, though an increasing number of states had begun to outlaw it. In
that year, federal law made possession or transfer of cannabis (without the
purchase of a by-then incriminating tax stamp) illegal throughout the United
States. This was contrary to the advice of the American Medical Association at
the time. Legal opinions of time held that the federal government could not
outlaw it entirely. The tax was $100 per pound of hemp, even for clothes or
rope. The expense, extremely high for that time, was such that people stopped
buying and making it.
The Marijuana Tax Act, which passed in 1937, coincidentally
occurred just as the decoricator machine was invented. With this invention,
hemp would have been able to take over competing industries almost
instantaneously. William Hearst owned enormous acres of forest so his interest
in preventing the growth of hemp can be easily explained. Competition from hemp
would have easily driven the Hearst paper-manufacturing company out of business
and significantly lowered the value of his land. DuPont's involvement in the
anti-hemp campaign can also be explained with great ease. At this time, DuPont
was patenting a new sulfuric acid process for producing wood-pulp paper.
According to the company's own records, wood-pulp products ultimately accounted
for more than 80% of all DuPont's railroad car loadings for the 50 years the
Marijuana Tax Act was passed. Two years before the prohibitive hemp tax in
1937, DuPont developed nylon which was a substitute for hemp rope. The year
after the tax was passed DuPont came out with rayon, which would have been
unable to compete with the strength of hemp fiber. DuPont's point man was Harry
Anslinger, who was appointed to the FBN by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon,
who was also chairman of the Mellon Bank. Anslinger's relationship to Mellon
wasn't just political; he was also married to Mellon's niece. The reasoning
behind DuPont, Anslinger, and Hearst was not for any moral or health related
issues. They fought to prevent the growth of this new industry so they wouldn't
lose money.
New Legislative
Initiatives
To date, marijuana legalization initiatives have made it to
the ballot in two states, Colorado and Washington.
The Campaign to
Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol collected enough signatures to place
Initiative 30 on the November 2012 ballot as Amendment 64: The Regulate
Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012. If voters pass the initiative, among other
things it will:
- Legalize
the production, distribution, and retail sale of marijuana,
- Prohibit
sales to anyone under age 21,
- Designate
the Colorado State Department of Revenue as the agency responsible for
regulating marijuana commerce.
Amendment 64 will be on the November 6, 2012 ballot
in Colorado as an initiated
constitutional amendment.
New Approach Washington
also collected enough signatures to place Measure 502 on that state’s November
ballot. If approved, Measure 502 will also:
- Legalize
the production, distribution, and retail sale of marijuana,
- Prohibit
sales to anyone under age 21,
- Designate
the Washington State Liquor Control Board as the regulatory agency.
Initiative 502 will appear on the November 6, 2012
statewide ballot in Washington as an Initiative to
the Legislature.
Driving under
Influence of Marijuana
While Marijuana has no long-term negative health effects, it
still has serious effect on the short-term state of mind. Marijuana causes
dizziness, slowed reaction time and drivers are more likely to drift and swerve
while they're high. Studies confirmed, that in closed course and driving simulator studies, marijuana's acute effects
on psychomotor performance include minor impairments in tracking (eye movement
control) and reaction time (break latency), as well as variation in lateral
positioning (weaving), headway (drivers under the influence of cannabis tend to
follow less closely to the vehicle in front of them), and speed (drivers tend
to decrease speed following cannabis inhalation).
A 2001
study evaluating the impact of marijuana intoxication on driving proficiency on
city streets among sixteen subjects reported essentially no differences in subjects'
driving performance after cannabis administration, concluding:
"Performance as rated on the Driving Proficiency Scale did not differ
between treatments. It was concluded that the effects of low doses of THC ...
on higher-level driving skills as measured in the present study are
minimal." Similarly, a 1993 trial funded by the United
States National Highway Traffic Association (NTHSA) evaluated subjects' driving
performance after cannabis inhalation in high-density urban traffic.
Investigators reported, "Marijuana ... did not significantly change mean
driving performance."
But these studies refer to the low amount of the Marijuana
consumption by the subjects. If it was moderate to high, the vehicle operation
should be out of question. Bottom line is clear – if you are stoned, you should
not be permitted to drive.
This statement highlights the challenges law enforcement
officers face using old tools to try to fix a new problem. Most convictions for
drugged driving now are based on police observations, followed later by a blood
test. Authorities envision a legal threshold for pot that would be comparable
to the blood-alcohol standard used to determine drunken driving. But unlike
alcohol, marijuana stays in the blood long after the high wears off a few hours
after use, and there is no quick test to determine someone's level of
impairment — not that scientists haven't been working on it. Physicians say
that while many tests can show whether someone has recently used pot, it's more
difficult to pinpoint impairment at any certain time. Urine and blood tests are
better at showing whether someone used the drug in the past — which is why
employers and probation officers use them. But determining current impairment
is far trickier.
Proposed solutions include setting limits on the amount of
the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, THC, that drivers can have in
their blood. But THC limits to determine impairment are not widely agreed upon.
Two states (Nevada and Ohio) place the standard at 2 nanograms per milliliter
of blood. Others have zero tolerance policies. And Colorado and Washington States
are debating a threshold of 5 nanograms.
**************************
Major Update 11-06-12:
Colorado and Washington State became the first states to
legalize the production, sale and possession of recreational marijuana.
But Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) sounded a
cautionary note, warning Colorado voters that federal law still prohibits
marijuana use.
“The voters have spoken and we have to respect their
will,” Hickenlooper said in a statement. “This will be a complicated
process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still
says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold
fish too quickly.”
In Oregon, the third state attempting to legalize
recreational marijuana, the measure is falling short so far of majority support
with less than half of precincts reporting.
Sources and Additional
Information:
